Midnight Circus | CLN Interview Shop (CLOSED)

LiyAwritesgold

Hello, I am Pearl from the Crazy Late Nighters community. You've won awards in the CLN Awards show. First of all, congrats on your success. So, today I am taking the honour of interviewing you. What is your name/ pen name? What pronouns do you like to go by?

Hii! My pen name is Liya and my pronouns are she/ her :)) I’m excited for the interview XD

Aye, same here! Nice to meet you, Liya! So, when did you start your writing journey?

Well, I started writing quite a long time ago, probably when I was 11 or so but I did stop for a really long time after that. I got back to writing around last year during the lockdown, and wrote and published my first chapter on Wattpad (which just so happened to be the day right after my b’day! Hahaha) and well, while my story didn’t really take off immediately, I’m glad I made that impromptu decision to publish that first chapter because well, look how far I have come because of that <33

It's really amazing to see that you have never given up on your journey; well that's what is most important in any kind of journey. Persistence! Just go with the flow xD So, what really has inspired you to write?

Well, I think what really got me to start writing were some really amazing and inspiring authors on Wattpad! I’m not sure if they would be comfortable with me mentioning them so I won’t do so. Wattpad authors are just so sweet and encouraging and very, very talented. They truly inspired me to start writing on Wattpad <33

True indeed! They really inspire us in many ways. So, as far I can see you have won the first place in teen fiction, I am assuming you love the genre? Is it so?

Oh yes! I love this genre a lot. It used to be one of the genres that I always read, but I think over the years I’ve started to read more and more different types of books and right now, honestly, I don’t really have a favourite genre. I just love all of them, but for sure, teen fiction is somewhere up there haha. Even when it comes to my books, I don’t tend to stick to just one genre, I actually write in multiple genres. Like right now, I have a teen fiction book, short story/general fiction book and even a mystery novel. Plus, I have plenty more other books in my drafts that are of many other genres lmao. But teen fiction will always have a special place in my heart since it’s the genre that I used to read a lot in my early childhood :))

Aye, really glad to hear that you work on different genres. I guess it's not biased on one genre, as a reader, I can relate to you. So, how do you come up with your characters?

Well, I don’t really have a specific way to come up with my characters. I just do haha. Even I don’t get it, but sometimes it just comes to me that hey, this character should be characterised like that. Maybe it’s based on a book character, a celebrity or a close friend of mine, I’m not really sure. I draw inspiration for my characters from so many places, it’s kinda hard to say exactly how I come up with their personality traits and well their characterisation in general. But I do tend to associate my characters with people I know in real life and sometimes even base their personalities off of them. I feel that, sometimes, doing this allows me to create a much richer and relatable character and even makes it easier for me, as a writer, to convey their personalities to the readers as I know these people in real life and hence, have a deeper connection with my characters and readers XD

Exactly, this is how we would be able to connect with our characters. Honestly, I feel that the story is baseless unless we feel the emotions there. Characters make it more realistic. I must say, it's a good trait to take inspiration from your real life. So, how would you describe your writing? Is it like pre planned or just go with the flow?

Exactly! Stories have a deeper connection with the reader if the characters themselves have a much richer personality. And I would say my writing style isn’t exactly set in stone. I tend to just go with the flow, which often results in me facing writer’s block multiple times HAHA. (The amount of times I have been hit with writer's block is just way too much to count) and I’ve also recently realised that compared to others, my writing style doesn’t have much flowery descriptions or beautiful vocabulary. To be frank, my usage of vocabulary has always been quite bland and well not that extensive (I should really use thesaurus more haha). It was quite a hit to my self esteem when I realised that I couldn’t bring myself to write in such a manner that seems so beautiful and flowery, but I’ve realised along the way that it wasn’t my vocabulary that made my stories good, it was my way of storytelling. A good writer knows how to tell a story. You don’t need extensive vocabulary or run on descriptions. No, just write how you want to. You’re telling a story, you’re creating a story. And you do just that. <33