Midnight Circus | CLN Interview Shop (CLOSED)

-DreamingFirefly-

I'm Rie, an interviewer from CLN, aka the Crazy Late Nighters. Please give a short introduction.

Uhm . . . Well . . . I am Jessie, an old soul locked in a young body. I have loved reading since a young age and started writing only a few years ago.

It's great to meet you, Jessie! Your amazing book won first place. Can you tell us something about your book? P.S- we don't give spoilers!

Nice to meet you, too! Hahaha, ~ Uhm… My book is named Lypophrenia, which means "a sudden wave of sadness without a cause…" The idea was like a light for me to get through and I never expected anyone to really like it. I noted the book under fanfiction as that's where it all started. I belong to a fandom that captured my heart, and without them I would have never come so far - the book plot, characters and settings are all mine, but the inspiration came from the fandom who supported me through everything, oftentimes when I tried to quit the book. And yeah… I guess that's how my story developed, but still I feel like it's a dream… A too good to be real dream ^^

That was something very real. It was like I could even feel it. How were you inspired to write this book?

Uhm… It was definitely my fandom; the drama and my book are two different things but if one looks closely, the moral stays the same - it's all about a slice of life. What's meant to come will come and what's meant to stay will stay and what's meant to go will go.  No matter how much time will pass, if two things are meant to be together, they will find their way. The drama and my fandom really gave me the idea, along with the hard time of darkness I went through, and I mixed it with the truth of life.  Every story I write has a bit of truth from reality mixed with fantasy, so my inspiration was my fandom, life and everything with it!

That was really heartfelt. You and your story are like soulmates. What does writing for you mean?

Hehe. My life; it's a way to express the words my heart can't say out loud…

I can relate. Sometimes silence is the best answer. For your story, can you explain what genre you used? Also, how did you think of that particular genre with the characters?

Indeed. Hahaha, actually, I never had a genre in mind. I had no idea what I was doing at all, I was just going with the flow and seeing where my story would take me. The only thing I knew was that it would fall under fanfiction/lgbtq.  Although it doesn't fall 100% under fanfiction, everything in the book belongs to me except for the use of names I chose as they're real people.

I really love how you decided to let the story flow by itself! How did you know this book was the one?

Hehe, actually, I didn't, I was kinda forced by my friends to participate in some awards as they've had my back since the beginning and they know I am not confident about anything I write. They wanted to give me courage and 'forced' me to participate in some, and I think I always had a deep connection with my book as it's a piece that reminds me that every dark period will end. When the storm doesn't want to pass, we should learn how to dance in the rain, right? That's what my books represent for me.

That force really was required for such a great book to shine! As you said, you wrote this book when you were vulnerable, were there some difficulties that you faced during writing?

Yeah, and I will forever be grateful to my friends. Oh, sure, I think every writer has this phase in which they're vulnerable - it's that moment you’re writing and you know your feelings are flooding down the paper, and it's scary as you don't know what people will think, yet youŕe determined. One of my difficulties was, especially, my confidence as I had times I wanted to quit the book or delete it itself, which I (luckily) didn't do because of my proofreaders and friends who kept supporting me no matter what… But I think every writer needs to hear this: throw out all the advice out of the window - character development? Grammar? Plot? Throw it all in the bin and just sit down and write because a real writer knows it isn't the struggle to write, but to find the courage and sit down to write. Don't care about what others think, don't care about the plot, grammar, development or whatever else, it comes later, just work it out. There should always be a first draft.