Midnight Circus | CLN Interview Shop (CLOSED)

Laz-lequil

Hello, my name is Favour, and I'm from the CLN (Crazy Late Nighters) Community. What name and pronouns would you like to go by?

Hi, Favour, I go by Lakisha Ivy. My pronoun is she/her.

Lakisha - that's such a pretty name. Tell me, Lakisha, what pushed you into writing?

Well, I can't fully remember what pushed me into writing, but I believe it started with my love for reading books. Getting lost in the world of characters drove me to create mine.

As a writer, I'm sure you've been faced with writer's block before; how do you overcome it?

Yes, I have 😁

I take a step back and do other things - get my mind free of that part of the book I'm stuck in and think of something else.

That sounds like a good idea, I'll have to try that myself 😊 If you could tell your younger writer self anything, what would it be?

Hmm

I think I would tell my younger writer self to go out and learn more. There's so much more to writing than just putting pen to paper; I would also tell myself to be more confident in my work.

That's really great, and inspiring, too, might I add. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don't feel emotions strongly?

No, I don't think so.

Emotions are the core of writing. You feel the emotions of your characters so your readers can feel it too and they're not just reading off the page.

I agree with you, emotions play a huge part in writing. What's the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?

The fact that you're not sure if that's how they really feel when something happens. Just recently, I had to research how a guy feels when he knows he likes someone. Trying to get the right emotional response to a situation of the opposite sex would be what I consider the most difficult thing.

That's one of the things that limit my writing when it comes to the opposite sex as well - and they say girls are unpredictable 😂

How many unpublished or half-written books do you have?

😂 I have quite a lot of them, like 12 or more. Most of them are unpublished... I think one thing I'm good at is completing my books.

Wow, that's quite a lot; tell me, what kind of research do you do? And how long do you spend researching before you begin a book?

It really depends on the type of book I'm writing. Most of the time I do the research as I write.

As for the type of research, I do it on the genre troops, what's expected and what isn't? And anything that has to do with the book I'm researching.

Okay! What does literary success look like to you?

That would be writing a good piece of work that I'm proud of, getting published, and, most importantly, having people read and enjoy my book. The main success is hearing people talk about my book with a smile conveying how much they enjoyed it and would love to read it again.

That's every writer's dream, to be honest, write a good book and get good reviews ☺️

How do you select names for your characters?

Yes 😊

It's usually the name that clicks when I'm searching Google. Which names do I think fits this character more? I also have my cousin (who's a writer, too) as a backup. If I'm unsure about which name to pick out, she helps make the choice.

It's really nice that you have someone who supports you. What's your favorite unappreciated novel?

Yeah.

On wattpad or off wattpad?

Both

Okay on Wattpad I'd say:

"The death date" by woodlander8 and "Beautiful and battered" by enigmatic -11. As for off Wattpad, most of the books I read off Wattpad are pretty well known. I think this book is pretty well known, but I recently read and really loved a book - it's "The Bride Test" by Helen Hoang.

Sounds really interesting, I'll have to check them out. What was the hardest scene to write in your book "her home, his heart?"

That's a tough one but I think the ending scene takes the top place of all the scenes that were hard to write. It was really tough knowing how to end it right without making it cliche or typical, and doing justice for the characters. That was it for me.

How many hours do you write a day?

1 or more hours. It basically depends on the strength of the inspiration for the day, but I try to do at least 1 hour per day.

Do your books get any bad reviews?

Yes, they do.

And how do you handle them?

Some writers go really hard on themselves when they get a bad review, and I must confess I'm one of them.

Same here. There's really no go-to way to handle this thing for me because the mood I'm in when I read the review also determines how I react.

Yeah, that's true for me, too. What is your favorite childhood book?

I never really had a favorite book as a child

Same for me, I never really liked reading as a child, so I don't know where this passion for reading is coming from now 😂

Anyway, what comes first for you? Plot or characters?

😂

You might have just picked that up, though.

The characters, most times. I might want to write about a certain type of character and then the plot can build up from there.

Yeah, I must have picked that up from somewhere, God knows where, though, because I'm the only one out of all my siblings that enjoy reading 😂 Apart from writing, I'm sure you do lots of other things, too. How do you manage to fit writing in with other demands on your time?

It's hard, most of the time, but I try to wake up early so I can write before other activities take up my day.

I admire your dedication; how do you develop your plot and characters?

I have guides for both of them. A character guide that helps me get to know who my characters are, and as for the plot, I start with the three acts structure, enenthoigh it doesn't always follow the structure. It serves as a guide as the story unfolds.

That sounds great, sometimes I just go with the flow lol. How do you come up with titles for your book?

That one's tough because there's no one way for my books. Sometimes they just come to me, other times I can pick out keywords and do a lot of shuffling to see what fits and all.

Okay! What's your favorite quote?

"Don't Forget no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell."

- Charles de Lint

So if you have a story to tell? Get right on it.

Motivational! 😊👏

The last question for you Laz, are you working on anything right now that you would like to share with your readers?

Yeah. It's very encouraging 😀

Well, nothing is set in stone right now. I'm still trying to finish "Her Home, His Heart" and after that, I might try writing a fantasy novel.

That sounds great! Well, that rounds up our interview, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this with me, and a big congratulations from me and the whole CLN community for winning the awards 😁