Coffee Talks

With Taylor

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Our author of the month is Taylor, who is also known as moonraess on Wattpad.

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Hello! Thank you for taking the time to get involved with Coffee Community. It's great to hear from authors like yourself and get to know a little bit about what motivates you to write longer works of fiction.

So, to begin, tell us a little bit about yourself as an author on Wattpad. For anyone who hasn't met you before, how would you describe yourself and your fiction?

I've been on Wattpad for about four years now, and I always joke that I have this absolute blank spot in my memory about how I found out about Wattpad. It was like I blinked and all of a sudden I was posting chapters of a story (with no readers lol) and trying to figure out how to interact with people. It's really crazy to look back and see how far I've come since then.

I write true contemporary fiction, ranging from teen fiction and young adult all the way up to new adult and adult. Romance is always a major plot or subplot of my stories, but I also really like to focus on other relationships such as family, friendship, and healthily and realistically overcoming negative or toxic relationships as well. I also always try to incorporate themes of mental health, substance abuse, and social issues in sports in realistic and believable ways - most of which are from my own lived experiences and what I studied in higher education. While I have stories that feature both male and female POV, I've grown to really love writing in male POV. I am very proud of a lot of my male protagonists/narrators for their depth, complexity, and voice.

When did you start writing and what does writing mean to you?

I actually started out by writing anime fanfiction on fanfiction.net. I was a pretty shy, reclusive teenager growing up, I didn't really have friends and was bullied pretty badly in high school. I made my first sort of "online friends" through yu-gi-oh and beyblade fanfiction (sometimes I still go back and read it when I'm feeling nostalgic). I had stopped writing fiction in college to focus more on my studies, and since I was a sports broadcasting and journalism major, anything I was writing was hyper focused on sports and from a more journalistic capacity, so there was way less creative freedom. However, I was always writing about things that I truly cared about and felt needed to be said. This was also back when women weren't really respected in the sports media industry, so I found that I really had to be firm and outspoken about things I cared about. I think that fact I've carried through into my fiction writing, as that is the most important thing to me when writing now - telling a story I care about.

Out of all the stories that you've written so far, which one is your favorite and why?

This is insanely difficult for me because I'm very proud of a lot of what I've written for different reasons. I have four completed full-length novels, one completed novella, and three WIPs, and they all truly mean something to me and have taught me something, either about my skills as a writer or just about myself. I really don't think I can pick one, so I'll say all of them!

What is your writing process like? Are you more of a plotter or a pantser?

I am 100% a plotter, but I sort of plot in stages. It's sort of like planting something - first I tend to start with a little seed, like a sentence or two that sort of works like a logline so I know the general idea/concept of the story. Then as it grows it turns into a two to three paragraph summary and I'm like "okay, I've got a good idea of the major overarching plot." I also always make sure I know my ending and at least one major inciting incident or climax before I start actually writing. I always need to see the end to feel confident in being able to get through the story. Then I give myself a chronological timeline of major plot points, and then when I feel good enough about that, I actually start writing. I'll get through maybe a chapter or two before I then start formulating a true chapter by chapter outline, and I'll sort of continue to build that as I write because I also like to give myself a lot of room to be flexible as the story progresses. I'll only have 4-5 chapters plotted ahead of where I'm writing so that if I get a new idea or something different develops, it's not hard for me to make changes or adjustments and that helps with plot holes and continuity. As writers I also think we know and understand that sometimes our characters just riot and try to tell the story themselves, and if that happens, I usually just let them.

Oh and of course, playlists and aesthetics and pinterest boards need to be made before words come. I'm such a visual/auditory person that I need to see and hear the vibes of the story before I even start writing. It's extremely helpful for me in a lot of ways.

Writing for sustained periods is a hurdle that every writer, beginner or experienced, faces from time to time. What powers you through those longer bursts of creativity and keeps you focused?

Something that I find works for me personally is actually having two ongoing projects at once. I tend to get frustrated if I cannot expel my creative energy in some way and it makes me feel "unproductive," but I also have learned not to force words when I simply don't have them because then I just end up hating what I've written. So by having two (or sometimes more) ongoing stories or projects, if I am stuck or cannot get the words out for one, I work on another and see if I can find words that way. I've taught myself to sort of go where the momentum takes me, and so as long as I'm writing something I'm happy with, even if it's not the story I think I should be working on, it's all good.

However, breaks are also super important. I feel like writers are sometimes scared to take breaks because they fear they'll lose their momentum or inspiration (and this was definitely me at one point), but the reality is it's much easier to bounce back from a quick refresh than working yourself until you're completely burnt out and taking twice as long to recover from it.

What top tips would you advise for getting a story, a novella or a longer piece of fiction off the starting line? What kind of story developments motivate you to see it through to the end?

I think a big motivator in the beginning is being solid and confident in what you're writing - and I mean that both from feeling confident in the actual content you're writing, and confidence in your ability to actually tell the story. You should always write what you truly want to write and what you like - not just what's popular - because it becomes hard to keep going when you're writing about something that you don't really care about or don't have any true interest in. As the story progresses, I find that it's helpful to write out scenes in the future that you're excited for, so it helps push you along and motivates you to actually get to that scene.

What was your first ever experience with the power of the written language?

I was a big reader when I was a little kid, and I remember the first real books I was able to read on my own were the Junie B. Jones book series, and I was so obsessed with them, I had to have all of them and every time a new one would come out I'd beg for it when the Scholastic Book Fair would come to school.

Lastly, do you drink coffee? If yes, what is your favorite coffee beverage?

I actually drink so much coffee that it's definitely unhealthy, and I usually drink a venti iced americano from starbucks, just black with no creamer or sugars. So basically, the alternative for me at this point would be injecting it straight into my veins. 

It was a pleasure speaking with you. We wish you all the best for your writing journey. ☕