Wattys 2023 Bootcamp

Kamila Komisarek

MENTOR BIO

My backstory:

I'm Polish, but I emigrated to the UK over eight years ago, where I made my home. I learned to read when I was four and have never stopped since. I adore books in all shapes and sizes and am a huge fan of pretty editions. I might or might not have a book-buying problem. I can't say when I started writing, as I often wrote little stories or fanfiction to my favourite books/games/movies, but those stories have never seen the light of day and have never been read by anyone.

The thing that made me get my writing out of hiding was the pandemic. It was a hard time for everyone, and with banned travel, I was separated from my family in Poland for a long time. That's when writing became a highlight of my day, it was my escape to the world of my favourite fandoms, where everything was perfect, and I had control over everything. Soon after the whole thing started, I got redundant from my job and had to do some soul-searching about what I wanted to do. And then I admitted openly and publicly (to my husband. Very publicly, I know) that the thing that makes me happy the most is writing. So instead of looking for another job, I decided to take some time off from my office career and try writing. But this time, not fanfiction but my own original story.

I jumped on the NaNoWriMo bandwagon and wrote my first 50k words in November 2020 and then finished my first novel (The Light in the Dark) sometime in January 2021 on around 100k. But writing offline without any writers' friends was very lonely, and I struggled while editing, so I started looking for a platform to publish my stories and took up a new 'fun' story to write to get a break from never-ending edits. That's how I found Wattpad and started to publish my second original story, Till Death Do Us Part, which was finished just in time for the Wattys submissions.

Notable successes on Wattpad so far:

Till Death Do Us Part won the Wattys in Fantasy category in 2021 and is currently in Paid program and on Yonder.

Justice for the Fallen was shortlisted for the Wattys 2022 and was later featured in the Wattpad Editors Pick list.

The Gifted was chosen as Round One Winner in the Ambassadors Open Novella Contest.

I'm also part of the Wattpad Creators program.

My favourite things and stuff:

First of all, I'm a huge nerd. I love fantasy, sci-fi, superheroes, comics, and video games. I'm also a huge fan of music. I don't play any instrument and only sing in the shower when no one can hear it, but the music plays all day long in my house, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Most of my stories are somehow inspired by music. I usually have specific songs that inspire certain scenes or whole novels, so making playlists for my stories and putting songs in headers of the chapters is my favourite thing.

Favourite authors: Brandon Sanderson, Jay Kristoff, Terry Pratchett, Leigh Bardugo, George R. R. Martin, Garth Nix, Stephen King, V.E. Schwab, Andrzej Sapkowski, James S.A. Corey, Timothy Zahn

Favourite books: Stormlight Archive, Mistborn series, Six of Crows, Empire of the Vampire, Guards! Guards!, the Song of Ice and Fire series, Dark Tower series, Iluminae Files, The Expanse series, Harry Potter series

Favourite movies: LotR, most Marvel movies, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tim Burton movies, Star Wars, The Greatest Showman, Fantastic Beasts

Favourite TV shows: Big Bang Theory, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stranger Things, Shadow and Bone, Dexter, The Moring Show, The Flash, Arrow, Modern Family, Glee, Peaky Blinders, Doctor Who

Favourite bands: Kamelot, Eleine, Epica, Nightwish, Ad Infinitum, Phantom Elite, The Dirty Youth, Halestorm, Amaranthe, Scardust, The Nearly Deads, Disturbed, Anavae, Citizen Soldier

My mentoring style:

As a reader and writer, I care primarily about the story itself. If you are looking for someone to help with the technical side and line editing, I'm the wrong mentor to choose. What I'm good at is helping to develop the story in a way that will grip readers and get them on an emotional roller coaster. I'm very logic-driven, so I will point out any plot holes or things that don't make sense in the story. I will analyse the characters and ensure they feel as natural as possible, and readers will fall in love with them and root for them to the end.

I hope to help my mentee to polish their story to catch readers' attention and keep them gripped to the very end.

Read Kamila Komisarek's mentor wish list here axgirl13 

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