Coffee Talks

With Lisa London

Another year, another edition of the ONC!

The OpenNovellaContest took place for the sixth time this year and the Top Five Winners have been announced recently.

We're starting an ONC interview series to get to know more about their writing and ONC journey. Each week we'll publish an interview with one of the winners.

Why Is There An Alien Princess In My Room? by lisa_london_

Hello, Lisa! Thank you for taking the time to get involved with Coffee Community.

So, to begin with, 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'm a socially awkward Scandinavian who often find myself lost in ridiculous flights of fantasy. I decided to start writing those fantasies down one day, and I haven't been able to stop since. So far, I've dabbled in a bunch of different genres but eventually, I seem to turn everything into fluff since I struggle staying serious and not making fun of my poor characters. I do also enjoy writing more serious scenes though, as I feel like the magic of stories is found somewhere in the borderlands between humor and drama.

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

I started writing about 4 years ago but I've had stories playing in my head for as long as I can remember. But fear held me back from writing them down, since I worried they wouldn't be any good. Maybe people would laugh at my stupid tales? And those thoughts lead to nagging self-critique every time I tried to capture my imagination, which prevented me from writing freely. Until one day, the stories couldn't be held back anymore. I had a story playing in my head that just wouldn't leave, so I decided to try to write down the scenes out of order as they came to me. And not starting at the beginning seemed to unlock something in me, because it allowed me to just write without initially having to plan the whole story out. I've written ever since, almost every day. It's become an outlet I can't live without.

How has your writing journey been so far? What are your goals as a writer?

I started writing fanfiction (post-show Game of Thrones fanfiction to be exact, I may have written the only GendryxMeera romance out there) and slowly moved toward original stories. My first original story was written for ONC 2021 and I have since written a handful more (and basically abandoned my fanfiction stories). I don't like setting concrete goals, as they often lead to disappointment and may prevent you from taking unknown chances, but right now, I'm in the process of finding my place in the writing world. I'm exploring avenues to take my stories further, on Wattpad and beyond, and also starting to develop skills in actually polishing my works so that they're ready for that next step.

Now, let's talk about this year's ONC! Why did you participate in the Open Novella Contest?

Because it's the best community event on Wattpad. There is nothing like those first feverish weeks when every is brainstorming ideas based on the prompts and new amazing stories are being published daily. I wouldn't miss it for the world. And because I'm a madwoman, I actually wrote 2 stories for it this year (I also did the same last year). Because the flurry of ideas just wouldn't stop once I got started.

Which prompt(s) did you choose this year?

For my winning story, "Why Is There An Alien Princess In My Room?", I used prompt #18: You step through a magical portal thinking it's the way back home, but what you find isn't what you expected. (For my other story, "First Frost", I used prompt #69: "I had a marvellous time ruining everything.")

Besides the prompt(s), what else inspired you to write your ONC winning story?

Ice Planet Barbarians. I had actually just read the first book on this series right before ONC in a fit of curiosity (alien romance wasn't something I've really read before). And the book was actually quite a revelation in that I felt that the light tone coupled with the dramatic situation was actually something that could fit my style. So an idea for a story started brewing in my head for a gender-bent (in that the MC is the female alien) and planet-bent (in that it's set at earth) such story. Then, I added a cat POV and it all went topsy turvy.

Tell us about your writing process during the ONC. What did you enjoy the most? Did you encounter any struggles writing your story?

This is one of those stories that just seemed to flow once I've started, so it wasn't really a struggle to write at any point. My struggle when it came to ONC was mostly in regard to my dumb choice of writing two stories, which twice left me scrambling to get the words in right before the deadline for my other story. But the madness is also part of the charm of ONC, and I don't regret anything.

What advice would you give writers joining the ONC next year?

Just have fun with it. I think my quite ridiculous story of an alien princess accidentally teleporting to a college campus on Earth is proof that the most out there stories can garner success. So don't pick what story you write based on notions of what the judges may like, or what may do well on Wattpad. Just write. Be silly. Be crazy. Be bold. Be dumb even.

Quote a favourite line of your ONC story!

While "For science!" is a tagline of the story (being an excuse for the protagonists to keep hanging out), I feel like this line essentializes what the whole story is about: "While Vyrsa, of course, was an alien, there and then she didn't feel like it to Tristan. At least not in the sense of being unfamiliar or strange. She was just a girl and he was just a boy, and while their worlds may be different, their desires weren't."

Give us your ONC winning speech!

I'm really not one for speeches or grand gestures. I just wrote a story that I love, and I'm grateful that the judges liked it as well. I've never been good at standing out so actually having my story be picked as one of the Top 5 meant a lot to me. It means that someone saw me and my story. Every comment, vote, and read matters to me as well, as I, like most Wattpad author, struggle for attention. To know that a story that just started as a wild idea in my had has been transferred to someone else, who can read and interpret it in their own way, is a process of magic to me, and I'm amazed every time that trick is performed. I never thought anyone would want to read my stories. I never thought anyone would like them. I was wrong. And I'm never been happier to be proven wrong.

Thank you for the interview, Lisa. Once again congratulations on your win! We wish you all the best for your future writing endeavors. ☕