The top five of ONC 2021 includes two winners, who have taken the fourth place - Another one of them being Elle Chaika, who is known as chaikovskiy on Wattpad, with her story Novyye Saints.
So, let's meet Elle!
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Hi, Elle!
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 your fiction?
My niche little corner of Wattpad is short historical fiction with a Soviet twist. In my work, readers are usually dropped into whatever year of history I'm currently hooked on (it's usually sometime between the 1920s and the 1960s) with characters living in dicey situations. I like plot twists, gritty realism, and unorthodox or even concerning character relationships, so they often surface alongside themes of discovery and warped reality in my work.
When did you start writing and what does writing mean to you?
I started writing seriously around age ten and it's been a creative outlet for me ever since. One of my favorite things about fiction is how it allows me to experience life in any decade of my choosing. Time travel hasn't proven to be reliable or safe just yet, so writing is one of ways I like to bend the timeline and exist as an underground music smuggler in the 1960s or, most recently, a reluctant thief in the 1920s.
How has your writing journey been so far? What are your goals as a writer?
I'm still pretty young (only seventeen!) so my writing journey has been seven years of exponential growth and craft development. Winning a big writing contest was one of my goals so I'm happy to say I can check that off my list. Currently, I'm looking forward to finishing and sharing my upcoming novella, building upon my characterization skills, and testing out some new genres. As for the not-so-distant future, I hope to be published after university so I can share my work with the world!
How did you find out about Wattpad and what do you like the best about the platform?
The best thing about Wattpad is that it allows writers like me to build an audience in a way no other platform does. It's dedicated to writing of all genres unlike some other platforms which cater only to fan-fiction, romance, etc... Even little twelve-year-old me realized that when I stumbled onto it via a link in a Tumblr post five years ago.
Why did you participate in the Open Novella Contest?
Curiosity. I wanted to see I could stick to a schedule, write and finish a story of 20,000 words, and edit said story to an acceptable degree. I can safely say that curiosity has been satisfied and that I will never doubt my writing abilities again.
Which prompt(s) did you choose this year?
I chose Prompt No. 29 which is a quote from Virginia Woolf, "I am in the mood to dissolve into the sky," and decided to channel the quote's vibes into protagonist of "Novyye Saints," Mysh Myshkina. There are motifs and paraphrases of the prompt scattered throughout certain chapters about how Mysh vanishes due to her small size and stealth with my favorite being the novella's second-to-last line.
Besides the prompt(s), what else inspired you to write your ONC winning story?
Well, it was actually three things: a board game about trains, the soundtrack from a German television series, and the Russian Revolution Unit in my IB History Class. All those elements sort of intersected in this funky combo once I was inspired by Prompt No. 29 with the result being "Novyye Saints!"
How did you experience your ONC journey?
I would call it a 13-week writing bender instead of a journey. Drafting is the longest part of my writing process, so cramming 20,000 winning-worthy words into one story over three months was quite the challenge. There were a lot of late nights, missing assignments, and last-minute edits, but I couldn't be prouder of the result.
Give us your ONC winning speech!
I'd like to thank Mysh Myshkina, Volya Angelov, Dima Medvedev, and Lyubov Lisitsyna for being the best characters I've ever written. The 2021 ONC Judges and Ambassadors definitely deserve some recognition as well for juggling all the organizing, reading, and posting they did during these last few months! My trusty laptop also gets some props for hosting fifteen tabs of research, 80-page drafts, and my playlists all at once... even though it did crash a few times. But perhaps the people who deserve the most thanks are my family members and my readers who encouraged me every week with their kind words, questions, and votes. Y'all are the best and I hope to have another novella out by October for you to enjoy. Until then, happy reading and writing. ♡♡
Thank you for the interview, Elle! We wish you all the best for your future writing endeavors! ☕