Interview: Chennelle
My Thoughts on Chennelle: Chennelle (Or fondly, Chennelley) is so sweet and modest. Which I find annoying, because she can't ever say thank you properly when I compliment her Goddess like status, but I still love her.
I: Hey, how are you?
Helloo, I'm pretty great thank ya. (;
I: Thank goodness you're not trying to be too formal. I'm bad at that.
I sound snooty when I'm try [sic] to be formal, so let's not do that.
*Trying -_-
I: You know all this is a part of the interview right?
Yeah I figured that after the 'hey, how are you?' [haha].
I: Good, now lets really begin. Did you ever expect to be interviewed?
Never, to be honest. Only cool people get interviewed and I don't count myself much of a cool person )':
I: What? Are you serious? You were like my idol when I first started reading boyxboy.
You know I'm terrible with taking compliments, go away before you make me cry dear god.
I: Okay, okay. We'll move on. Is this your first time being interviewed?
'Preciate it. Uhh, Im [sic] not actually sure. If I remember correctly, I'm sure someone interviewed me when I first started out, because I remember them approaching me with the idea but that was like two years ago. I can't even remember if I did it.
I: Did you ever read the book?
If I could still see my dedications I could tell you because I'm sure I've had an interview book dedicated to me. I have the memory of a goldfish, so I can't remember if I read it or not but it'd be odd if I didn't. And rude. I probably did.
I: I heard goldfish could remember things for like six months or so.
That is pretty cool. Don't tell my sister, it's the biggest insult I have for her at the moment.
I: Okay haha, I won't. So, let's do a formal introduction. Would you like to state your pen name or Wattpad name?
Alrightly [sic], my name is Chennelle, both as a pen name and my Wattpad username.
I: Oh wow, I didn't know that was your pen name too. Would you professionally write with that pen name?
Yeah definitely. It's what I plan to do. Ive [sic] pretty much adopted Chennelle as my actual name anyway.
I: Nice! So what genre do you write for Wattpad?
I mainly, or so far, have written boyxboy teen-fiction/romance.
I: Would you like to get into other genres?
I really want to try my hand at fantasy but it's quite an intimidating genre. There's too much freedom there, I'll end up screwing it up haha. The furthest I've ventured is into paranormal, which sees to be going well. Maybe I'll attempt fantasy some time soon.
I: Fantasy is easy because of the freedom and hard because of the freedom. As a fantasy writer I can vouch for that. As far as the paranormal story, are you hinting at To Keep You?
I think I need to read a few more fantasy stories to get a feel for the genre before attempting it. Haha, I certainly am. (;
I: Haha, are you advertising Chennelle?
I don't think I've ever advertised to be honest.
I: Why not?
I don't like doing it for some reason.
I: Same. It makes me feel pushy.
Yeah, but I suppose it's how you get noticed. I think I got lucky at the start with people stumbling onto my story, which I'm very thankful for haha.
I: Speaking of which, what is your most popular story?
That would definitely have to be 'The Rent Boy'
I: Why do you think that is?
Probably the number of reads, with, I think it's now at 1.35m? I don't know why people flocked to that story when I first started updating. I think it was most likely the sex aspect to it, because we all know everyone on Wattpad are such horny bastards [hahaha].
I: Haha that's true. So what got you into writing boyxboy?
Uh, I think it was after I started reading bxb fanfictions and then I just thought hey why don't I write my own!
I: You're into fanfiction?
I don't read much any more [sic] but I used to, like I'd have all these bookmarks of them on my phone and multiple tabs lol it was a mess. It started with Supernatural (Dean/Cass) and the last I read was uh a sterek fic I think.
I: Oh wow! Fanfic got me into it too actually. I had countless SasuNaru stories bookmarked on my iPod and my computer. Even now, years into the future, I literally have read pretty much every SasuNaru on fanfiction.net. I'm kinda into Cecilos now to be honest.
I used to have a fanfiction.net account haha. I have no idea what cecilos is.
I: I still use my account since they have an app. I'm reading all the SasuNarus over since I haven't found anything interesting on Wattpad in a while. Cecilos is the shipping of Cecil Palmer and Carlos the Scientist from the podcast Welcome to Nightvale.
Ohh, awesome. I didn't even know they had an app, I'll have to check that out. I prefer AO3 for fanfic now though.
I: AO3?
archieveofourown.org, I think.
I: Oh I know that site. Why does AO3 represent it?
I have no idea.
I: Okay well let's move on then and leave that alone haha. How do you cope with writer's block?
I don't haha. It makes me frustrated and like I just want to give up writing but reading other people's stories usually helps to motivate me and listening to music, also. I also do a lot of planning, like character backstories and things.
I: Oh wow it's great that you mentioned planning because my next question is, how do you come up with a plot?
That's a difficult question. I just sorta get ideas that pop into my head and then I create my characters and it just unfolds from there. I don't have anything interesting to say unfortunately.
I: That's okay. It's like that for a lot of people. So you don't actively do things that would spark ideas?
Nah not really, I don't try to force anything. If I get an idea, then I get an idea lol.
I: Alright, nice! Let's say, hypothetically speaking, that someone stole your work. What would you do?
Drown in a pool of my tears. If it was one of my crappy works I'd be like yeah go for it. But if I liked it then I'd be all IM [sic] GETTING A LAWYER!
I: Seriously? Are you saying you wouldn't be too upset?
I don't know, I guess I'd be upset and I'd approach them politely to take it down or whatever but if they didn't then I'd email Wattpad? I've never really thought about it lol I'm not a very serious person to be honest.
I: Well you don't seem to have much to say about that so we can move on. What is something that you find annoying while reading other people's work?
I don't really get annoyed but I can't stand when people don't capitalise their I's [sic], and when they use semi colons in like every paragraph because they don't know how to use it so they just guess.
I: What do you mean by the semi-colon thing?
I'd have to show you an example but I don't want to do that, but it's like overusing it and putting it in the wrong place. Say like where just a comma should be or a full stop.
I: Oh I see now. Yeah, that is more like they just don't know how to use it.
Yeah it's frustrating to look at haha.
I: If someone were to offer to edit your work, would you find that insulting or pretentious?
Neither, I'd just assume that my writing needed a bit of editing and do it myself after kindly telling them no thank you, haha.
I: Does this mean you don't like outside sources editing your work?
Yeah I'm a bit of a weirdo like that, it sounds really stupid but it'd make me uncomfortable, idk how to explain it lol.
I: Actually I think I might understand. I used to not let people edit my stories because I was scared that people would steal my work or ideas. But I went to a writing conference where some published authors answered a question that was something along the lines of, "Do you worry about people stealing your work when getting it edited?" And the authors were straight up like, publishing houses think that's a pretentious mind frame since chances are high that you and another person do in fact have the same storyline. I guess also there's a sense of the editor might spill the beans about the story to other readers, especially on a writing site.
I actually never thought about whether or not they'd steal my work, haha. It's more a sense of like, the editor making changes and things I don't like. I'd rather do it myself.
I: That's understandable. So then, what process do you go through when editing your own work?
I usually use my typewriter, and type up my chapters, then go through it with a pencil/pen marking out things that need changing or mistakes etc. And then I retype it in the laptop. But I only do that if it's a story that I hope to get published, because it takes a lot of time. Typing it up on a typewriter makes it easier to spot mistakes, and for some reason it seems to make me more descriptive to be honest haha.
I: You know, I was going to buy a typewriter. Etsy has a lot for sale. This has to be one of the more interesting methods of editing I've heard.
I've always done it because my sister does it, and she kinda is like a mentor to me when it comes to writing. You should definitely get a typewriter though.
I: Yeah, I've always been pretty serious about investing in one. I want a nice color though. How does yours look?
Mines [sic] just a black and white one, the keys are black, the casing white. Some of them can get pretty pricey, I went for the cheapest.
I: Where did you get yours?
Uhh, I can't even remember. I got it ages ago. It might have been eBay.
I: Do you know how old it is?
No, I'll have a look later and try to find out though if you want.
I: Yes please, I'll put a foot note for the readers. I just have two more questions for you Ms. Chennelle and then this interview will be done. Are you ready?
I'm so ready, let's do it. My answers haven't been all that interesting have they...
I: Actually I was really interested and learned new things. I think your fans will appreciate them too. Maybe you'll even gain new fans.
Awe thank you. Wait, why am I saying thank you? I should have said something like, "Happy to hear that" or something.
I: Oh my goodness. Was the interview so long it made you deluded?
Yeah, that's what's happened, it's your fault oh God. Send help!
I: What kind of help should we get? I don't know how to make this go by quicker.
A therapist, get me a therapist haha. No it's fine, continue. (:
I: We can get you one after the interview ahahah. Who's a little known Wattpad author you'd like people to know about? It's not limited to one.
I found out my typewriter was made in the 70s, I think. Erm, Definitely Lia (SuperheroesAndSprite) because I'm addicted to her writing to be honest and there's also AmelieThomspson who is fairly new to Wattpad, and is in the process of writing her first Wattpad story, it's really worth the read. I haven't been doing a whole lot of reading lately, but those are the two that first come to mind.
I: Great! I'll keep my eyes peeled. Do you have an all time favorite Wattpad book?
Torn between LilMissMagpie's "Nadir" and Avylinn's "Hearts Unchained" But then there's "Blaze"(1), but the other two are completed so I'll go with those.
I: I was thinking about reading Nadir for a long time as well as Avylinn's book. I think I definitely will though. Well that's it Chennelle! Do you have any parting words for those that are going to read this?
You definitely should! Eeerm wow thinking of something to say is even harder than answering the questions, what is wrong with me. My brain is frazzled. Guess I'd like to thank anyone who reads this and hope that you don't think I'm as boring as I sound. Have a lovely day/night!
I: Haha, thank you for your wonderful closing. It was a great interview in my opinion. Thanks a lot Chennelle!
You're welcome, thank you for interviewing me, it was an honour!
1 - "Blaze" by SuperheroesAndSprite