About the author - Y_Allen
Y Allen began her writing journey with fantasy and historical fiction short stories. She joined Wattpad on September 2013 and posted her first work that is a fan fiction. Her works are mostly in the genre of fanfiction, fantasy, and historical fiction with the main theme having love, family, and friendship. While she writes at night, in the day she works a full-time job as a Digital Marketing Officer, and spends the small windows of her time watching anime, reading books and mangas, drawing, and drinking eight cups of coffee a day.
About the story - Inglorious Bastards
The Inglorious Bastard follows eleven-year-old Carina Black, who learns her father is the infamous Sirius Black, a war-criminal of the First Wizarding War. Along with the adventures that Harry Potter brings, Carina lives her ideal Hogwarts stay filled with fun, drama, trouble, and chaos with her two best friends: Roman Alston and Theodore Nott.
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1. What is the thing you love the most about writing on Wattpad? Have you encountered any challenges while writing in the Fanfiction genre?
What I love most about writing on Wattpad is its supportive community, diversity, and -- in a more technical side -- the ability to monitor your work's statistics. When I first started writing short stories and fanfiction, I would try to hide it from people because the first time a classmate of mine snuck on what I was writing in my "diary" (or writing journal), they started bullying me. Since then, I was afraid to share my work with anyone. But after reading through the comments in Wattpad, I realized that it was okay to like this genre and I don't have to hide the fact that I enjoy reading and writing fanfiction. It helped a lot to boost my confidence in writing because I could see people in this platform open to any idea, it's like a writer's playground where I get to do what I want, explore things, experiment on my writing without the fear of judgement.
For the more technical side of things why I like writing on Wattpad has something to do with my work. I am a Digital Marketing Associate, my task revolves around maintaining the SEO standing of the company's website. So to do that, I need figures -- numbers, rather -- to see the standing of the website, the audience, the engagement, and the conversion. And Wattpad's feature of seeing the statistics of my stories helps with knowing the type of audience I cater, what kind of content "tickles their fancy", and it helps me with my course of action to maintain those numbers.
When it comes to challenges in writing, its more on the pressure of writing a new book. After finishing one and seeing the reviews, having to start making the next one has been the greatest challenge for me. I guess that's why I like the statistics feature of the platform, still there is the worry of if my work will be good enough or if it would be as successful as the last.
2. Your story revolved around three characters who lived under different pressure from their family as descendants. What is the most noticeable similarity and difference that you want to convey via their family backgrounds?
In all honesty, the whole family pressure and backgrounds was never planned. When I wrote about the Bastards' family situation, I tend to look at families around me and ask the question, "why is the child like this? How is their environment at home that they became like this?". For Theodore, his hard, self-preservation, and reserved nature is because of his trauma -- his mother died of an illness when he was young, and his father would abuse him when he does not meet perfection. In Carina's case, its more on the consequences and the burden of carrying secrets in the family, she does not like to be lied to after everyone hid from her the truth of her biological parents -- who were Emmanuelle and Sirius -- and it is also the fact why she is a terrible liar. For Roman's part, this hits a lot closer to home. To grow up in a family that you think was okay but later learn of its secrets, it helped his character grow far more mature than Theodore and Carina, and his way of coping is through making jokes and causing trouble.
But now that you mention that the Bastards' mirror-like relationship with their families, it became clear on how it affected them more that the more they try to NOT BE their parents, or to get away, there are some things they inherited or are similar for them. In Theodore's case, the Nott-family Arc started with superiority, intellect, and self-preservation. That's how Theodore was first seen by Carina. Theodore's character journey is to soften that hard exterior and be open people around him, which was what happened when Theodore met Carina and Roman. I guess the similarity with Theodore and to his family is his beginnings of only thinking of himself and to look down on people who were not of his family, and how he became different from his family's history is when he did something that put him in danger to save his best friend and the woman he loved, which is Roman and Carina (and the people who his friends cared about).
In Roman's case, I can't say there are similarities with him and his family since the Alstons are still a mysterious lot with only Roman, Alric, Jason, and Maeve being known (magical) characters, and are related to McGonagall. But Roman's character (in terms of family setting) represents how the eldest child grows up to carry the burden of TRYING to keep the family together, and to know when it is time to say "this is enough", and someone who is both a dreamer and a realist. In Carina's case, the idea of her is by giving her the same living situations as Harry BUT with the what if of "what if Harry's aunt and uncle were good to him?" or "what if Harry HAVE BEEN taken in by Sirius Black". Carina did grow up with a happy childhood, with two parents, a sister, friends, and a one-eyed cat. It was only when she learned about Sirius that things started to change. I guess Carina's similarity and difference with her family background could be related to her TRYING not to be like her father, but in the end, because she never knew him, she TRIES to do good by looking for justice for those wronged, fighting who she thinks are "bad" because they're bullies, and along the way cause a bit of trouble.
3. Any special meaning behind the name: "Inglorious Bastards"? Do you plan to make your characters rebellious antiheroes?
The real reason why I made the title Inglorious Bastards is because my favorite movie is Inglorious Basterd by Quintin Tarentino. I was so in love with that film that I would watch it everyday, and I love the idea of the alternate history, and the Basterds who fought Nazis and a woman who (spoiler alert) burned down her cinema to kill a room full of Nazi for revenge.
When I was making drafts of the rewrite of Black (the IB series is a rewrite of BLACK), I didn't want it to revolve around Carina, I wanted the book to include Theodore and Roman, so I can't name it BLACK anymore. To brainstorm, I watched the film that would boost my brain: Inglorious Basterds. And while watching the film, I thought, "that's how I want them to be" and "that's how I want to tell the story". While still following Carina's main plot of "knowing the truth of her parents", we have a story of three teenagers who are living their school life while seeking justice and causing trouble.
And as a little fun in the meaning, Carina was born before Emmanuelle and Sirius, so -- technically -- she is a bastard. Roman's trouble-making often had him being called "bastard" from his schoolmates; and in Theodore's case, he was not the most likable person, and the most feared student in their year, he was often associated with the word "unpleasant" because of his way of speaking frankly.
4. What are your favorite scenes/details in "Inglorious Bastards" and why?
(spoiler alert)
Starting with the first, it is the first time that the dynamic of the Bastards were seen. Carina and Theodore butting heads and Roman being the referee. It sums up how their relationship began with a rocky start, and it sets the conflict that will be resolved later, which is Carina's pride and Theodore's snarky attitude. As the story progresses, it is seen that both the two slowly learn how to "deal" with their flaws. Also, who doesn't like a bit of Pride and Prejudice banter?
For the Pre-Troll bathroom scene, it is all becaues of Morgan. To be honest, it took me months to decide on how to write Morgan's character. When writing characters, I want to give them a deeper meaning, and for Morgan his character was based off a friend of mine who is gender-fliud. I remember people not respecting their gender, and how hard it was for them to "fit in" or to find a peaceful day in school. In Morgan's case, I took the "fluid" in gender fluid literally and made him a Metamorphagus to emphasize on his gender, and to portray on HOW I UNDERSTAND gender fluidity. So, that scene is my favorite because it is where I was able to voice out by understanding about gender, and braving a lot of anxiety on doing it.
Third is Tom's death. When I decided that I wanted Sirius to live, I knew that Tom had to die. In the books, Sirius is a man stuck in his young adult years, who looks for his best friend in Harry, and often acts more like a child than his daughter. While he is learning on how to be a better father through Tom and Charity, he had a huge wake-up call on the responsibilities and the burden when Tom died, and saw that Tom has forgiven him and loves him as a brother. It puts Sirius' and Tom's story into a circle. Tom's death was what made Sirius "grow up" and stop looking back in the past before people depend on him in the present and the future.5. If you were in this story of yours, who would you be? And why? If I was in the Inglorious Bastards story, I would love to be Maisie Goldstein. For those who have not read Eat. Love. Maisie, Maisie's lifestyle is the one that I want. But first her role in the books and why I want to be her in this story. Maisie is a ball of sunshine who causes trouble of her own, she is academically and athletically brilliant, beautiful, and is -- like me -- bisexual. Maisie's character is the only mentally-stable one there is (if you ask me), she is emotionally mature, has great social skills, and witty! And who doesn't want to have a one-eyed orange cat named Fredick Georgina I! Truth be told, I put a lot of my "ideal self" into Maisie's character and to how her adult self is now: living in an apartment, at the peak of her career, is financially stable, has a supportive partner, and the cool aunt that her nieces and nephews love.
5. If you were in this story of yours, who would you be? And why?
If I was in the Inglorious Bastards story, I would love to be Maisie Goldstein. For those who have not read Eat. Love. Maisie, Maisie's lifestyle is the one that I want. But first her role in the books and why I want to be her in this story. Maisie is a ball of sunshine who causes trouble of her own, she is academically and athletically brilliant, beautiful, and is -- like me -- bisexual. Maisie's character is the only mentally-stable one there is (if you ask me), she is emotionally mature, has great social skills, and witty! And who doesn't want to have a one-eyed orange cat named Fredick Georgina I! Truth be told, I put a lot of my "ideal self" into Maisie's character and to how her adult self is now: living in an apartment, at the peak of her career, is financially stable, has a supportive partner, and the cool aunt that her nieces and nephews love.
6. What is your future writing plan? Will you continue to write more fanfictions, especially Harry Potter?
My future plans in writing involves with me writing more fanfics (I have a list and it keeps growing) and to write my original book. I have written a number of original short stories, some I have published in Wattpad, but I have yet to publish an original book. I guess I've been using fanfiction to help me explore genres and find my writing style, and how my work flow goes.
I can't say for certain, it's hard for me to stray from one fanfic that I wrote, and I have a deep sentimental value to the Bastards, and with its number of OCs in the story, it continues to expand with other Harry Potter characters interacting with the Bastards and how the three change them -- especially Adrian Pucey, who marries a Muggle. But who knows! Before doing this rewrite and writing BLACK, I had a fanfic called "Begin Again", a Draco Malfoy fanfic where he deals with PTSD and the guilt of what he did during the war, and the one to help him is Harry's little sister, Jamie Potter... also, in this fanfic, Theodore is also Draco's closest friend, and it is after THIS Theodore that the Bastards-Theodore became Theodore Achilles Nott. Who knows if I'll write another Harry Potter fanfic, but I do have the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in my list, and its connected to the Bastards
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