Hello everyone! ESHurricane here, and today I have the utmost pleasure in speaking with lptvorik, September's author of the month! She's an established author on Wattpad, with her own novels and also short stories in anthologies such as The 12 Days of Hawtness. She's published on Amazon with her book Treading Water, and she's also a freelance editor!
Take a gander over at our Book of the Month to read all about her book The Melody of Silence, then join us here for a cup of coffee and chatting about writing!
Emily: Hi Liz! Tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey.
Liz: My name is Liz. I am a dog spinster, which is like a cat lady but with less stigma. Like most folks, I've been writing since I was very wee. But if I had to identify when my real writing journey began, I'd have to say it was the short story I wrote when I was twelve about a man named John Deere (an accidental trademark infringement, but a trademark infringement nonetheless) and a woman named Linda Brown. John built a rocketship and he chose Linda as his copilot and the rocket "takes off" and there are a lot of "vibrations" which give both parties a "strange feeling" in their bellies and the innuendo, like the trademark infringement, was utterly unintended but nonetheless the start of a beautiful journey.
Emily: That is the best. The absolute best.
So since your foray into rocket ship innuendo, how has your writing process evolved over the years, and what would you say your process looks like now from the inception of an idea to completion of a draft that's ready for posting?
Liz: To be honest I don't think it's really evolved at all. If anything it's regressed. For a while I was trying really hard to plot and plan and do character sheets and all that jazz and it was just making me sad because I never managed to follow through. So I scrapped it all and now I just write what I feel like writing. I don't really draft. I just kinda sit and daydream for a little bit and then sit down at my computer and write what you see. It's a backwards, immature process but that's what I do. I think if I wrote plot heavy stuff it'd never work, but luckily for me all my crap is character driven and my plots are thin as tissue paper so it hasn't backfired too bad on me yet.
Emily: I don't think there's anything immature or wrong with just letting go and writing without careful planning. I read a book not too long ago called Writing Into the Dark and the author brought up a lot of great points about how it's so much more raw and passionate to experience the surprises of a story as they come.
I used to be a total pantser and it's so exhilarating to just get into that flow and see what comes out. Sometimes terrifying!
Liz: And frustrating. Like biiiitch why did you have to go and do that?!
Emily: I can think of at least ten points probably more in what I've read of your work that you probably had that reaction!
Liz: *laughing*
Emily: I love character driven stories because it's such an emotional ride, feeling so close to their lives. And especially with Melody it's like I'm living it with the characters. What inspired you to start exploring Alex and Nate's story?
Liz: Sorta a bunch of different things. I was a sad bitch baby about a lot of the stuff that was happening in my life, and my sad sorta deteriorated into an existential crisis. All I'll say is the entire series is just a way of getting to the epilogue.
Emily: Well now I'm super excited to read the epilogue!
I find writing super cathartic for a lot of things, whether I realize it at the time or after, it feels like every story is kind of a release or at least I can generally tie something back to something specific I was feeling at the time. It's such a personal experience putting things on the page, and especially with such an emotionally-driven story.
I know reading Melody I pretty much can only react with emoji faces because every chapter is just a rollercoaster. From the other comments I'm definitely not alone! How does it feel to take readers along on such an intense ride? Have there been any reactions that were really surprising to you?
Liz: Honestly, every reaction blows me away. It still rattles me when people react the way I wanted then to, and even more when they don't. One of my favorite things is watching which passages incite responses, because it's not always the ones I expect. Scenes I put hours into crafting get little to no comments, and stuff I don't even remember writing get fawned over. It's a trip, lol. In any event, people having emotional reactions to the crap I vomit forth is the only thing that keeps me from going into a hole and writing only for myself.
Emily: I think one of my favourite comments I saw was 'How do you write like this', which I relate to so hard.
Which brings me to my next point- how do you write like this? Your prose is very visceral while still keeping a good flow and not becoming distractingly purple. What advice would you give to an author that's struggling with description in their story?
Liz: Well fuck, dude, I dunno hahahaha! I guess I read a lot more than I write, and I read across the spectrum which probably helps. I try really hard not to let my style stagnate, but that effort usually just looks like reading different stuff.
Emily: What are your favourite genres to read?
Liz: I'll read anything. I'm not a huge fan of mystery but pretty much anything else is fair game. I try to bounce back and forth between fiction and nonfiction. I cut my teeth on sci-fi and fantasy as a kiddo but these days I read a lot more litfic and stuff. Love a good war novel... Literally anything. If it's well written, I'll read it.
Emily: That's great. Makes for an extensive library that never runs out!
So I happen to know at least one author that you've edited for (and done a stellar job on it). How long have you been beta/editing and what prompted you to get started doing it?
Liz: About three years. Initially it was a quid pro quo thing and then I realized I'm pretty good at it and decided to start offering edits without asking reciprocity. It's fun and it keeps me in a rhythm in the writing world even when I've got writer's block.
Emily: That's a good point, keeping that creative muscle working!
So one last question, do you have a few favourite adult stories on Wattpad that you want to give a shoutout to?
Liz: Okay so I'm not 100% sure what constitutes adult fiction, but I will say obviously I'm a huge fan of AJ_Rella's Never Tell Lies, and GigiLaurent's Bright Knight series, and Finding Obsidian by RavensFlyAway and of course, OBVIOUSLY, forever and always, AvaLarksen's Bound which is about young people but very much for adults.
Beyond romance, I'd recommend Backstreet Drivers by ItsAGoodLife, which is the closest my square ass will ever get to doing drugs. And last but definitely not least, and this one kinda shook me, there's a book called Leaning Into the Storm by IAmOne. It's women's fiction, and it absolutely blows my mind that this brilliance was written by a man because it is passionate and hilarious and all the main characters are women and they are so wonderfully real.
Unfortunately it's not finished, and when I went to Facebook to hit this MoFo up and ask what his problem was I saw that he actually passed away, pretty unexpectedly. So that's a huge bummer but he has a published book of poetry on Amazon that I'd highly recommend.
Emily: Omg that's so sad!
Liz: Right?! Sorry I literally just realized today. He stopped updating and that's pretty standard fare for Wattpaders so I never thought about it twice and then I checked his Facebook and lo and behold...
Emily: Well, as cheesy as it sounds, at least his awesome writing will still live on. I hope readers will still enjoy his work.
Thank you so much for being here and chatting with me, and also for all the excellent recommendations!
Be sure to check out lptvorik's profile and have a gander through her profile. You can also find Treading Water here, if you'd like to show your support for an awesome indie author!