Interview with Wicked Young Writers' Award Finalist, Hannah Ost

Along with other young writers in the UK, I attended the Wicked Young Writers' Awards in June. It was a fantastic afternoon which inspired me to kickstart this blog -- albeit it took me a while! Luckily, some of these talented writers agreed to let me interview them to get an insight into their motivation and aspirations. Finalist entries can be found here: http://www.wickedyoungwriters.com/downloads/Wicked_YWA_2015_18-25.pdf . And Sugar Scape finalists can be found here: http://www.wickedyoungwriters.com/downloads/Wicked_Sugarscape_Award2015.pdf

Interview with Hannah Ost

Hannah Ost

When did you start? Why? How many pieces have you written so far? Have any of these been published? Where are you hoping your writing will take you?
So, I started writing stories as soon as I could write! I think my earliest "piece" was a poem called "Bear in the Wood", which was a poem about a very irresponsible grizzly bear with a cut on his knee! I wrote it in purple pencil and it was a fully-illustrated mini book! But, aside from that, I have written more - I love to write everything; fiction pieces, fanfiction, poetry. I edited and reported for my school magazine and have written opinionated blog articles on multiple websites. I've been published with Young Writers a number of times and went on a workshop with Matt Whyman! As for why I started writing, I'm not entirely sure. I've always had the instinct to just write down my feelings, my dreams, everything - and from that stems a story! I hope someday to see my works on the shelf, or write for the stage.

 

Where did your inspiration come from for your WYWA piece? What’s your favourite thing about the piece? What did you struggle with?

My WYWA piece was a fanfiction, based on the life and times of a young Mary Poppins. The inspiration came from watching the Disney adaptation of Mary Poppins. I was daydreaming (as per usual) and I suddenly had the idea of a young Mary at boarding school. I gleefully spent the next six hours imagining all the mischief she'd get up to at the Royal Academy for Practically Perfect Young Ladies! I fell in love with the story, the characters, the lessons and it's a real joy to immerse myself in Mary's world. Honestly, when submitting an extract, the hardest part was cutting it down. I like to use a lot of descriptive language and most of that had to be sacrificed for structure. But the whole experience was a boost to my self-confidence and having to cut down my work so much taught me a lot of key skills, which will be very useful in the future.

What do you think are the main problems you face when writing? How do you combat this?

I always get writers block and it's so annoying to sit down to write and not be able to. To combat this, I like to go somewhere that I feel possesses a certain vibe. A nature reserve, my garden, a park... anywhere I can see life as it happens. Watching television gives me ideas too... I get ideas visually usually. Through dreams and places - that's how I get rid of writers block.

What are you working on at the moment? 

Currently, I'm working on expanding my Mary Poppins fanfiction into a 7-book series! You can track my progress on Wattpad (writersblog is my account name!) I also have a blog which I have just begun called The Life and Times of Hannah Ost at alittlebitbroadway.blogspot.com

 Is writing solely a hobby, or would you like it to lead onto something else in the future?

I would love to write fiction books, write for the stage, write for the screen. I want this to be a part of my future and am excited for what that future will be! 

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Interview with Wicked Young Writers' Awards Finalist, Rachel Loughran

Along with other young writers in the UK, I attended the Wicked Young Writers' Awards in June. It was a fantastic afternoon which inspired me to kickstart this blog -- albeit it took me a while! Luckily, some of these talented writers agreed to let me interview them to get an insight into their motivation and aspirations. Finalist entries can be found here: http://www.wickedyoungwriters.com/downloads/Wicked_YWA_2015_18-25.pdf . And Sugar Scape finalists can be found here: http://www.wickedyoungwriters.com/downloads/Wicked_Sugarscape_Award2015.pdf

Interview with Rachel Loughran

Tell me a little about your writing journey. When did you start? Why? How many pieces have you written so far? Have any of these been published? Where are you hoping your writing will take you?

My journey, let's see. Well I've always been a massive reader, to the extent that at family events my cousins used to ask my parents what I'd done wrong, and why was I being punished and made to sit in the corner and read the whole time. I devoured books, and my mum used to read to me when I was little, and I never had any fear about using a big word, even if I didn't know quite yet what it meant. 

When I was about fourteen, I started rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I discovered the murky world of fanfiction, where I've been a sometime resident ever since. I wrote my first story on fanfiction.net shortly after that, but it wasn't until I wrote a Harry Potter piece, a little comedy story about Fred and George called Things I'm Not Allowed to do at Hogwarts that I really started to get a reaction. Suddenly where I'd been getting a few hundred hits - total - on a story previously, with this one I was getting hundreds a day. The feedback was addictive, and over a few years the story swelled to sixteen chapters and over half a million hits. Today, I've just finished an English Honours degree at Strathclyde and I've not written any fanfiction in a few years - my focus has been on original fiction. In terms of fanfiction, I'm not very prolific; I've written about sixteen stories of varying length. Original fiction, maybe around the same number, in the last couple of years. I was published last Christmas in the Octavius Literary Journal. It was a story I wrote for a class, about a long distance couple in 1962. I'm still submitting to other journals every few months, with hopes that I'll be published again! I currently work in life insurance - hopefully not forever.

Oh wow. Half a million hits is fantastic. Did you use some of the feedback you got to feed into your future work?

The feedback that is useful always sticks in my head, yeah. I remember the bits that people say struck then the most, I know from people reading my original stuff too that it's often tiny repetitive details that people like the best, hints of foreshadowing, a reoccurring theme here and there. I love doing research for stories, I like to be coming from a place of knowledge when I write, and people in my writing classes at Uni often mentioned the detailed research. They were like 'how do you know so much about winter blooming plants?!' 

And I was just like '...Google.'  But I like that people pick up on that and appreciate it. Often my fanfic reviews are people just saying that I'm funny or that they loved it, which is amazing to hear but not exactly helpful! 

Where did your inspiration come from for your WYWA piece? What’s your favourite thing about the piece? What did you struggle with?

The piece I wrote for this competition came to me almost fully formed when I did my annual reread of the Deathly Hallows. I always reread it on the 21st of July, staying up all night to do it (if I can - it's got a lot harder since I graduated and have to do that whole job thing) just like I did when it first came out. After I finish, I always go back and read a few favourite parts, and in this case, I went back to Godric's Hollow, and read about Harry looking at his house, and the sign in front of it with the signatures all over it. The story came from that moment. I wanted to know where the signatures came from. In its original form, the story involves the perspective of several people who signed the signpost, which I whittled down to one quick scene to submit for entry - this scene was my favourite, the scene where a muggle born wizard sees the house and the sign and realised all his accidental magic isn't as strange as he thinks. With some stories, there's a struggle, but this one was easy, like something I already knew and just had to write down before it slipped away.

What do you think are the main problems you face when writing? How do you combat this?

My main problem with writing is time. I work long hours and when I come home it's easier to just eat dinner and go straight to bed most nights than sit up at my breaky old laptop and try and be creative, which, as I took this job to keep me afloat while I pursue writing, makes me feel horribly guilty every time I ditch the writing to watch TV or have an early night. I try and combat it the same way I did when I had to write essays in university - I find a block of free time to dedicate to writing, and I pour myself a whisky, and make it last for a thousand words, at which point I'm allowed to pour another. It sounds compulsive and perhaps isn't the most recommendable way to do things, but it got me through four years of studying. The system works. 

Writing when you work full time is so difficult! I always have a problem finding the time, especially because sometimes I'm just tired and want to watch crappy TV and put my feet up. Is your block of free time the same time every week, or does it vary? Is it several evenings or just one?

My time varies - I finish work early on a Tuesday and ideally I'd like to be writing every Tuesday, but my boyfriend lives about an hour away from me and also works full time, and so he usually comes to see me on a Tuesday, because it's my longest free night. Which I love, obviously, but it's just another thing that gets in the way of writing, you know. The odd couple of hours here and there usually get me inching along. It's never enough, but it's all I can give at the moment! 

What are you working on at the moment?

At the moment I'm working on a novel. I'm about 40,000 words in, roughly halfway. It's coming of age fiction, I suppose. It's about a girl. It's not fantasy. It might be funny sometimes? It's peculiar. I'm also always working on a thousand little stories, some just in my head, some have the bones laid out on paper and some are fleshier than others. I'm reworking my dissertation, I'm hopeful that it could be submittable for competitions or journals soon. There's always a million things to do.

What's your dissertation about?

My dissertation is a 6000 word story told in three parts, about a music teacher and his affair with a pupil. It's all in the third person, but the first part is told from his perspective, and focuses on their first meeting and the genesis of their relationship, culminating in his proposal, and it's all told in flashbacks from the point of view of someone who already knows how doomed it all was. The second is told from her perspective and covers their wedding and her becoming more successful than him and eventually leaving him after leeching all his musical contacts, and is also told in flashbacks, where she feels guilt and fear at returning to herald school for a reunion concert. The third is told in present day and revolves around the gossip mill of the school on the day of the reunion concert which sees the couple reunite on stage. 

It sounds really abstract and bonkers written out like that, to be honest.

Is writing solely a hobby, or would you like it to lead onto something else in the future?

Writing at this point can probably only be referred to as a hobby, but it'll be the whole picture one day. I'll keep going with the small successes I've been having (every six months or so it seems - shouldn't be too long before the next one rolls around) and I'll keep writing and submitting and one day it'll happen, and I'll be a writer, and not just an English graduate with a job in life insurance. 

So is the dream to be a full-time writer one day? 

That is indeed the dream. I'll keep writing, one day I'll finish the book and send it to agents, hopefully they'll like it, and in the meantime I'll work on the smaller stuff and send that out too. Ideally someday soon I'll be able to afford to work part time which will let me write more. But yeah, I have faith it'll happen. I also have all the crossed fingers and if I thought it would help id carry around rabbits’ feet and four leaf clovers too. 

You can read Rachel’s other work published in Octavius magazine, here: http://www.octaviusmagazine.com/writing/buy

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Interview with Wicked Young Writers Award finalist, Laura Tickle

Along with other young writers in the UK, I attended the Wicked Young Writers' Awards in June. It was a fantastic afternoon which inspired me to kickstart this blog -- albeit it took me a while! Luckily, some of these talented writers agreed to let me interview them to get an insight into their motivation and aspirations. Finalist entries can be found here: http://www.wickedyoungwriters.com/downloads/Wicked_YWA_2015_18-25.pdf . And Sugar Scape finalists can be found here: http://www.wickedyoungwriters.com/downloads/Wicked_Sugarscape_Award2015.pdf

Interview with Laura Tickle

When did you start? Why? How many pieces have you written so far? Have any of these been published? Where are you hoping your writing will take you?
I have enjoyed writing for as long as I can remember and always used to tell my dad that when I grow up I was going to be an author. I have written a few short children's stories in the past and have entered a few writing competitions, (the Wicked Young Writers award was a very big deal for me!). Currently I am writing a novel which I have taken inspiration from my personal life to help develop and I would love for it to be published once it is finished.

Where did your inspiration come from for your WYWA piece? What’s your favourite thing about the piece? What did you struggle with?

The inspiration for my WYWA piece came from my personal life. I have been through difficult and trying times in my personal life, battling a deep depression, however, I have found that being by the ocean is an extremely calming and cleansing experience for me, whenever I can hear the sound of the waves or feel the sea breeze on my face I feel at home and at peace with myself. The ocean is a very powerful place, it allows me to release any pain or stress and be free for a moment. I therefore wanted to get this feeling down in words so other people can experience that wonderful feeling for themselves. Although my piece is not very long I concentrated on the descriptive nature of the short story and I feel this is its strongest point, I tried to paint a vivid image for the reader so that their imagination could take them away and they could feel the sand between their toes and picture the waves before their eyes.

What do you think are the main problems you face when writing? How do you combat this?

I feel that the main problem I face with writing is my self-doubt, wondering if what I am writing is actually any good. This has sometimes in the past stopped me from getting my work out there but I just need to keep writing, even if it doesn't become the next best seller that does not mean that it is not any good and that my words and creations are not worth it.

What are you working on at the moment? 

I am currently writing on a novel exploring what it is like to lose a loved one to cancer.

 Is writing solely a hobby, or would you like it to lead onto something else in the future?

I would love for my writing to lead onto something more in the future but even if it doesn't I am happy with this path I have taken and it is a fun hobby to have!

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