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 Shannon Smith
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 writing journey started when I was a child learning to
read. I used to read a series of fairy books and stories, and once I’d finish
them, I’d write my own. I remember my very first story was about half a page
about a girl finding a jewel in a fountain! I loved daydreaming and if I was
bored, I’d just imagine doing something else and having adventures that I read
about, then just put them on paper.
I haven't had a lot of publishing experience: a few poems in
analogies in primary school, and articles for my University magazine. I also
had a travel piece published in my village’s local newsletter as well as my
schools, based on my school exchange to Kenya. Nowadays, my writing is mostly
articles.
I don't really know where I want my writing to take me: I study
Tourism Management in University, and to have a job that means I could do some
travel/historical writing would be amazing. I love creative writing, but it’s
always been more of a hobby due to family commitments.
Travel writing is
something I’d really love to do, but I imagine it’s difficult to get into. What
was the travel writing piece for your local newsletter about?
My travel piece was around my school exchange with Kenya:
mine was the last trip that would be funded by a grant we were given, and so my
teacher wanted us (there were three of us on the trip) to write a piece about
it to raise awareness of it in the school and the community. The others pretty
much told me that they weren't good at writing and asked if I'd be happy to do
it: I was!
I wrote it on the plane home and tried to make it almost
like a diary entry: I wanted people to read it and think: "I want to go
there."
Where did your
inspiration come from for your WYWA piece?
I said above I love creative writing, and my favourite thing
to write is probably historical fiction, despite how difficult it can be. My
WYWA piece is about a gay man going in to a Nazi concentration camp, and it was
inspired by a conversation I had with a gay friend who studies history. He had
wanted to do a report on the treatment of homosexuals in WW2, but was unable to
due to the lack of primary sources. This stayed with me, as it bothered me that
there was a lack of literature on the subject, and so I wanted to challenge
that, even in a small way.
Wow, that is a very
poignant thing to write about. Do you enjoy doing the research that comes with
historical writing?
I love doing research if I have the time! I love history,
and being able to imagine what life was like back then is brilliant. The best
thing is that sometimes sources don't agree or just don't know enough: so I can
almost make the history fit around my characters and plot: because there's no
proof it didn't happen!
What’s your favourite
thing about the piece? What did you struggle with?
My favourite thing about the piece is that I wrote it!
In all seriousness, it was difficult to write, and I was so proud of it when
I’d finished.
It was difficult for a number of reasons: the obvious one
being a girl writing in a man’s point of view, as I was worried I would make it
less believable if it was ‘girly.’ The second was the ‘cliché’ -
there is a lot of material around concentration camps in WW2, and I didn’t want
to make it similar to other pieces. Finally, I wanted to do it justice: I was
writing a story about a population that had been imprisoned even after the war,
and whose suffering had been ignored for years: and I wanted my story to give
them a voice, even if it was through WYWA.
What do you think are
the main problems you face when writing? How do you combat this?
The main problems I face are easy: lack of knowledge, lack
of time or lack of inspiration. I have a job, University and family, so
sometimes it’s difficult to find time for writing. Lack of inspiration
is of course, writers block: I can get it really badly, and sometimes for
a long time. If I am struggling, I do a lot of research, and reading, to
try and get ideas to form. Music plays a big part as well: I’ll set my IPod
on shuffle and try to write a story based on whatever song comes on.
What are you working
on at the moment?
I’m actually working on a crime piece, which isn't my usual
genre, but I was watching Criminal Minds and got inspired!
What is your crime
piece about? I’ve always wanted to write crime fiction since it’s so popular,
but I don’t think I have enough knowledge about the law and criminology apart
from the obvious.
My crime piece is a bit different as just like you, I have
no idea of criminology either: it's actually from the point of view of a
criminal’s family during the crimes, his arrest and conviction/sentencing: in a
lot of crime dramas, focus is of course on the police/FBI/CSI etc and the
criminals, so I wanted to do something a bit different.
Is writing solely a
hobby, or would you like it to lead onto something else in the future?
I would love to have a job which would allow me to write
even part time, like travel or historical writing for tourists: and if I could
one day publish my own book, it would be a dream come true. I don't even mind
if it’s a bestseller: just to hold a copy of my own book, or see it in
libraries: it would be amazing.
