This is the last of my Summer of Success Interviews. Today we're talking to the awesome and talented, Nicole J. Fearahn aka _Ahna_ of Wattpad! I wanted the series to not just show success in terms of having one's work published, but also in finding your audience. Nicole's book, The Fates, has been a runaway hit on Wattpad (I've been reading it myself - it's pretty fricken' wonderful and an entertaining read!)
So, without further ado, here's Nicole!
About Nicole and Her Writing:
How did you get into writing?
I've been writing since before I even could :) That is to say, I had stories spinning in my head since the tender age of four, when I lacked motor skills to scrawl legible letters. And so my mom, the angel that she is, would let me dictate silly tales to her and she would sit down and transcribe them. Those were the early beginnings of my passion for writing, and ever since, it's only grown :)
What genres do you write in?
I mostly enjoy writing fantasy and sci-fi novels. And I often wish "epic" were an actually accepted genre label, because I feel that that would be the common thread in most of what I write - I love stories that take place on a grand scale, spanning broad swaths of space and time and exploring otherworldly themes in exciting and meaningful ways.
How many books have you written?
I finished writing my first full novel, The Will, in 2012 - but in terms of length and plot, the book is actually better seen as divisible into a trilogy. The Will is the only work that I've completed, so I guess the answer to this question is 3 books :)
What life experiences do you feel most influenced your writing?
This is a loaded question, so I suppose I'll answer it specifically with regard to my current project, The Fates. The life experience that most significantly impacted this story is the summer that I spent in Greece, researching and writing for a travel guide. It was an incredibly eye-opening and all-around transformative time in my life. I was 21 years old, which I feel was the perfect age to explore such a beautiful country so rich in millennia's worth of fascinating history and culture. It left a lasting mark on my heart, mind, and soul - as cheesy as that sounds. Of course, since The Fates deals with three deities from Greek mythology - a body of legends that I'd always loved, since childhood - it's easy to see the threads of inspiration drawing from that summer experience to my current story :)
Who or what inspires you?
I have many sources of inspiration, some of which are easier to identify and explain than others. Perhaps my biggest and most constant source of inspiration is my mother, who has nourished and nurtured all my dreams with such incredible devotion all throughout my life. I owe more to her than I could ever even wrap my mind around, and her unending love and faith in me are more inspiring than anything.
Tell me a bit about your book/books:Here's the blurb for The Fates:
"They walk among us.
All three, living normal mortal lives. Cloe is graduating college; Lacey is getting married; Atria is bar-hopping and breaking hearts. Today, they are human. But they are also the three Fates—the all-powerful directors of human destiny. And they don't even know it.
Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos did not always take mortal form. They dwelt in the Cave, working the Loom, till something happened on Olympus that changed everything one day. Since then, they've roamed the earth and led thousands of lives throughout its history. The Fates may not remember who they are, for now... but their legacy is not to be forgotten. And their story is just begging to be told."
The theme for this summer is success in writing. How do you feel you have gained your success?
I guess 'success' can be defined in many ways, but for me in particular with regard to my writing endeavors over the past few months, I have most definitely found my biggest and most meaningful 'success' in the Wattpad community. I started posting The Fates to the site in March, and after slow beginnings, I eventually formed a great group of online friends who have been faithfully and sincerely supporting each other's stories. This aided in building a bit of a readership, which grew at a much faster rate once The Fates became a 'featured story' on Wattpad: a select group of books that have met Wattpad's content team's quality standards, meriting promotion by the site itself on a special 'featured list' and other avenues on the platform. More so than the sheer numbers of readers who have been flocking to the story recently, the level of engagement from readers is what has meant the most to me. While some are 'silent readers' and I may never even know that they're out there enjoying the story, others are active in voting for chapters to show enjoyment and support, and also leaving comments to share their thoughts and feelings about it. One of the most rewarding things for me is seeing some of my readers engage with the characters in The Fates as if they are real people. Since each character is like my own little baby, it is just amazing to see those beloved fictional creations treated like real human beings, with hearts and souls and lives of their own. Having readers like that on this journey with me is something that I count as a big blessing and success in my writing experience recently :)
Are there any future goals for your book that you have yet to reach?
There are most definitely future goals that I hope to reach with The Fates. Firstly, I hope to get it published - ideally by a publishing house rather than self-publishing, since I don't think I would be very good at marketing my own book. And if and when the series hits it big in book form, my long-term hope and vision is that it could be turned into a TV show as well :)
(My personal opinion, The Fates would make an excellent T.V. show!)
Do you think you’ve found your audience? Or are your still on the hunt?
Given the scope of the goals that I've set for myself with The Fates, I would ultimately like my audience to be a worldwide community of millions of faithful and engaged fans... However, whether or not that ever ends up happening, I am so happy and grateful to have found a faithful and engaged audience of dear readers right there on Wattpad. They are certainly exactly the right quality that I was looking for, if not the quantity that I envision with my large-scale dreams ;)
What do you feel makes your story unique?
I feel that what most sets my story apart as unique is the structural approach that I am taking toward it: I am building the entire story arc around the TV-series model, in terms of the scope and span of the whole series, as well as the episodic intervals in which the plot unfolds from scene to scene. It's really meant to be enjoyed as a TV series in book form - which is especially appropriate for Wattpad, with its platform that facilitates updating in serialized installments. Hopefully, this will also be enjoyable as a printed book - I have had many readers volunteer that they would gladly buy it - and easily adaptable to the screen, if and when that television dream ever gets realized :) Aside from the structure, I do feel that the premise is unique as well. While there are many existing stories that explore figures from Greek myths, my approach with The Fates is to home in on three goddesses in particular and to explore their experiences along three threads: as 'normal' human girls in the modern day, as the directors of destiny in a mythical cave, and as deities in mortal form traveling across 4000 years of world history. While this is certainly not the first series to jump around in time and space, I do hope and trust that my own original approach to this epic-scale journey, as just described, is a unique and exciting one :)
Her Writing Process:
On the topic of writer’s block – how do you handle it?
I rarely ever get writer's block, in the sense that whenever I'm doing anything in my life other than writing, I would almost always rather be writing. So any spare second that I can grab to spend on writing this story is embraced wholeheartedly, and there's rarely a moment that I don't want to write or just can't bring myself to do it. I do, however, sometimes get writer's block in the sense of staring at a blank screen and having no clue where to start - with the next chapter, with the next page, with the next sentence or even the next word. These sorts of roadblocks are always frustrating, but my best method of handling them is just to sit back, take a deep breath, and push through. With sufficient persistence and patience, for a true writer, the words will always come eventually :)
Do you keep a writing schedule? How organized is your writing? Are you a pantser or a planner (do you wing it and let the story go where it will or do you plan out your story well in advance?)
My writing is pretty rigorously organized. I almost always engage in very intensive pre-writing, which involves first scribbling general-level themes, ideas, and plot points in a notebook; developing a more structured 'skeleton' of the trajectory of the entire series; and then fleshing out the skeleton with necessary elements including rich character profiles, and increasingly detailed outlines of particular episodes, and even scenes. I do all of this before I start writing the first page of a given book. At the same time, while I carefully pre-plan, say, the next five episodes before I start writing Episode 1, I also leave a lot of room for the story to evolve in episodes beyond that. Certain plot points in the middle, and of course the very end, are somewhat firmly fixed - but aside from those, there's always room for the story and characters to take themselves in organic and unexpected directions. This also means that reactions from readers can help to shape undetermined aspects of upcoming episodes, which is probably fun and rewarding for readers and writer alike :)
How do you feel your writing method has influenced your work?
I think that my writing method has influenced my work in pervasive ways. Especially with a series like The Fates, the story would completely flop if I hadn't put in a fair amount of thought on the front end - it would fall apart without the underlying structure to tie together all the threads that have to interweave in meaningful ways over such wide expanses of space and time. I could maybe wing it for a little while, but eventually I would probably get stuck in an unanticipated rut and have to go back and revise, or else give up entirely. Or at least this is how I imagine it would be :) I'm also pretty sure that my intensive pre-writing helps to make the story feel more polished and thoughtfully crafted, rather than a random mix of incoherently assorted elements, so I hope that that enhances the reading experience.
How long did it take you to write your book?
I'm still very much in the middle of writing The Fates. I first developed the idea in the summer of 2013, and began pre-writing that fall, and then writing that winter. I've currently written the first 4 episodes - there will be 5 episodes per book, so one more to go in Book I. However, I've also been balancing a million other things in life at the same time, and there have been stretches of weeks upon weeks when I just can't get any writing done. So it's pretty tough to answer just how long it's taking me to write this. Especially since it's not finished ;)
Do you have any advice for fellow authors / people who are interested in taking this strange twisted road of writing a novel?
My biggest piece of advice is simply this: the more thought and passion you pour into your writing, the more your story becomes like a piece of your soul, and the more terrifying it will probably be to share that with the world. But I've always felt that that is where the true reward of writing and storytelling lies. In sharing yourself with the world and realizing that someone out there, maybe someone you would've never known of otherwise - and maybe more than just one someone - might turn out to love that little piece of you to pieces :)
I love that last answer! Thank you for taking the time to do this interview with me!
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If you're interested in Nicole and The Fates, here are some places to find her:
Wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/user/_Ahna_
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nicole.fearahn
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/NicoleFearahn/the-fates-inspiration-illustrations/
I highly suggest checking out her pinterest board for The Fates!
Once again, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed my Summer of Success Series. Hopefully, I'll be able to do it again (and BIGGER) in the summer of 2015!
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