❝My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.❞ - Maya Angelou
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On this profile, we always strive to present you the best written pieces you can possibly find on this platform. And this month, we're focusing the series on the genre winners of The Ambys 2021, presented by the Ambassadors!
In this chapter, we're happy to introduce you selchies, the author of "Witch Hunt"; a story which won the fantasy category in The Ambys 2021.
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Burning a witch at the stake is an old ritual only reserved for those who have betrayed their coven.
Poppy is the last witch from the Le Rouge branch, the founding witches of The Circle. A coven that has always created the strongest witches of their century. Being born into a legacy comes the downfall. For Poppy, it always happens to be someone close to her that seems to get hurt.
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If you had to describe your writing self in three words, what would they be?
I would describe myself as passionate
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For the Ambys, have you revived a story/idea you haven't finished in the past, or have you started a new one to participate?
Witch Hunt was originally the first and second chapter of a 50k story I was working on in 2016 (it was originally a fantasy romance). I am grateful for the Ambys because it gave a new purpose to this story that I hold close to my heart.
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What comes to you first? The plot or the characters?
The plot comes first then the characters. A simple plot comes into my mind and then I continue to build it as I am writing. My characters are written in a similar way where I have a general idea of what I want them to be and as I write they create their own personalities and purpose.
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How would you describe your main character(s) from Witch Hunt?
I would describe Poppy as a strong woman who sees what others don't see within themselves and changes them for the better. She was a mother and continued to have a motherly nature after Koda died. This influences her to toughen up and close off her heart, but she wasn't born to be like that. Poppy was born to give people love and a reason to live. I think women who are mothers as powerful and very driven. I don't think society understands how much these women give up to allow their child(ren) to live in a world with no problems. The sacrifices that they might have to go through are terrible! This wasn't talked about in the one-shot, but Poppy's boyfriend (father of Koda) was a horrible person. Poppy didn't want Koda to live through that so she decided to give him what she thought would be a better life for him.
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If you could meet one character from Witch Hunt who would it be? Would you say you have anything in common with this character?
I would love to meet Azalea! To me, she is like a human form of the sun. So bright and full of life. Azalea is the type of person that you can't dislike and has so much kindness to offer. What Azalea and I have in common has to be our non-stop talkativeness and we both have a childish side.
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Why is it important for you to have a strong female character in your story?
When I was younger (around 9-13), I always looked up to the strong female characters in the books I read. I wanted a role-model outside of my real life. I wanted someone who I could model my behaviors after and I would always think "What would ___ do?". For a long time, I didn't know women could be strong figures in books at that time female characters were only for romance plots. I wanted to create a strong female character that readers could look up to and see media where women can be the strong main characters. Especially for BIPOC since I grew up reading books with no black strong female characters (especially in the fantasy genre) so when I was 16 I said "If no one else will make it, then I will".
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How long do you spend researching before beginning writing a book?
For this story, I only spent two hours max. Usually, I spend hours on hours, but this story was relatively easy since all the knowledge I needed to use was in my head from always being fascinated by witches and being Wiccan. The research was mainly on names (which I did not attend for both characters to be named after flowers) and some witch vocab.
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Who is your favourite Wattpad writer? Did they influence your writing journey?
This is a hard question, I have so many! To name a few seIcouth, CrestFallenStar, and AerithSage. I am obsessed with their books and their creativity. When I was 16 I was so lost with writing more maturely because up on till then I had mainly written immature stories that showed how young I was. I wanted to branch into a more grown-up writing style, despite being only 16 and having no idea what it meant to be an adult. When the Ambys came around, I edited my story and got some outside help to give a more adult/young adult version of Witch Hunt. The three writers I mentioned pushed me to build up my writing skills. I think I would still be writing stories that made me sound 13 if it weren't for them.
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If a movie was made based on your story, who would you cast in the leading roles?
For Poppy either Aja Naomi King, Ryan Destiny, Damaris Lewis, or Anna Diop. I would want without a doubt Ellie Bamber to play Azalea.
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If you could tell your younger writer-self anything, what would it be?
Do not worry about other people's opinions and stay true to yourself. If you don't finish a story it is 100% okay. You're not a failure, you have all the time in the world to keep coming back to it.
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That was all from selchies! We thank you again for working with us on this interview and congratulations on the win!
If you want to read more from selchies, please do go follow them and don't forget to add their winning story to your library!
