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meet our winner - @SeraDrake

let's meet our winner SeraDrake <3

1. Which of your entry won in this contest?

Ancilla

2. How does it feel to be recognized for your work?

I am always pleasantly astonished when Ancilla wins anything, especially when it's first prize.

3. Can you share a bit about the inspiration behind your winning entry?

It started as a weird hybrid of spite and love: spite against E L James, who can't write her way out of a wet paper bag and doesn't know the slightest thing about how BDSM really works, love for a woman I was involved with at the time I decided to start writing. The project became something a lot larger soon after I started working on it. Weird things happened. Ideas for things that would later become plot elements fell into my path when I went for my daily walks; dreams visited me; a man I'd been seeing on and off since the early nineties until he seemingly fell off the face of the earth reappeared in my life again, almost as if I'd summoned him. (As a token of my gratitude, I threw a few "Easter eggs" into various chapters for him to find - things we'd said in conversation, books and poems we'd read together. Things that only he would recognize as having been personal to us). I now believe that I was inspired to write this. It was important that I write it, and so a story that was larger than I was invaded my mind and would not let me go until I had it all typed up and all elements that needed to be in it included.

4. How do you plan to celebrate your victory?

Chocolate.

5. Are there any specific challenges you faced while writing your winning entry?

Lack of time, lack of energy, lack of peace and quiet. Psychological challenges, too - some of the material I included in my chapters triggered bad memories of events that I didn't want to relive. Of course, those would have been in the chapters that required the most revision and rework...

6. How do you think winning this contest will impact your writing journey moving forward?

I think it's important to have these little independent contests to keep Wattpadians active and engaged, and to make sure the platform is at least somewhat ours. Most of us don't have a prayer of getting close to a Watty or an Amby, not because we're bad writers, but because we don't have a large base of fans, we don't write "verticals," we don't write mainstream stuff that Wattpad can monetize for all it's worth. Most Wattpad writers are not as weird as I am, but that doesn't mean the average Wattpad writer is likely to be a ?Big Thing on Wattpad. Most of us will be lucky to get a thousand or so views for each book we write, and a good half of those views are our own, from when we respond to in-line comments, or when we review our work to edit it. That can be very discouraging. Small, independent contests that are not held by Wattpad, Inc give us a way to gain new readers and get some exposure; some of us will also win prizes, which is reassuring if we're doubting our ability to write well.

7. What advice would you give to fellow writers who aspire to win contests like the Cloud Awards?

Keep writing, no matter what. If someone tells you to stop writing, or that your work is terrible, write more. The only way to get good at what you do is to practice. We don't see the stuff published authors throw away because it doesn't work, nor do we see rough drafts. We see finished, polished products. Most of those products have also had the benefit of professional editing. Trust me when I say the Stephen Kings and Jodi Picoults and Jim Butchers of this world are just struggling writers like us. We may not see their struggles, but the struggles are there.

8. Are there any specific people or influences you'd like to thank for supporting you along the way?

My husband, who surely has almost inhuman patience, given who he has to be married to. My four children, for enduring my imperfect parenting. All the creative writing teachers I've had. My beta readers, especially Kirsten, who did her best to stand in for the editor I could not afford to hire. My long-distance Beloved. God.

9. What excites you most about being a judge for the Cloud Awards?

I honestly have no idea.

10. What are your future writing goals or projects now that you've won this award?

Let's see, what should I procrastinate first, writing Soror Mystica (the sequel to Ancilla), or judging all the contest entries I have queued up? Or maybe the housework? There's a mountain of laundry that needs doing. Maybe if I ignore it, it will wash itself.

-x-x-x-

cheers,
thetranquilityteam!