Future Words of Yesterday: Issue #4 (#wattys2016)

Poet of the Month: @minorvice

1. What are you currently working on? Anything exciting planned for your stories and poetry this year?

Twenty-four Hour Week has been an extended project I've been working on, but writer's block is here and it's ready to make my life suck. Goddess is also a work-in-progress. I'm just bad at making myself write. I waste all my creative energy on making relatable tweets.

Most of my attention is being devoted to Venus Effect which is unpublished and probably going to be the first novel I ever attempt to finish. It's like The Goldfinch meets Catcher in the Rye meets an art museum dossier. I mean, if I could write, it'd be a beautiful flower, but right now it is a puny sapling.

2. Which of your characters was the most fun to create? And why?

Tuck and Reid are such memes. I love their dynamic and they're just puppies. They're angry, volatile, and impulsive puppies, but puppies all the same. That's probably why they're some of the easiest characters to string dialogue between. It's just anatomy jokes and Greek history and lots and lots of fighting.

3. What prompted you to begin writing poetry?

Not sure. It really just happened. I'd say Goddess is the only time I've ever written poetry because everything before that didn't even come close. I was just very emotional and feeling very chaotic neutral at the time and writing when you're feeling anything other than happy is always much easier.

4. Who's your favorite artist to listen to when writing? Or do you find music distracting from the creative process?

I don't really have a preference when it comes to writing. Tame Impala is usually my go-to when it comes to any form of art.

5. What is your favorite show at the moment?

American Crime is one of the most raw depictions of human interaction I have ever seen. It deals with race and sexuality and other social issues seamlessly and everything is morally ambiguous and ah, it's just so good. Watch it right now, I swear it's one of my favorite things in the world. Also: House of Cards. Frank Underwood owns my ass.

6. Have you ever taken events from your life and incorporated them into your writing?

Oh, yeah. As a writer, having a muse always aides in the creative process. It's so much easier to write what you know. I've stopped relying on people emotionally so I'm my own muse now.*

*I am a Leo, naturally vain and proud.

7. What is your stance on the role of humour in poetry?

I think it's cool as hell. I don't really read comedic poems, but dark humor in anything? Sign up me. Black humor is great.

8. How did you start writing on Wattpad?

[This backstory has been omitted due to embarrassing content.]

No, but really. The short version is I started writing around December 2011 - early 2012. I had an account for a while, but never touched it. Then Wattpad sent me a newsletter and one of the books had a picture of Chace Crawford on the cover. I was eleven and easily lured. Looking back, I really liked that book. It was messy and gay just like me.

9. Do you see yourself pursuing a career in writing? Or is your heart set on something else?

Not sure. I've been pretty hard set on a Law/Poli-sci major/minor combination for the past year, but if I ever finish a book, then I would want it published. As a twelve-year-old I always thought, hell yeah, I'm gonna major in English and WRITE for a living. That's not always a reality. Am I going to write for the rest of my life? Yeah, I am. Once you start, you can't just...stop. Writing is one of my favorite things in the world.

10. If you were offered to have one of your poetry published, which would you choose? And why?

Out of the two poems I have up, I'd publish Hera. Hestia was my first and it's my baby and it's probably one of the rawest things I've ever written but it's not my story to tell.

11. Lastly, do you have any tips for newcoming Wattpad poets?

Don't write for votes, followers, reads, etc. Write because it completes you. The only reason I ever posted my poetry is because I was in a very bad place at the time. If you write because you need someone's praise, it will never be something you're satisfied with.

- Thanks for the interview, Diana! (Minorvice)