Welcome to the AdultFic interview book. Inside you'll find interview sessions with inspiring authors posted each month, as well as helpful hints for readers and writers alike.
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Hello everyone and welcome to our May interview with our Book of the Month author, Arden Brooks. Arden Brooks is a Watty's 2017 winner, with her story The Purpose of Miss Shepley. We decided to take a glimpse behind the book, and the author. You can read The Purpose of Miss Shepley here.
What inspired you to write The Purpose of Miss Shepley?
Ooh, that is not an easy question. I've drawn on a tremendous number of sources for inspiration -- one plot point is inspired by a National Geographic magazine I read in third grade, for example. However, if I may answer a slightly different question: what motivated me to write this book... It was simply that I needed something to do.
The first kernel of Edith's story was planted in 2001 or so, as I was finishing up my degree -- and this was a very different story with very different characters. It was never finished, and that was fine, because it was only for fun and I wasn't a writer.
I officially gave up on it at some point, but the kernel stuck around in the back of my head, forgotten for years at a time, but slowly evolving toward the thing it's become, until after my second child was born. At that point, I found myself home alone with two small boys, hobbled by a chronic illness and absolutely going out of my mind with boredom. So I thought, Well, why not try to write that book? And here we are!
Could you tell us more about the novel? What did you enjoy the most about it, and who was your favourite character to write about?
Hehe well, probably the most important thing to know is that it is only the first part of a much larger book, The Unfinished Wyrm. Also, it's a first draft, and it will be re-worked. So constructive criticism is very welcome!
With that in mind... For better or for worse, I took a lot of time playing with the language in The Purpose of Miss Shepley, and I really enjoyed that, especially the foreshadowing. It's a silly game, really, but the first few chapters in particular reveal a lot about how The Unfinished Wyrm will unfold.
I don't know if I have one very favorite character to write, but Earnest Grimmond is definitely up there. He's made from some of my favorite things about some of my favorite people, so he just makes me happy. I also have a lot of love for Bramwell Fowler, who is made from some of the very same people. :D
When did you start writing, and how has your writing developed over the years? Do you have any fun writing tips for others?
A few years back, my mother sent me a bunch of old photos and keepsakes, among which was a book I had evidently written when I was 7 1/2 years old. My ideas are somewhat more sophisticated now, some thirty-mumble years later, but I would have to say my tastes, strengths, and weaknesses are astonishingly unchanged.
What genres do you enjoy reading and writing the most, and why?
You know, as a reader, I'm pretty omnivorous. I'm excited by new ideas and new ways of looking at things. Roughly half my bookshelf is non-fiction, mostly Linguistics, Psychology, and Anthropology. The fiction side is mostly British Literature, Fantasy, collections of mythology and fairy tales, and some Science Fiction. I guess I do tend to get more excited about stories that transport me away, whether by time or magic or science -- I am already very familiar with the modern world and everyday problems. But when I go to the library, I just pick up whatever catches my eye. Some of my heartiest recommendations are books rooted in the modern world and every day problems.
Have you ever faced writer's block, and if so, how did you overcome it?
I have. I definitely have.
Usually when I hit a block, it's because I don't truly know what I'm doing. Either I've been pursuing some old notion that doesn't fit anymore, or I'm working with an idea I don't fully understand yet, something that feels right, but is more of an intuition than a map.
So, I stop. I establish an amount of time -- a weekend, a week... I power off my laptop, and I do not allow myself to write. I read, watch movies, go on a hike or a daytrip, catch up on my knitting, pull weeds, re-organize a closet... And I usually have an epiphany pretty much immediately. I allow myself to jot it down, but I stick to my work abstention for the duration of the established period, and by the time I'm allowed to turn on my laptop again, I'm eager to write.
How has writing The Purpose of Miss Shepley impacted you?
It's been very validating. Although the book definitely still needs work, it's rewarding to know (A) that I can put words on paper, and (B) that people will read them -- that they'll like them, even, and have the emotional responses I'd hoped to evoke. And then the book won a Watty, and I felt like I was maybe even halfway good at this writing thing. So, you know... That's pretty cool.
As a writer, do you have any tips for other writers on Wattpad?
Oh, gosh... I don't know if I'm qualified to offer any tips here. I think the most I'm comfortable with is offering a testimonial for some old tips floating around.
The first is read widely. Read novels, read poetry, read classics, read history, read science, read old debunked science, read things you disagree with, things that offend you... Reading is never a waste of time, in my opinion.
And the second is learn your tools. The building blocks of a sentence can be manipulated in ever so many ways, but I often see otherwise accomplished storytellers lose their core sentences in clauses, or ruin a punchline with Active Voice, or clutter the path with prepositional phrases that could have been placed elsewhere, or... You don't have to be able to identify a relative clause or the subjunctive, but really get to know those blocks and how they stick together.
There you have it everyone, an interview with Watty's winner and author of The Purpose of Miss Shepley, ArdenBrooks. We hope that her pearls of wisdom can help you in your own works and general writing.
