Let's Talk: An Interview Collection

+ SneezingTurtle

A/N: As promised, I was able to squeeze in an interview this weekend and was lucky enough to get SneezingTurtle's consent. (: So a big thank you to her for letting me continue this interview collection, because I'm having a blast talking with all these writers. Now, this interview may seem a little shorter, than the others because of the different way that I used to interview her, but I hope you all enjoy nonetheless.

And as always, her profile link is in the dedication and a link to her works is off to the right.

Enjoy~

SneezingTurtle Interview

 Rin: First order of business, does your turtle have a cold?

SneezingTurtle: I do not own a turtle, but if I were to, it would probably have a cold because I am far from responsible…

Rin: It seems a bit elementary, but when did you start writing? How did you start writing? Especially with some of the smut that occurs in your stories. Was it a graduation to that level or did you just pick up pen one day and decided that you wanted to write about males going at it like bunnies in heat?

SneezingTurtle: Well, I've been writing poems in my language ever since kindergarten, then got on English when I was... 13 maybe?

Regarding books... I am so ashamed by this but here goes. I've been on Wattpad for some time now and at the beginning I was scared to even read boyxboy (paranoia), let alone write. My first story is written on a notebook and it is dumb. That one pattern with the emo person with band t-shirts and popular crush and—I'm pretty sure the crush was Andy Biersack :)))) There have to be dozens of those just on Wattpad.

But the first boyxboy book went just… smooth. Thanks to RoughDraftHero, to which I owe my entire Wattpad 'fame'! She just inspired me so much with her book Leviathan… One day, I was reading a chapter of that and just went 'I want control over these characters, I'll write one with a similar concept just to feel good!' And after that I eventually managed to find my own style. :)

Descriptive scenes only occurred later on, in my second or third book, and once I wrote my first I just... I'm a pervert now. :( It's incurable.

Rin: And writing in general. You mention on your profile that it’s a very private matter to you, and very few people around you know that you write. What is that like?

SneezingTurtle:I've opened up a little recently. But only three of my friends know exactly what they're about. If my parents ask, I'll tell them I'm writing about 'people whose mentalities I'm trying to highlight by putting them in different friendships that bring out their true selves'. I mean the only word I'm skipping is 'homoerotic relationships' so it's not that bad hah? :D

Rin: As mentioned in the previous question, your writing life outside of Wattpad is a very private matter, but on Wattpad, you’ve become a rather popular boyxboy writer with over 700,000 reads in total, 27,000 votes, and nearly 2,500 followers. What is it like to know that you have so much support in something that is, what I assume to be, very precious to you?

SneezingTurtle: Honestly, it is great! That first book was just to get the feeling of changing a story's course the way I wish, I didn't even think I'd make it far. So when I observed more and more people gathering I was just so pumped! Now I don't only write for myself, I write for many, many people and that considerably increased the quality of my stories.

Rin: As fan of your works, I have to ask; where do your inspirations for some of the things you write come from? If I remember correctly, VVell, joke’s on you was inspired from you watching a movie about people dying or something like that. How do you get off on such a tangent to create such a popular one-shot that your readers demanded a second part?

SneezingTurtle: Oh, man, it's all thanks to my mother. When I was very little, she would read me stories and leave out the last part so that I would imagine the ending myself before I fall asleep. I am certain that what she did made me who I am today, with all of my ideas and the capability to create something out of virtually nothing. It's really just the fact my brain is trained to do this. So whoever reads this and feels like having a baby one day, have that in mind!

Rin: I’ve also noticed that some of your writing has a very cool tone to it, almost like the narrator is impersonal to the characters, yet it continues to draw people in. Why do you think this is such a draw for your readers? And how do you achieve this voice?

SneezingTurtle: Well, it's kind of like the concept of a movie. The camera doesn't shake when the main character dies. And the reason people are drawn to this narration style is because it's the professional way, I suppose. Or my pretty profile pics of my pretty face, who knows.

Rin: Now to talk more about your various books, I have to say that Variegated was one of my favourites. One thing that really stood out to me though was that you broke up the sex scenes of the characters so that they rolled into each other. Why do this? Wouldn’t you think that it would break the emersion with switching between the two love stories so much within one chapter?

SneezingTurtle: It was just a funny concept, the contrast between the two kinds of intercourse. And no I didn't think it was a bad idea, I mean the story was about the three friends to begin with. Since they went at it at the same time, I sort of wanted to tie them closer together at that big moment in their lives. :)

Rin: Another one of my personal favourites and the most read work on your profile is Victim. The entire story was set in a psychology summer school. Did you have to research much for the psychological terms you used in this or was it something you just knew from prior studies? Actually, on that topic, do you research much for your books?

SneezingTurtle: I've already known about sociopathy, prosopagnosia and various other terms I used there, psychology just always attracted me. I have spent a lot of time trying to get in patient records of abandoned mental hospitals online, rarely successfully but man did I find some good stuff.

But other than that I do a lot of research for my books. I know Wattpad people don't have standards that high, but I still give my best to impress. I suppose that's what got me where I am today.

Rin: Once Victim was finished, you set the characters aside to live their own happy lives before bringing them back in Victim II, otherwise known as VVhy not? What drove you to do this, and why bring in Voerman, who was a rather obscure character from V, your one-shot/short story collection?

SneezingTurtle: Everyone was asking for a second part, and I didn't even consider it for a second. Meanwhile, I was thinking about Voerman and how cool of a character he was. I really loved him. And then I just got the idea of making a second part with Voerman in it, and I got that that I have this reaction of my body that tells me an idea is good and should definitely happen. I can't explain it for the life of me, but it's as if my brain smiles. So I went at it!

Rin: One last question; why V’s? What is the attraction to names with the letter V? And don’t you dare say vvhy not. >.<”

SneezingTurtle: I've been asked that a lot and I believe I give a different answer for each time because I don't even know for sure. It was just another one of those ideas I previously mentioned. My brain went ':)' at one point and so there went the Vs!