Chats With Charlie!

#2 - Charlie Chats with... BrookeNotAshley!

Hello and welcome back to Chats with Charlie! In case you missed the first interview, I'm @charlieq2014 and this is where I get to chat with all your favourite Wattpad authors about their books! My guest this time is one of the friendliest accounts I've met on here and she is no stranger to Wattpad and in fact, she gave me part of the inspiration for this book when she interviewed me! Without further ado, allow me to introduce @BrookeNotAshley!

So welcome to the interview and thanks for agreeing to do this! For readers who may not be familiar with your work, tell us a bit about you!

I'm a mid-20s writer who loves to write in the Action/Adventure and Fantasy genres. I'm also an experimenter who loves branching out to different genres and coming up with tons of ideas. I'm an open book for anyone with a passion for helping people, as much as I have a passion for writing!

Okay great! Um sorry one quick question before I move on, can you talk me through your username - what's the story behind that?

It's pretty simple actually. My first name is Ashley and my middle name is Brooke. But I've never liked my first name because it's "cute" and it was always what my teachers called me when we did roll. I used to tell my teachers: "It's Brooke, not Ashley"...hence my username. Not very creative lol

Nah it's good! It's different! Mine's just my name and the year I joined Wattpad! I've thought about changing it but it's the hassle of changing my covers and everything that puts me off.

Anyway! So you mentioned that one of your passions is helping people and that shines through clearly on your profile as you have a number of books dedicated to helping other writers to come up with titles, obscure words etc. but, correct me if I'm wrong, you've only ever published one story on your profile - the multi-award-winning 'PHENIX'? Can you tell us a bit more about it and how you came to win these awards?

'PHENIX' is about an assassin, Roy, who works for the organization known as PHENIX. Seeking retirement, Roy is given a final assignment. With a boy he saved years prior, Roy discovers that his assignment is more complicated and dangerous than he was led to believe.

I wrote this story for NaNoWriMo last year. I was inspired by the American Assassin movie, Bourne series, and other action movies to write 'PHENIX'. As far as the awards go, I honestly have no idea how it's won the awards that it has.

I've been told that 'PHENIX' has a solid plot, well-rounded characters, and well-paced scenes. Regardless, 'PHENIX' is definitely a story I'm proud of!

Which of your other works are you most proud of?

'Author Interviews' for sure! Just the sheer amount of positive responses and engagement it's brought blows my mind! And 'Book Name Ideas', just because it's fun to come up with titles!

Yeah, I've had a look through your titles book and there's quite a few that I might pinch for an idea at some point! Have you ever considered turning one of your titles into a story?

Absolutely! A bunch, actually! It's just a matter of having the time and dedicating it to writing a new story.

Most of the time, I dedicate my free time to editing 'PHENIX'. Since I intend on publishing it, I want to get it edited as much as I can.

I suppose that's the one downside to having a long-term project.

So how do you normally write? What kind of environment do you work in? Have you got a more methodical approach or are you more of a spontaneous writer?

I generally start off with a character or plot idea and then brainstorm like crazy. I put everything into a fairly-detailed outline and set up a kind of schedule/goal so that I can actually finish the story. I do the same thing with novels and short stories.

My brainstorming process consists of pacing around my bare apartment, eating snacks, and writing my ideas down in a Composition notebook. Fun stuff lol!

I used to be a spontaneous writer but, I tried outlining for NaNoWriMo last year and I've been in love with it ever since. I can't recommend outlining enough!

As far as writing goes, I actually do the writing at my "clean" desk, set up for that purpose!

Wow, I'm terrible at keeping my desk tidy! It would last a week at most with me before it's cluttered again! Returning to one of your points, you've mentioned NaNoWriMo a couple of times now, what exactly is that?

Oh, I'm the same way! I have to clean my desk off every time before I can sit down to write lol!

And NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, which is basically a month-long challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in a month.

It takes place every November all across the world. You're essentially challenging yourself to write a whole novel in a short amount of time.

I personally did it to challenge myself—to prove to myself that if I could do it (and I did) that I didn't have any excuse to not be able to write, edit, and begin publishing a novel in 6 months to a year.

But honestly, it's also a way to meet new people and encourage each other.

How difficult would you say you found writing in such time constraints? Is it any different to how you normally find it?

It was definitely a little stressful, for me at least, since I was used to writing only one or two days a week at most. Going from that to writing literally almost every day meant I had to stay focused.

But, strangely enough, it was also kind of motivating to know I could actually write that much if I really wanted to. It also helped that I had the story idea for 'PHENIX' brewing in my mind for a while because I was so excited to write it. I think that made the difference. "Write what you would want to read" applied heavily to me for that entire month.

The feeling of finishing that story (even though I continued after NaNoWriMo ended) was something I hadn't felt before. I put all my heart and thought into 'PHENIX', even taking care to write the best I could and worry about editing later. The response I've gotten from it - the version on Wattpad - has been through the roof.

I'd say the experience was a total success!

So what's next for you then? You're of course trying to get your book published at the moment but aside from that, what are your hopes and plans for the future? Any new works in the pipeline?

I've been wanting to polish up my short stories, the ones I've already written a while back. I also have a few books I really want to re-do: 'Bound to Chaos' and 'Perception of Justice' in particular.

I made the brave decision to unpublish all of my unfinished books until I can finish them. I hate having things half-finished.

The main thing I want to do is just to get back to actually writing. I've been so busy with school, picking my brother up from his school (and taking him to stuff), and working almost full-time. I miss being able to do what I'm passionate about!

Have you got a favourite genre to read/write in?

I'm a sucker for fantasy stories, especially ones with magic, dragons, and swords. I also love stories with action, guns, and gore. I'm a big fan of horror as well. I like stories with dark, twisted topics.

Thus, I write in those genres! Of course, I love to experiment with all different genres, but I just don't read all of them...

Right, well I think the interview is more or less finished - is there anything you want to add?

I'm always open to meeting new people and if there are any tips or advice someone needs (writing-related or otherwise), I'd love to help!

Thank you for the opportunity!

Okay, thanks very much for your time! And if you ever want to, I'd be more than happy to interview you again sometime in the future! You can find Brooke's book, 'PHENIX' as part of the accompanying reading list to this book -'Featured Authors' - on my profile as well as a range of works from other authors! 

Join me next time when I'll be interviewing another popular author!