OPEN DOOR AWARDS 2024 [ANNOUNCING 🎉]

🧾 Sun | Those Who Speak in Dreams

You only have 15 seconds left to live. Oh no! Give us your best pitch for your story during that time!

angst, enemies-to-lovers, snatching of memories and tension. everywhere. all kinds. that's literally all we do here. and did i mention more descriptive paragraphs than i know what to do with?

What was the best comment you ever received on your story? Give their username if you can!

oooof, i think it would have to be a comment under the first chapter by Kaineeh that compared my writing to Marlon James, ig? i remember just staring at the screen in shock for a moment before i finally stopped screaming enough to answer, tbh 🤣

What kind of writer do you strive to be? Someone whose works bring lots of joy and laughter? Someone who can write the most beautiful prose?

i think i strive to be someone whose words will resonate with people—the best feeling is when a reader finds it necessary to take the time out of their day just to tell how your work has changed their life. if even one person contacts me and says that my work is the reason why they are the way they are today (in a good way) that'll be the greatest honor to have.

What are some fantastical dreams you have for your work? A movie adaption? With which actors? Fanfictions? Wiki-page?

something that i would love to see would be a multi-episode adaptation of Those Who Speak In Dreams because i do not think we can fit all of the goodies into an hour and forty-five minutes of screen time, sksksksk. having a Kingdom of Heaven moment and fitting Saa Magni by Oumou Sangaré (an absolutely gorgeous song, btw) into the soundtrack would be such an emotional thing for me since i listened to that song the most while writing the current chapters that are available. 

i actually don't have a fancast at the moment—maybe because most of my faceclaims are models are not actors—but i'll know the perfect people when i see them. casting POC actors, especially West and North African ones, is a must for me and if it can't be guaranteed i will sit down and literally wait until it is, ngl. 

fan art? currently it is the reason that i live and if you decide to draw one of my characters i will fall down sobbing while simultaneously showing your work to the world, tyvm. 

ultimately i'd love to get this book published and do book tours and boxes and merch giveaways with my favorite authors. i'd also love to win the Pulitzer Prize with one of my other literary works, (a girl can dream, can't she?) but if that doesn't happen then partnering with Hafsah Faizal for a panel discussion would just be *screams* so. good. please. i need it.

What was the silliest thing you've ever done in order to help with your writing?

i've actually turned on a k-pop/hip-hop/rnb playlist of mine on Spotify and just blasted it full volume for hours on end while working on several offline chapters for Those Who Speak In Dreams. (i am not ashamed to say that you would probably have found me screaming "diD yOu seE mY bAg" at the top of my lungs while charting out a very meme-filled outline for this book, because we are nothing but fully honest in this house, but if y'all wanna come join me that's more than fine with me

Name some people on Wattpad that you feel have helped you on your writing journey. Or, who are some Wattpad authors you personally look up to?

Asha (kaloned), Simone (simonesaidwhat) and Ellie (TahliePurvis) have been the three big inspirations on Wattpad for me. Asha and Simone both got me into writing (with Dead Girls Tell No Tales and Arabian Nights, respectively), and Ellie got me out of one of my worst ruts where i didn't know if i would ever write again. ty so, so much, girls. you mean more than the world to me, i hope you know that <333

If you have any final remarks, leave them here!

to my readers, thank you for believing in me when no one else but God would. thank you for sticking with me through the past four (five?) years on Wattpad. thank you for promising to be there for the next four (or five, or whenever i get published because then this list is gonna be a whole lot longer, sksksksk). i couldn't have done it without any of you. ily <333