365 Interviews

Interview 127: Captius

1. Can you tell me about yourself?

I'm 27 and I live in Canada. I love hockey and soccer(football) and my passion is writing. I spent most of my young life in hospitals for various medical problems and when I was seventeen there was a period of six months where I didn't know if I would ever walk again. Thankfully I did.

2. What inspired you to write?

When I was younger I found that writing was a good outlet for my emotions and a good way to be creative. As I got older I took a writing class in high school and there was a project where everyone would submit one piece of writing for peer review for the class. Until this point I hadn't shown anyone what I had created before. It was the feedback from my classmates and their eagerness to read more of what I had done that really kicked my butt into gear.

3. If you could have one of your characters come to life who would it be and why? What would you do with them?

Hmm, that's tough. From what I have on Wattpad, I'd probably have to say Jason from Legend of the Eleventh Slayer. I just feel that he and I are a lot alike and would get along well. We'd probably just play video games all day.

4. Where do the your ideas come from?

That's hard to say really. I think influence comes from a lot of places. Something I read, or saw in a movie or show can inspire me pretty easily. Mostly tough, it comes from me having trouble sleeping. I often toss and turn at night and since I was young I used to create little stories in my head to help me get to sleep. I do a lot of my creative thinking while I try to sleep.

5. Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?

Both. I'll come up with a general outline and plot it out while also creating character bio's. But after that I just start to write and see where it takes me. I usually know the beginning and the end, but I like to have an adventure while getting from point A to point B.

6. How do you think you've evolved creatively?

I'm honestly not sure. I think I pay more attention to character progression now than I did before. I really like making characters that seem life like and I like to see how they interact with others around them. So I spend a lot of time figuring them out.

7.What is the hardest thing about writing?

For me it would be flow. Keeping things moving while trying to give a good amount of information about the characters, setting, and plot without it getting bogged down and too wordy. I often find myself getting stuck a lot by this.

8. Would you call yourself a wattpad celebrity? Why so or why not?

No, I wouldn't. I seem to have a pretty good fan base here and that is awesome, but I wouldn't go as far as to say I'm a Wattpad celebrity. I'm just here to write for fun, and people seem to like it. That's really all there is too it.

9. Are you working on any new story you can tell me about?

I've had a story beginning to form in my mind for a few weeks now, but I'm not sure what I am going to do with it. It deals with ancient and powerful groups of people, magic, elemental manipulation, love and tragedy. I'm still working on the story in my head and haven't put anything down yet though.

10. What is your favorite quote?

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” -Ernest Hemingway.

11. What is your favourite film and why?

I'd honestly like to say it's a deep and meaningful film, but I would be lying. My favourite film is Spaceballs, by Mel Brooks. I first saw it during a hard time in my life and it made me laugh, something that I thought was impossible during that time. Because of that it will always hold a spot in my heart. You always need to laugh.

12. Where can you see yourself in 5 years time?

I have no idea. I never have an idea when I'm asked this question. All I know is where I want to see myself in five years. That would be a published author, maybe living out of town in a small cottage or a farm house with a few dogs.

13. Imagine your main character dies on page one. Everything else remains the same. Describe the new plot to your book.

That's hard. I guess maybe the new plot would be about consequences and dealing with the aftermath of certain things. If my main character died on page one, I think my story would still be the same, just without the main character. Instead it would focus on how his death impacted everyone else involved in the story.

14. What advice would you give to your younger self?

I would tell myself to learn to let things go. Don't get caught up on things that really don't matter, and instead focus on what is really important.

15. Which famous person, living or dead would you like to meet and why?

Albert Einstein. I love science and math (even though I am horrible at math) and I think it would be interesting to hear him talk. Also, he seemed like a pretty interesting and odd man, so that would be fun as well.

16. If you could have been the original author of any book, what would it have been and why?

Hellgate London, by Mel Odom. I really enjoyed those books for their characters. I think I would want to be the original author for them simply because there are a few things I would have changed. But that's simply a selfish reason of a reader I suppose.

17. What was the easiest part of writing?

I don't think there really is an easy part to writing. If there was then I don't think it would be any fun. From plot and characters to the climax and ending it's all fairly difficult and that's what I love about it. Creating a world inside your own mind and then translating that into written word is an amazing skill that should never be taken lightly.

18.Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?

I've learned that, much like in life, the path you chose doesn't always lead to where you thought it was. Sometimes you have to adapt and change things to get the desired outcome. Always be true to what you are doing.

19.Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

I'd really just like to thank the readers for being so wonderful. I enjoy writing more when the people reading it are truly invested and interested in my characters and plot. Going through comments and seeing people begging for characters to live or discussing what they think is going to happen is great. So thank you!

20. Do you have any advice for other writers?

Don't burn yourself out on writing your stories. It's good to let your passion for the story and the characters spur you on and keep writing for long periods of time, but if you don't watch out you may find that you lose interest in it; simply because you wrote too much for too long. Take your time. Invest in your characters and work on them. Make the story not only interesting for others to read, but something that you yourself will want to read over and over again.