WritersInk Literature Interviews - Juniorel

Every month, literature group runs a feature called Writer of the Month, which is dedicated to celebrating and rewarding the deviants who contribute most to our community. In this news article, we'll be talking to October's featured Writer:

Read on to discover how she managed to complete her novel, Titan Magic, how music helps get into her character's mindset, and who inspires her to write.

When we featured juniorel at the start of the month, we had this to say:

It's a pleasure to feature Juniorel because she's such a hard-working deviant. We know that she leaves way more feedback than she receives, and takes care to respond to feedback by looking up other people's work.

In other words, she's a model deviant, and we're proud to have her in our group.

As a writer, juniorel's style is defined by eloquent, easy-to-read prose. Just like the Harry Potter novels, the words just fall effortlessly into your mind. She has a clean, elegant style with just a hint of quiet wit and a touch of warm, fairy-tale charm.

We contacted juniorel by note to ask a few questions.



Writing a novel (or even novella) length story is a very difficult thing to do. How have you managed to complete your novel, Titan Magic? Do you employ some sort of witchcraft, or does it come naturally to you?

It's all B.I.C. (butt in chair), as they say, but I've found it also helps to think of one scene at a time. That way you don't get overwhelmed with the inevitable length of the thing. I do have the overall story in mind, of course, but when I'm actually writing, I try to just keep my head in the scene.


Have you had a formal education in writing or scripting? If so, how has this helped you with Titan Magic? If not, how did you learn to write, and do you wish you'd taken a course?

I've been writing my whole life, but I also went to school for writing, and it helped a great deal. I got lucky because my last professor was incredibly encouraging and practical. In fact, I was in the process of writing Titan Magic while studying under her, and she gave quite a bit of feedback on it.


To what extent does your personal life experience influence your writing?

A lot. I don't mean for it to happen, but you just can't keep yourself out of your stories. For example, I was adopted and never knew my biological family, so you find themes of adoption in Titan Magic. Also, Marcus collects folktales because I was studying folklore at the time. And Maddy's favorite fairy tale is also my own.


Do you have a strategy for dealing with Writers Block? If so, care to share?

If I hit a difficult scene, there are a few things I can do. Just walking away and getting a little exercise does wonders for clearing the cobwebs. But probably my best tool is music. Sometimes an entire album will be dedicated to a character, and I'll use it to get into their heads when I need a little help.

Can you give any examples?

Maddy never really had an entire album, but she did have several individual songs, probably the most well known of which was Massive Attack's "Teardrop" www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7K72X… . I used this song for her because it was something I wanted so badly to tell her. I also used a song to get into Jas' head on several occasions. That was "Falling Slowly" from the film Once: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkFB8f…. I used this song for him because his desperate hope was nothing I could relate to at the time, personally.

The character that most benefited from an entire album has not yet appeared on D.A., but he drives the sequel entirely. I used BT's album This Binary Universe in order to get into his head, which was not an easy thing to do because he is the least human of all my characters.

Which authors have inspired you, and how have they influenced your writing?

I would say the greatest influence on my writing was Diana Wynne Jones. I love her complexity and fairy-tale style. I love how all the little details that seemed unimportant at the time come back at the end of her stories and play a vital role. She was brilliant, and I believe her recent death was a great loss to literature. Laurence Yep wrote the book that made me want to start writing in the first place, which was when I was about seven or eight, I think. And J.M. Barrie is the writer whose prose makes me cry because I know I'll never be that good. Still going to try for it, though.

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Thanks to juniorel for taking the time to answer our questions. And thanks to you for reading through! Our community relies on active participation by our members. Every word you read makes the group a little stronger, and every word you type makes our members a little happier.