This month, I invited a very special author I've had the pleasure of working with, the beautiful and talented NA writer E.L. Wicker, to join us on YAtopia and tell us about her debut book, Fractured Immortal.
Hi Emma! Thanks so much for letting me interview you. Let's get to it!
Are you self
published or traditional?
I self-published.
Is
this your first published book?
First!
What’s
it called?
Fractured Immortal
Which
genre?
Paranormal Romance
Which
age group?
New Adult
Is
it a series or standalone?
Series
Do
you have another job?
Paid job – No. But I do a vast range of
things for other writers from Beta reading (which I suck at because, before you
know it, I’ve got the red pen in my hand and I’m into full blown critique
mode), free promotion, free formatting, free blog tour design and I have some
really great critique partners.
Did
you receive many, if any, rejections prior to publication?
I only queried one agent and it was a very
early draft. My cheeks go pink thinking about it. The manuscript was in
terrible shape and I had no business querying. Lesson learned. It takes many,
many drafts to make a book!
What were you doing or watching when the first idea for this book sneaked up on you?
I was listening to ‘Let Her Go’ by
Passenger and all these images started popping into my head. One image or
‘scene’ in particular and actually the only scene that made it into the book –
the moment where Ilia meets Nathaniel for the first time. I felt that I needed
to write the story around that scene. A few months later, Fractured Immortal
was born.
How
long did you plot/plan until you started writing it?
As I mentioned above, I pictured that scene
and it took me a while before I realized that it wasn’t going to go away. It
intrigued me and I started thinking – where can I go from here? About two
months later, I began creating the characters. From there it became a case of
write, write, write. There are many scenes that didn’t make it into the book. I
think if I put the complete book with the outtakes, the book would double in
size. I am a true pantser so if something didn’t work when I’d written it, it
got chopped.
When you started, did the story flow naturally or did you have to step in and wrestle
it into submission?
I am a linear writer. From chapter one all
the way to the end, I keep it going. Sometimes I have to stop and cut a chapter
here or there because it wasn’t right or the chapter was really just a scene
that needed no more than a couple of paragraphs. I battled furiously with a
particular character throughout the process, but in the end, he shaped up
better than I imagined him.
How
long did the first draft take to write?
From October 2013 to April 2014. From there
I spent nearly every waking hour rewriting, cutting, adding and polishing. In
late May / early June, I thought it was complete. I thought wrong! In August
2014 my critique partners ripped their way through it and more chapters got
deleted. From there another Beta reader (who is a lot like me and goes all CP
on it) went through it for the first time. She did the same again prior to
release to make sure it was perfect. When it was finally ready, it went to an
editor and more changes were made, though they were small and involved
tightening some of my language and weeding out repetitive phrases.
How
many drafts did you write before you let someone read it? Who was that someone?
Honestly, I don’t know how many drafts but
I can tell you with certainty that when I did unleash it, it wasn’t ready. My
first Beta reader was Nori, aka ReadWriteLove28. She provided great feedback,
all of which I actioned. I feel sorry for her that she had to read such an
early version. Writing is a learning process, I learned a lot!
Did
you employ an editor/proofreader or did you have critique partners/beta
readers?
I used all of the above. I have a beta
reader list the length of my arm and my critique partners, Kathleen Palm and
Natasha Raulerson were excellent. Then, off it went to my editor, Kate Foster (me!) who
did a terrific job honing and polishing it. Then it went back to Nancy Griffis,
the most in depth Beta reader I have ever had the pleasure of working with.
Roughly
how many drafts did it take before you felt ready to publish?
Far too many to count. I think my laptop is
close to exploding with the amount of files I have. I have this habit of never
deleting a draft, just in case.
Has
the book changed dramatically since the first draft?
Yes. The first draft contained multiple
POV’s. A total nightmarish mess. Lucas, Kyle, Nathaniel and Ilia all had their
own chapters as well as 3rd Omniscient flashbacks to 1810, a
prologue with the antagonists POV and some other rubbish stuff!
Are
there any parts you’d like to change even now?
I could have messed with Fractured Immortal
for eternity but there comes a time where you have to say, that’s it – that’s
the story, if you meddle anymore, you’re going to break something.
What
part of writing do you find the easiest?
The dialogue between Kyle and Ilia, it
flowed quite naturally and the battle scenes, which I thought would be the
hardest. They weren’t easy, as such, but they were very enjoyable to write.
What
part do you find hardest?
Nailing the backstory was so difficult. I
knew what happened, but trying to express it without dumping it on the reader,
I found that really tough.
Do
you push through writing barriers or walk away?
I have a mini-fit, tell myself I can’t
possibly do it, I’m totally rubbish and what on Earth was I thinking when I
decided to write a book. Then I spend a while ignoring the book, maybe write a
blog post or listen to music, then I get back at it. I push through the
barriers eventually, but that sometimes requires walking away for a brief
period.
How
many projects do you have on the go at the same time?
I prefer to have only one project on the go
at a time but right now, I have two, which is driving me batty.
Do
you think you’re born with the talent to write or do you think it can be
learned?
That’s a tough one to answer. My family are
mostly artists, my sisters and my daughters can literally bring things to life
on canvas, but me, I fail at drawing even the simplest of things. It became
evident early in my life that I was a bookworm and writing began as soon as I
could put pen to paper and structure, albeit very badly, my own scenes. The
brain is a wonderful thing and a scientific study showed how, in seasoned
writers, a part of the brain called the caudate nucleus becomes very active
when writing. The study compared novice writers against experienced ones, that
part of the novices' brains remained pretty much dormant. But can you teach that
part of your brain to become active? I’m afraid I lack the qualifications to
say.
How
many future novels do you have planned?
I have three planned but I have another
idea floating around inside my head, developing itself. I know I’m going to end
up writing it because its got that same persistence about it that Fractured
Immortal had.
Do
you write other things, such as short stories, articles, blogs, etc?
I write blogs, I also like writing lyrics.
What’s
the highlight of being published so far?
The biggest
highlight so far is logging onto Twitter and one of my friends had retweeted a
tweet she’d seen about my book. I was over the moon, serious happy tears.
Give
YAtopia five writing tips that work for you.
When you can’t seem to form the words,
listen to music to get the creative juices flowing. This works for me.
Listen. If the same thing is being flagged
by different people over and over, then you have a problem so listen to what
your beta readers / critique partners / editors are saying and revise.
Another listen. If your brain is nagging at
you that something isn’t quite right, try to work through it before pressing
on. I recently ended up ditching 40-50k words because my brain kept telling me
something was off. When I found what it was, I had to rewrite because it was
something that took my story in the wrong direction. I could’ve saved myself a
lot of work and time had I listened.
First drafts are just that, first drafts.
Don’t think your first draft of your MS is the final draft, it rarely – if ever
– is. Keep at that first draft until you have a shiny manuscript.
Lastly, when you’re feeling a bit rubbish
and you think you can’t do it, know this – yes you can. You just have to take a
breath, regroup your thoughts and then get back at it. You CAN do it.
And
one that doesn’t.
Write what you know. Poppycock. If I wrote
what I knew, I’d have a story about a dog that puffs heinous smelling air from
his butt and an evil cat that pasted part of my manuscript on Facebook – as my status. And while that might sound
mildly amusing, I can’t write a book about smelly farts and a cat that walks
across the keyboard. Well, maybe I can, but I would have to build a plot around
it and they would be minor parts of the story. I don’t know how to write a
mystery or a thriller, I don’t know how to write for middle grade but I also
didn’t know how to write New Adult. In one of the manuscripts I’m working on
now, I had to thoroughly research DNA. I knew nothing of DNA before I started
writing and now I do. Write what you know, pfff. If you don’t know it – learn
it. James Patterson was not a policeman, Andrew Gross was not a policeman, either, or a hedgefund manager and Enid Blyton didn’t have a magic tree in her
backyard or was J.K. Rowling a pupil at Hogwarts. If it’s not real, imagine
it, if it is real, research it.
Can
you give us a clue or secret about the next book?
A regular character will die and it breaks
my heart, but it’s key to the development of another character.
What
question have you always wanted to be asked but never have? What would the
answer be?
Why a book about vampires? Because I wanted
to. I had neither read nor watched Twilight when I began Fractured Immortal and
it’s gets on my nerves when I see people tweeting rubbish things like ‘tired of
seeing vampire books – read mine, guaranteed no vampires’ – (actual tweet or
close enough) –oh, get a grip. Don’t bash one genre to try and sell another.
It’s not cool and I will send my dog to expel air in close proximity to your
nasal passages.
Thank you so much for joining us, Emma, we wish you so much luck with Fractured Immortal.
If you haven't read Emma's awesome book, then here are the links to purchase! Trust me, it's worth it and this is truly an author to look out for.
amazon.co.uk
amazon.com
Goodreads
