Showcasing a new series every month to show you the best series Wattpad has to offer, and an interview with the writers for more information about their series and writing!
First, become a crew member of the Avourienne, a pirate ship notorious for its charismatic captain and wicked ways. Second, trick the ship's cunning strategist, famous for winning every game she's ever played, into believing a delicately spun lie. Third, get close enough to their tyrant king to put a knife through him.
Deadly doesn't quite describe such a plan. In fact, inconceivable may be the better word. But Archer Kingsley has a knack for such things, and he feels he's going to pull off this plan with the ease he does most everything. Perhaps he's not quite aware of the absolute hell that's about to break loose, but truthfully, it's so much better that way.
Because true adventures are born from uncertainty.
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INTERVIEW WITH THE WRITER
What inspired you to create the Venture Series? Were there any specific influences or experiences that sparked the idea?
The Venture Series was inspired by the idea that you should write what you want to read. Nothing out there quite satisfied my desire to read a story that was adventurous and fun but also twisted deeply in human morals and psychology. To tell the truth, I wrote these books so I could read them, and it was a wonderful coincidence that other people were drawn to them, too. I had certain parts of the story come from real life, others from existing books, and a lot from my vast curiosity about ethics and truth.
Do you have a favorite book or moment in the series? If so, what makes it special to you?
That's such a hard question for me to answer, because while I have definitely have some favourite parts, it's so difficult for me to compare the high-strung action scenes with the dark and tense conversational scenes. That being said, there's a chapter in the first book titled 'The Loyalty of Uncertainty' which I absolutely adore. In the first book, there's a part one, two and three of this chapter scattered throughout the book, and then there's a part four in the third book. I love this continuation of the loyalty theme because I think in the end, loyalty to your people and yourself is what truly defines you as a person.
When you started the first story, did you already know it would be a series?
I planned Venture as a duology right from the beginning. As I wrote, though, I felt like I was running out of space. When I told my sister about it (my go-to writing advisor) she said very simply that I was the author and could make as many books in a series as I wanted to regardless of what my initial plans were. When I was done the sequel, I wrote the prequel because I felt like I really needed to know my two main antagonists before I went back to the finale and wrote their endings. I never thought I'd have the focus to write a four-book series, but the lack of pressure to do so from the beginning was probably what allowed me to keep writing.
If your series was turned into a movie, can you give us an idea of what your dream cast would be for some of the characters?
Oddly enough, I kind of can't. Archer, my true main character, started as a certain type of social experiment: The reader is purposely never given a description of what he looks like in order to see what effects personality traits have on our physical view of someone. I'm always so excited and surprised to hear what people envision him as and what that means about us. Silta, my supporting character that's constantly stealing the spotlight, is nearly impossible to cast, and I like it like that! She's supposed to be extremely unique and have a sort of Aphrodite-effect in terms of how people see her. Bardarian, though, while I didn't have a casting for him for a long time, is now firmly set in my mind as Jake Gyllenhaal after I saw a picture of him that was exactly what I had in mind.
Have you ever encountered any challenges or surprises while writing the series? How did you overcome them?
My biggest problem in moving the series along was my own outside life. I'm a student with two jobs, and as of now I've been travelling without my laptop or any writing ability for nearly two months. It's always hard for me not to write, so much so that I'll end up just typing stuff up on my phone or rereading old parts just to stay satisfied. I did have trouble finishing the third and final book, though—only because I had issues with accepting that it was coming to an end and I was going to have to take it there. Other than those two barricades, this story has always come shockingly quick and easily for me. It feels like once I know the characters, they write the plot themselves.
Do you have any advice for your fellow writers on starting a series?
Don't tell yourself you're starting a series. Finishing even a single book is a daunting task for most, so attempting a series is even more of an undertaking. I know a lot of people that get overwhelmed and toss projects away for this reason. Take the pressure and stress off, and allow yourself to write one part at a time. If a series comes, it'll come. Stories have a way of writing themselves if we let them!
