Coffee Talks

With Emma

Hi, Emma, congratulations on placing 2nd in Round 1 of the Open Novella Contest! We'd love to hear from you and get to know a little bit about what motivates you when writing works of fiction.

Hello Open Novella Team, and thanks for the congrats, and the competition! *waves, clutches statuette*

So, to begin, tell us a little bit about yourself as an author on Wattpad. For anyone who hasn't met you before, how would you describe your fiction?

I've got a few books up on Wattpad, of varying genres (including a dystopian YA series, a historical fiction about a 60s rock groupie, and a slightly weird story about a punk cult escapee). Writing is my number one hobby, and I tend to do little most nights to turn my brain off and relax.

I write everything straight into Wattpad on my phone, which I think is rare—I don't draft first, beyond making myself a plot outline in "notes".

I read a lot on here too. I do a review book with a friend (@RainerSalt) where we review full Wattpad books in the style and setting of that book, which is so much fun. Everyone should check it out!

Let's talk a bit about your entry for the Open Novella Contest, The Last Vikings, can you tell us about the book and its premise?

Yes, I can! Our protagonist is a recently dumped twenty-something with low self-esteem and Instagram FOMO who goes to Antarctica to try and find herself, but finds her life in danger—and some corpsicles—instead.

It's a whodunnit (and how-the-hell-did-they-do-it) mystery, with a dash of romance and lots of multimedia—that I swear took me longer than writing the story, but was fun nonetheless.

What drove you to use this particular prompt? And how did you shape the story with the prompt in mind?

I've never entered a prompt contest on Wattpad before, and always thought they weren't really my thing, but when I happened upon the Antarctica prompt (in the sci-fi edition of the ONC, I believe—shoutout to all the Thing fans out there!) I just couldn't resist it. It really sparked my imagination and I desperately wanted to do something with it.

I carried the prompt around in my head for a while, wondering how I would flesh it out. I'm fascinated by the Everest tourist industry—the mundane infrastructures that grow up around so many people wanting to "take on" an extreme environment, because of what it represents—so knew I wanted to do something exploring tourism, and adventure tourism especially, in extreme environments.

Concomitantly with that, in the modern world, I think social media—especially Instagram—plays a big part in how we think of adventure and travel. Last year, I read a New Yorker piece about the #vanlife movement—people downsizing to live in small vehicles—and found it totally fascinating how curated and inauthentic this whole movement that sells itself on "authenticity" and "simplicity" is, something I recognise in hippy-leaning accounts all over Instagram: parenting, food, health, whatever. I knew I wanted to look at this aspect of aspirational adventure tourism in the story.

I then read a metric fuck-tonne about Antarctica, so I could make the story as authentic as possible. My boyfriend is very sweet and, after telling him about the contest, I got home from work one day in December to find a huge Amazon box full of Antarctic travelogues waiting for me, which helped me ensure the setting had some realism beyond "it snows" (fun fact: it doesn't snow in Antarctica! It's the world's coldest desert! Hashtag party bore)

For the mystery aspect, I was heavily influenced by the real life (and yet unsolved) Dyatlov Pass Incident that happened in Siberia in 1959. There's a great episode on this in the podcast "The Unexplained" (the medium of which may also have influenced one of the characters in Vikings).

Finally, I did some (unrelated) research before writing Vikings on a science topic that I won't mention—I don't want to give away too many twists—but it fitted into my themes so perfectly it was ridiculous. All I will say is that everything that happens in Vikings is totally scientifically plausible and based on real life.

What were some of the challenges you faced when writing The Last Vikings?

The biggest challenge was meeting the 8K deadline! And keeping the word count of the final novella down. Completed, it's a massive 40K words which has probably disqualified me from winning, but I don't really mind. I enjoyed writing the book so much that I'm just grateful to the ONC for giving me the prompt that led to the story and making me get it down so quickly. I'm tremendously proud of the result.

Tell us about your experience participating in the Open Novella Contest.

I absolutely loved it. It's definitely been one of my favourite Wattpad experiences, and I can't thank the Ambassadors enough for all the work that must have gone into this.

If you had the opportunity to shout out one other book which is participating in the Open Novella Contest, which would it be?

Well, my number one would have to be Siggi by Milomaia, which I love and definitely think deserves to win. Milo's prose is so beautiful it hurts to look at it (little Jordan Catalano ref in there for the 90s kids in the house) and the themes of the story just blew my mind. Plus Siggi is the greatest heroine ever.

That said, Milo's also got a prize, so I feel I should give some love to the undiscovered gems. Don't Walk in the Dark by Haylexia is a tense thriller with a narrator struggling as much with the uncertainties of her own mind as the mystery unfolding around her. The Last Witch by ACampbellAuthor is also excellent, atmospheric, beautiful and gruesome in equal parts.

Lastly, because we're always curious... What was your first ever experience with the power of the written language?

Oh my gosh, I literally can't answer that! I have no idea. I have a baby daughter who loves books, so I'm going to guess, based on her, that It would be some soft-limbed pre-memory that's more sensation than consciousness.

It's been great hearing from you, Emma, best wishes in your future endeavours from our team.

And on that note... thanks, guys! It's been lovely chatting with you.

Our goal is to bring you many more exclusive interviews with people who aren't just Wattpad Stars or Staff, but also some pretty awesome authors.
In that quest, next we will be talking to AERETHCWINDEN, so stick around for more fun!