Ask the Author: Ashley Wilda
Answered Questions (4)
Ashley Wilda
Read a lot! Like a lot a lot. And any and every genre. Also, "write what you know," but not in the way most people mean it. Write about the EMOTIONS you know. Write fantasy or scifi or the most weird fantastical thing you can think of - it doesn't have to be something you've experienced in real life. But write about YOUR emotional truth. Better yet, find a question you have about the world, and explore it in writing. Don't come up with the answer ahead of time. See where the story takes you. That's the most authentic kind of writing.
Ashley Wilda
Often, I have to just sit my butt in the chair. I often don't start to feel inspired until I feel the words flowing and get into the story! But other times, when I'm surrounded by incredible music or art or nature, I feel fired up to put words to the page to try to explain what I feel to myself - that inexplicable wonder.
Ashley Wilda
I'm currently working on a picture book about empathy and understanding depression for wee little ones!
Ashley Wilda
I wrote around this story just about every way I possibly could.
I started with poetry and a young adult fantasy. Then a short story. Then a middle grade fantasy. Then a young adult contemporary. Even a picture book. Everyone was telling me my writing was good. But in the end, nothing resonated with me.
Then, I listened to a graduate lecture at @vcfawcya by @mercerblack about grief and the writing process. About the stories we NEED to write, for ourselves. The stories we may be avoiding. The stories we may be afraid to dig deep and tell.
I slipped out at the end of the lecture and found myself in the farthest corner of the campus library basement, surrounded by the musty smell of old books. I sobbed. I cried for all the pain I was living through, for the story I wanted to write, for the fear of writing it. But I knew I had made up my mind.
When I left that library, I started writing what would become THE NIGHT FOX.
I started with poetry and a young adult fantasy. Then a short story. Then a middle grade fantasy. Then a young adult contemporary. Even a picture book. Everyone was telling me my writing was good. But in the end, nothing resonated with me.
Then, I listened to a graduate lecture at @vcfawcya by @mercerblack about grief and the writing process. About the stories we NEED to write, for ourselves. The stories we may be avoiding. The stories we may be afraid to dig deep and tell.
I slipped out at the end of the lecture and found myself in the farthest corner of the campus library basement, surrounded by the musty smell of old books. I sobbed. I cried for all the pain I was living through, for the story I wanted to write, for the fear of writing it. But I knew I had made up my mind.
When I left that library, I started writing what would become THE NIGHT FOX.
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