Wrimos Around the World: Of Tomorrow's Stories, the Letter 'U', and Dialogue

One of the best parts of NaNoWriMo? The incredible community of writers that gathers every November. Today, we spotlight Joyce, a Young Writers Program participant who’s changing the world :

So, you were very involved in our Stories of Tomorrow campaign earlier this year. What made you decide to volunteer?

I could ramble on about how much NaNo has inspired and changed me, but I’ll stay on topic. (For once.) As some of you may know, the Young Writers Program has been fundraising for a new website, because the current one wasn’t built for the number of students and educators it now hosts. This project is called the Stories of Tomorrow campaign. (Yay! More writers! More young writers!) When I heard the aforementioned news, I wanted to help out, and do something in return for NaNo…

There are so many ways to fundraise, but I decided to stick to the topic of writing. Hence, I decided to organise a writing competition for children and young adults, with NaNo’s permission. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it all on my own though, and so I approached the library’s young adult leadership group, and they helped me put the plan into action.

In the end, we raised exactly $196 New Zealand dollars (which translates to about $160 US dollars), just from the gold-coin donation entries we received from all those budding young authors. Yay! 

Tell us about where you’ve been writing from! 

I hail from Middle Earth, surrounded by enchanting mountains and valleys, where dragons are your teachers of Mythology and Magic, and kiwi birds flying on broomsticks are not a rare occurrence—although they have to share the name with us people, as well.

We wear jandals (or flip-flops as you Americans call them) every day, in any weather—or skip the shoes and go barefoot. The best meal you could possibly think of is eating fish and chips on the beach. We ride our sheep with our heads held high. We are mighty, we are strong, and we’ll scare you all off with our haka and poi! 

…Alright, I’ll stop. Stereotypes and fantastical nonsense aside, salutations from New Zealand! 

A word of warning: the letter u is our best buddy, (our favourite letter probably) and we like inviting him to join the parade of words that don’t like him. After all, he’s quite social when you get to know him, despite being a trailer in the alphabet list. He likes being your neighbour, and therefore deserves an honourable mention.  Therefore I believe we should all include him a little more in our writing.

If you could be the undisputed champion of any genre, what would you want it to be? 

Fantasy, most definitely. While I admire authors of so many genres; fantasy is the genre I absolutely love to read and write, and it would be an absolute honour (see what I did there?) to become well known for it. 

What is one of your favorite lines of dialogue from any novel?

“‘Do you know why a vandal is worse than a thief?’ asked the man on the right, in a soft growl. ‘A thief steals a treasure from its owner. A vandal steals it from the world.’” 

― Frances Hardinge, A Face Like Glass

Frances Hardinge is one of my favourite authors, and I can’t even describe how brilliant she is. This line of dialogue illustrates one of her brilliances. 

Any parting advice for all of the writers out there, young and old? 

I’m simply going to say the important message you should be receiving from any writing and NaNo advice:

You should be writing.

And let me just add this: you can let yourself down, but don’t you dare let your characters down. 

Joyce, (or Kiwi, as she’s known throughout the YWP Forums, and blogosphere) is an aspiring author with a love of words. (And food.) She’s found that she’s a discovery writer throughout her writing journey so far; and is a befriender of dragons and a conqueror of plot bunnies. She’s a proud literary geek.