Blogger Juniel had the amazing oppurtunity to interview teen author, Mandi Lynn, the author of Essence. Read on to check out the interview!
JUNIEL: Essence was self-published. If you were to write another novel that you decide to publish, would you self-publish again?
MANDI LYNN: I haven’t really decided on it yet. I’m currently writing my second novel and I really want to traditionally publish it, but if push comes to shove I wouldn’t be against self-publishing again.
JUNIEL: What inspired you to write Essence?
MANDI LYNN: Essence was inspired by a location in New Hampshire when my family and I went on vacation. In the book it’s called Phantom Lagoon and it’s also the place where the photo for the cover was taken. I basically built a story around the location and everything else stemmed from there.
JUNIEL: What is the hardest part about writing a novel for you? What's the easiest?
MANDI LYNN:Probably all the re-writing that came with being rejected by 39 literary agents. I’ve only ever beenrejected by agents so it was hard for me to self-publish a novel that I wasn’t sure was good. Essence went through ten drafts and I personally went through a lot of tears with the rejections, but those who had read the unpublished versions of Essence assured me it was good enough to be published.
JUNIEL: Did you have to research when writing about certain topics? If so, how much time did you spend researching and how much data do you consider is ‘enough’?
MANDI LYNN: For Essence there were only a hand-full of things I had to look up. I talk about cancer and decomposing bodies at some points, so I had to look those things up to make sure the story was realistic. However my second novel is historical so there has been a lot more research concerning that because it’s a different time period. There’s no way to know if you’ve done enough research, you just have to be comfortable in what you are writing about.
JUNIEL: When creating characters and their personalities, are they based off of you or yourself?
MANDI LYNN: I never base characters off people I know because that just creates problems. I know, without intending to, I throw my own personal emotions into my stories, but not so much to the point that it is based off my life or those around me. I have written about people in my life, but those are stories meant for myself only.
JUNIEL: In numerous vlogs, you’ve announced that you have a bad habit of working on a story for a period of time and then suddenly dropping it for a few months. But there’s something else that’s worse—working on a story for a period of time, dropping it, and never going back to it. What would you say to writers who decide to stop working on their project to keep them motivated and/or inspired to keep writing?
MANDI LYNN: There’s nothing wrong with dropping a story. Sometimes a story isn’t novel material, but sometimesit is. The hard part is figuring out whether or not it is. But it’s bad to just get lazy and drop a novel because you don’t feel like writing any longer. To keep yourself motivated you just have to tell yourself you have to write X amount of words today and you’re not allowed to walk away until you do that. At first it’s going to be hard to get those words down, but in the end you’ll feel really happy you did.
JUNIEL: We writers have creative minds; we come up with new story lines and plots constantly, resulting in writing multiple stories at the same time. I personally have always thought that working on several projects at once makes the stories not as detailed and great as it can be if it complete focus and concentration is spilled on one piece at a time. What’s your opinion on this?
MANDI LYNN: When I thought I was done writing Essence I had started writing two completely different novels. I knew it couldn’t do both, but I also didn’t know which one called for my attention more. Right now I’m on the first draft for my second novel, but I know exactly what I want my next novel to be. The trick is to only do the research for the one you are currently writing, because if I looked into the story of the other novel I want to write someday I’ll lose the motivation to write and finish the one I’m working on now.
JUNIEL: Right now, you’re writing a prequel to Essence. Can you give us advice on how to keep our characters’ personalities and pace the same on a prequels and sequels of novels?
MANDI LYNN:The prequel only shares one character that was in Essence and we didn’t see them too much in that novel, so I can’t give too much advice on how to keep a character’s personality. But I can say that people change and evolve when they face events, so personalities are allowed to change, so as long as there is a reason for them to change.
JUNIEL: How do you know whether you needed a trilogy, a series, or just one book for a story idea?
MANDI LYNN:You can’t know whether a story is a stand-alone or a series until you start writing it. Essence was supposed to be a stand-alone, and in a way it still is. The prequel is completely disconnected form Essence in the same way The Hobbit is disconnected from The Lord of the Rings. But as far as series go I’ve actually spoken to Neal Shusterman who writes the Unwind Series. It was originally supposed to be three books, but when he went to write the last book he found he was rushing the ending and decided to make it four books instead. It’s really all just getting a feel for the story and knowing what you want to write.
JUNIEL: What attracts you to the idea of writing and publishing your work?
MANDI LYNN: Writing is just what I do that makes me happy. There are a lot of stories and journal entries that I believe are amazing but will never see the light of day because they are something I wrote personally for myself. But I publish my novels because it’s something I’ve created that I want to share with the world. One of the biggest compliments I can get as an author is that I’ve made someone cry when they’re read my novel, because then I know I’ve revealed some sort of emotion in my writing.
Make sure to check out Mandi Lynn's website and pick up a copy of Essence on Amazon.
Interview by Juniel