Wattpad Interviews: FennaWrites and AbbyBabble

❝We were up-and-down and barely made it over, but I'd go back and ride that roller coaster.❞Hi there, I'm Fenna!✧ Ambassador. ✧ Belgium. ✧ Hufflepuff. ✧ Lead of AmbassadorsNL. ✧ Social worker. » Loverboy | ✓» Shattered Memories | coming soon

Fenna is a Wattpad Ambassador from The Netherlands and is in charge of the dutch Wattpad ambassador team. Her book Loverboy has over 14 million reads on Wattpad.

1. What made you become a writer? I've always wanted to become a writer. It runs in my family as my great-grandfather and grandfather wrote books. My great-grandfather even published books in my country!

2. What brought you on Wattpad?

I've discovered wattpad on Twitter. I used to have a fan account for 1D and found users that shared their works. I decided to make an account and that's how history happens.

3. What is the latest project you’re working on?

I'm wrapping up my project, Loverboy. It's nearly finished, hopefully this weekend!

4. Have you ever been published outside of Wattpad?

I haven't, but it certainly is a dream!

5. What’s your greatest achievement as a writer?

Ten million reads is so far my greatest achievement.

6. What are your writing goals?

I'm wrapping up my project, Loverboy. It's nearly finished, hopefully this weekend!

7. What’s your favourite thing about writing for Wattpad?

The feedback I receive from users. It helps to improve my craft.

8. What’s your pet peeves about writing for Wattpad?

People who promote their stories on message boards/inboxes --- it's rude, don't do it unless user states it's possible.

9. Aside from Wattpad, are there any other sites you’ve written for?

No, I haven't written for other sites.

10. Where do you see your writing journey in five years?

I hopefully will be a published writer.

11. How would you feel about someone making fanwork based on your stories?

It would be awesome!

12. Which Wattpad books, that you’ve written do you feel best displays your writing talents?

My upcoming work that is still in my drafts ;)

That sounds awesome. Thanks for doing this interview with me. I wish you the best of luck in your writing journey.

And we also have another interview from Abby

1. What made you become a writer?

Storytelling is life, for me. By high school, I'd written two 400 page novels, plus some home-made theater productions and a series of comics. I went to college in California for film animation (CalArts), eager to become the next Brad Bird or Tim Burton. Although my student films did well, screened in the Annecy International Film Festival and the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, my career path veered into video game development, and then edutainment. My role as a storyteller was restricted to limited input in production meetings about Nickelodeon or Disney games.

I still needed an outlet to tell my own stories. So I switched my career goal from blockbuster film director to best-selling author, and I wrote novels in whatever spare time I could manage. When I had trouble getting past gatekeepers, I went to the Odyssey Writing Workshop, then the Superstars Writing Seminar. I’ve written well over a million words, and I want to be able to earn a living doing this.

2. What brought you to Wattpad?

I’ve had to take a few steps back and reassess everything I believed about the publishing industry. I used to fantasize about gaining a huge audience through Tor Books, DAW, Orbit, or any of the Big Five. But I saw signs that traditional pubilshing is not taking risks or gambles with unknowns; a lot of the innovation I see in fiction is coming from the indie author crowd, from those who built a grassroots audience on their own. Reader feedback for my series is encouraging and sometimes exuberant, but it never seems to be anything that major publishers want. So I headed for the frontier. I only wish I'd had the courage to try it sooner.

3. What is the latest project you’re working on?

Editing Book 4 of my epic Torth series, "World of Wreckage."

4. Have you ever been published outside of Wattpad?

My work is available in Escape Pod, Fantasy Magazine, and several anthologies, including "Putting the Science in Fiction" by Writer's Digest.

5. What’s your greatest achievement as a writer?

As of 2019, the thing I'm most proud of is completing five books (soon to be seven) of an epic SFF series that is unlike anything else in the market. I love the reactions from readers who are sticking with it.

6. What are your writing goals?

Author who popularizes the Space Fantasy genre in a whole new way, and who regularly tops the best-seller lists on the biggest retailers.

7. What’s your favourite thing about writing for Wattpad?

The international audience! And the freedom to present drafts without the pressure of perfectionism. This is a huge help for me, since I'm a perfectionist who is struggling to overcome the brain weasels.

8. What’s your pet peeves about writing for Wattpad?

Notifications are disorganized and impossible to search. Reader engagement analytics are limited to the first 30 parts of a story. In general, I would like the platform to be mroe useful for ambitious writers, and less buggy for readers.

9. Aside from Wattpad, are there any other sites you’ve written for?

Not yet, but I have my eye on a few. Including my own website, AbbyGoldsmith.com

10. Where do you see your writing journey in five years?

My huge Sci-Fi series will be finished! I'll be working on a new project, and gaining traction on Amazon with the first 3 or 4 books. Maybe more. I really hope more.

11. How would you feel about someone making fanwork based on your stories?

Please do. My series has lots of aliens and spaceships.

12. Which Wattpad books, that you’ve written do you feel best displays your writing talents?

"City of Slaves" is the first book in my series, but it's also the one I've rewritten the most. I think the series gets better with each new book. So I will say that as of now, Book 3: "Nowhere Nation" really shows off my story craft and prose. Book 4 will top that (I've just started to post it).

I'm proud of my short stories, as well.

Thanks for interviewing me!