Admin of The Month - Karin (Uschibear)

Interviewer - V (fortherestofourlife)

Hi! Congratulations on being the Admin of the month, and I am really glad that I got the opportunity to interview you. So how do you manage all this? Like your private life as well as your time with us? It can be quite a handful.

For the most part I'm an organized person. I'm retired, so at least I don't have work or school to get in the way. I enjoy the people I have met in this community so it's a pleasure to spend time here, helping to build support for those struggling to learn the storytelling craft. I love being able to share my knowledge to teach and encourage the talented writers in our community.

I'm lucky to have a roommate who understands the drive to write and will take care of themselves if I'm buried in my work. Although my writing is organized, I will take each day as it comes, and I will put real life ahead of most things except a writing streak after a bad bout of writer's block. I have learned to say no. Don't ask how hard that was!

Writer's block is always the toughest thing for me too, what would you advise the young / upcoming writers?

When you're blocked, accept it as a natural indication your brain requires time away for a bit. A few days off after writing an intense passage, or completing a goal is NOT a weakness. If it continues, and you have a project sitting waiting and nothing seems to flow, take the time to do some flash writing. Pick up a prompt from any of the many services on the internet and write the first thing that comes to mind. It doesn't matter if it feels awkward.

Do a writing contest in your community discord, if you're lucky enough to belong to a great one like ours. Try writing in a genre that is totally out of your norm. I use poetry prompts to get me going when things are really bad.

You have such a warming personality I must say this, I feel really comfortable with you even though I am a shy and introverted person! And that's amazing advice. What inspired you to write?

I started creative writing when I was in 9th grade. My English teacher had a way of encouraging his students to express themselves that has stuck with me ever since. My first published piece of writing was in the yearbook when I graduated from junior high. Now that I'm retired I'm taking the time to do what I've wanted all my life. Write!

My guiding principle in life is to be kind. I've been the victim of enough bullying as I grew up, to know how much a kind word and a hug can mean to someone who is hurting or struggling.

Wow.... That's inspiring. How do you handle criticism as a writer?

The very first thing you have to realize is there will always be those who love to tear people down. Take every piece of criticism with a grain of salt. Critique your critic before you accept what they have to say as having any value. Hurtful words that are harsh for without any redeeming advice to help fix what the critic is complaining about, need to be discarded as the garbage they are.

You can always tell if a critic is comfortable with the genre or subject matter, so keep that in mind when they tear into something. For instance, and this is one I have problems with all the time, tearing into a book meant for 8-13 year old readers as if it is for an adult reader. I discard a lot of that criticism almost before I finish reading the comments.

Very true..... I received a lot of criticism but I took them as a lesson and learned from it. Do you believe in the fact that anyone can write?

I believe anyone can write. However, that comes with a caveat. Creative writing requires imagination and the ability to put it into a story that makes sense. Not everyone is capable of both. If you have the imagination, the skills to put it into a story can be taught, the spark for the story is what makes it possible. I can't write a technical instruction book for say a computer program at all, but someone else will pound it out in hours.

Others are amazing at putting a brief together for a lawyer. Anyone can write, it depends on where you want to be in the massive spectrum of written communication. The most basic building block is good grammar and spelling. Again that is teachable. From there no matter what direction life takes you, writing is possible.

That's so inspiring I am really glad that I had the opportunity to interview and I learned a lot from you so thank you! Once again congratulations on being the Admin of the month and now I see you totally deserve it! Thank you for being with us and keep on inspiring us.

You make me blush. Thank you for the thought-provoking questions.

Thank you

Member of The Month - Marine (MarineBiologie)

Interviewer - Jericho (JerichoMoon)

First off, would you mind giving me a little introduction about yourself?

Alrighty! Hi, I'm MarineBiologie, but you can call me Marine! I'm just a quirky girl who likes the randomest things, and remembers the randomest things.

Hey, random things are good at writing sometimes. What do you do around the Coalition Community?

I'm an Ambassador and on the Content Creators team, as well as writing for the blog and magazine. It's very exciting being behind-the-scenes and watching an event unveil and run smoothly!

Ooh, that all sounds exciting. And of course, thanks for the help in helping the community run smoothly. Do you want to tell me a little about your current writing project?

To be honest I'm not the best at dedicating my time to writing a singular book; I just get filled with inspiration and ideas that I hop from one book to another I probably have tons of five paged books in my Google Drive. But right now, I'm working on Monochrome, a story about a black and white world and a girl who wants to see colour.

Where did you find the inspiration for Monochrome?

I was randomly thinking about life and other stuff, as one does, and thought about old movies, those black and white movies? And I was thinking about how cool that must've seemed, and how when I (and probably everyone else) think of the 1900s and their everyday life, I think of their world, except it's in black and white.

I don't really acknowledge that those black and white clothes in those films are really colourful in real life, since I can't see it, so I gradually accepted that the absence of colour was just how it was. But of course, it wasn't, since people back then were able to see colour, obviously. But I thought, hey, that's actually a cool idea- let's make that into a book! And it all kind of started from there.

It is a cool idea, too. I love the bit of Monochrome that I've read! What do you like most about writing stories?

Oh, gosh; there're a lot of reasons. Probably the best part is that you can jump into a world of your own, where you can create a whole new place and bring characters to life. It's like an alternate reality, with people who feel real to you. The fact that I can control everything in a story is also appealing.

What do you think makes a good story?

Hmm... I'd say a lot of things make a good story, but most importantly the author's got to be dedicated. They've got to really want to write this book, and know that this is what they want to do. If they're energetic and excited about that, they can learn how to write fantastic stories that have a lot of emotion and sincerity.

Thank you, I think that wraps up this interview. Thank you so much for your time.

Content Designer: JJiawei and WordSmith001

Media Team: UVuniverse, JerichoMoon and fortherestofourlife