5 Questions to… Tsuyu – write out of the closet

Tsuyu lives in a small town and while working in a field that has nothing to do with writing but a lot with socializing with people she can observe people and analyse them. She loves travelling and almost always compares everything to the plane ticket prices. After dropping college (and a profession that lead nowhere) she is now studying English and is over the moon.

Kinga Budzyn: What is writing to you?

Tsuyu: Writing, for me at least, is letting out the feelings and emotions that one is bottling up inside one’s heart for a long time. Also writing is an escape to imaginary and better world where everything and anything is possible and can be achieved over a period of a few pages (or chapter or in very rare cases, books). Writing is also something unique I do that none of my friends, colleagues or family does. Usually, I am not one to share my writings with people I know. Not because I feel insecure but because of the language barrier in itself because somehow I can express myself more freely in English than in my native language (which should sound bizarre as it is).

Besides, writing is something that I think every single human being should do, no matter if it’s compiling recipes, writing a love story (or a murder one at that). It gives you satisfaction of accomplishing something that is only yours even if you are never going to share it with a single human being but yourself.

KB: What genres do you write in and what do you write about? Do you think an author should have a mission, a message to get to the readers through his works?

T: I usually end up writing fantasy or drama in itself. Of course my drama might be horror to someone but that is just one way of putting it. In my opinion author doesn’t usually have to leave a message for his readers (of course hidden messages are totally a different matter, but we aren’t talking about those now). Besides if you write a work that lives for generations (or at least some years) no matter how you write it, in the end it will still be interpreted differently than you had originally intended for it to be. Some author write for their own personal enjoyment and they do not think of transferring a message for future generations.  

KB: What forms do you write? What attracts you in them?

T: Novels are my forte. While poetry was never something I liked, novels are great at what they are because you can interpret them different, have a lot of different formats, invent your own formats and no one can say you can’t do it, because hey it’s my writing and I can do whatever I want because it’s my work.

When mood strikes me and I have a roleplay partner I am keen on doing those as well. But the topic must interest me as well, otherwise I will be bored very soon and distracted by other things, books in particular are my weakness.

KB: Do you experience writer’s block? How do you deal with it?

T: I think every writer have had experienced a writer’s block at least once in their lifetime. I do too, just like everyone else, nobody is imperious to those. If a writer’s block strikes, I leave my work where it is (there is no need to force yourself to write even if all it ends up being with you staring at a sheet of paper for hours no end) and let it brew. Do your everyday things, go out with your friends, listen to music (or go to a concert) and I can assure you, the muse will return at the moment you will least expect it. Like while eating sandwich and drinking coffee in an overcrowded mall. The idea will strike and you will have to scribble it on a napkin hence you forget it.

KB: What advice would you give to the newbie writers?

T: Never give up. NEVER EVER GIVE UP. And it doesn’t matter if no one is reading your work now, or that no one is appreciating what you do, or if you are a sole reader of your work, or even if you think you write gibberish. I can assure you, one day it will all makes sense (yes even all that fanfiction I know you are hiding in the depths of your computer, because let’s admit it we’ve all been there and done that. 

Even great master minds started somewhere low (and don’t pay attention that some of them only received public recognition after their deaths, that is an uncommon occurrence nowadays).

An interview on writing done as a part of the “Write out of the closet” project.

Zdjęcia: Nina Mizgała