“Everybody loves a good story. whether it’s tales of heroes set once upon a time: or villainous drama, downfall and redemption” – Stuart “Ahoy” Brown

Ever since I was little I always adored stories, I loved how they create lovable characters and memorable interactions, I loved anticipating how the plot turns out and how the climax’s ultimate fate would become. I made my own characters and tried inserting them into these amazing worlds that are full of life and personality, but I never really took it seriously until last year, when I encountered a show that would change my perspective on writing forever.

I was simply browsing the internet, minding my own business when I found a clip of a show, the clip comprised of a young redheaded girl and a large, foreboding gentleman who had a wolf skull in place of his head. It showed them talking of mages and magic, it piqued my curiosity and I decided to look for the show. It was named the “Ancient Magus’ Bride” and the story is of a young Japanese girl named Chise Hatori, who is sold off in a secret mage auction due to her having ties with magic, a mysterious mage by the name of Elias Ainsworth then buys her for 5 Million Euros and adopts her in hopes of making her his apprentice and successor.

This was interesting because it had faeries, dragons, and mythological beings all seamlessly put into a modern urban setting. It captivated me so much to the point of me saying “That was amazing, I want to make something just as good as this story right here” and that’s when I decided that I will become a writer in the future.

As such, I decided to reach out to writers around Port Coquitlam, in hopes of finding someone who is experienced in the profession and has written in the past. That’s when I met my Interviewee, Jennifer Pownall.

Ms. Pownall is an editor, blogger and article writer. She actively pursues opportunities to develop her craft, writes reviews for her local bookstore, and is employed as the blog content manager and editor of an internationally best-selling author. She is also published in and shortlisted for a growing number of local, national, and international electronic and print publications, is a regular reader in literary events and co-facilitates a writing group.

She was the first to reach out, and up until now I was having difficulty finding someone who was willing to be interviewed for a rather niche occupation. I went down to her building and interviewed her, and i knew that it was a good decision from what I learned.

Here are the questions I asked her and her responses:

Why are you passionate about your job?

• I love writing, I wrote my first poem at age 6 and I think that there’s a lot of nuance in language, the way it can move people, and have you experience emotions like grief or joy, or in a business style where you convince someone from advertising your product to buy sales. It also has a lot of power, it’s where the saying the pen is mightier than the sword comes from, it’s the passion of writing and communicating that changes things, words are like mothers singing to their babies, like fathers teaching their sons to drive, like a boss yelling at their employees breaking them down or building them up to be great leaders, words are simply…magical.

What obstacles have you faced to get you where you are today?

• I’ve lost three pregnancies, I’ve been through reproductive treatments with hormone injections, I experienced a lot of grief and trauma, and I had a sister that died at an early age. With all of this combined, even when my son was born, I was simply paranoid and in a constant state of anxiety, which made anything other than survival impossible. When my son turned one I returned to writing, I made a book that had mythological creatures and my own poems to compliment them, that was the turning point, where I decided things were right.

What advice would you pass on to someone interested in what you are doing?

• One thing I can say is, write true to yourself. What I mean by this is you should always try to write what’s true to you, don’t try to appeal to the masses or write only to become popular, it will affect you quite a lot since you will simply be pretending to agree with what’s popular, even if you disagree or don’t associate with it, people are going to notice that you aren’t really being true to yourself, and you can only pretend for so long. If you’re going to write something, write as if it was an extension of your own voice, since you can send a deep message from what you write, do not cave in to mindless hate, but take in well-written and well thought out criticism. You should always consider all the criticism you get, not everyone is perfect, and criticism can help you change and improve in the long run as a writer.

Would you be open to further contact from Riverside students and if so, how can someone contact you?

• Yes, absolutely, although there are other methods, the best way to reach out to me is via my Facebook (facebook.com/jenniferpownallauthor), my email (write@jenniferpownallauthor.com), and my website (jenniferpownallauthor.com)

Is it possible to financially support yourself in this profession?

• It is, but there is a catch, it isn’t as simple as writing a best-selling book and earning millions, then living off that success and then writing on the side for sequels. You need to supplement that novel writing with other things that are related to writing, such as working for a publisher, at a bookstore, making workshops and lessons, anything that can help you both broaden your experience and help you earn more money while you write whatever is your next big project. But while you don’t have to write 24/7, you should find the time and energy to commit and write what you will put onto the page, because without that, you won’t be able to get the rush of fulfillment that makes you want to keep doing what you love.

What do you do when you have writer’s block?

• There are a lot of different ways that can help you alleviate this, one of these is doing boring mundane tasks don’t take up much mental effort like folding clothes, cleaning a room, washing the dishes, or playing a game that has repetitive tasks (like farming games), these keep you busy but allow the creative part of your brain to work in the background. Walking is also a good idea, since the change in setting can help your brain think. Once I was having a block myself, and to fix this I decided to go out and get some fresh air, when I got outside my building, instead of air, I was hit by the scent of sweet box, a flower that grew outside. 10 seconds after I went outside and I already had an idea, I rushed back inside and went on to write a 750-word post that I sent to a magazine, this is a great example and I’d suggest you do it too. Visual prompts are also a fun way to alleviate writer’s block, things like writing prompts that tell you to do something like “Write your entire biography in 6 sentences”, it’s crazy but it helps you wrack your brain for the bits of creativity from the restrictions the prompt said. Photo prompts like tarot cards and highly detailed landscapes can also help you, since your eyes drift towards the more interesting details that can give you ideas. But with all these suggestions there’s a lot to be said about simply writing anything that comes to mind, when you pull yourself into a chair and start writing or typing – no matter what you are doing – you are still writing, and regardless of how absurd or crazy your ideas may be, they are the steps to the next big idea.

After the interview, I’d say I came out much more enlightened on my profession, since I was having doubts and was not very knowledgeable on the professional side of writing, I was simply thinking of how to make a good story rather than the technical part of being a writer. I have now considered how I can be a writer and still be able to pursue the big novel projects I had planned before. I am grateful for this opportunity and will have it be the basis of my writing career.