why I'm a storyteller
what an aspiring young writer takes inspiration from with writtenbyemiley
Every storyteller has a reason why. Not just why they started writing in the first place, but also why they can’t stop.
We asked Emiley (@writtenbyemiley) to bring five physical items that describe her as a storyteller and gave her the best inspiration for starting her writing journey. This is what she shared with us.
Before we dive in, tell us a bit about yourself.
Hi, my name is Emily! I'm 18 years old and I started doing social media about three years ago, but I kind of started taking it seriously, I'd say about a year ago. And now I'm mainly on Instagram, but I've recently started my YouTube channel, which I love over there. I started writing a little later than I feel like most people do, I started writing books when I was 14. But once again, I only really started taking that seriously about it's a two-ish years ago.
I actually like to write in a bunch of different genres, mainly I would say I do enjoy writing in more of like fantasy sci-fi more than like contemporary. But I also love reading in many different genres. That's actually something that I think is a little different about me than other people. I feel like most people have a favorite drama, but I can never pick one because people always say like, what's your favorite book? What's your favorite genre? I'm like, can I say all of them?
Item #1: Wooden Rose Bouquet
These are actually handmade roses out of wood. Funny enough, there's this place that me and my family go to sometimes. We call it a smorgasbord, but I don't think that's what other people call it. I guess it would be an all-you-can-eat buffet. And under this buffet, there's this huge store, but sometimes in the lobby, there will be people that are selling things.
But particularly, there was this really sweet older man, and he was selling these roses. And there were hundreds of them, like buckets full of every color that you could think of. And I was just amazed that he literally handmade all of these. And my first thought was, how are your hands doing? Because, oh, my goodness, like, as somebody that has a lot of hobbies, I can understand, like, getting hand cramps and stuff. But I picked this because I don't know if there's like a specific quote, but when people say that you can see someone's soul through their eyes. And you can look at somebody and you can just tell they're a really kind person. And I just remember when I was buying these roses from him, he was just like, one of the sweetest people I've ever met. And he just had the kindest eyes. And for me as a writer, I like remembering very small details and vivid details, you could say. And I love adding just tiny little details in my writing about my specific characters. And I would say my specific characters have very unique little things about them that I just like adding to make them unique, obviously. But that's just, every time I look at these, I remember these, the man because he was just so kind and had the kindest eyes I've ever seen.
Do you take a lot of inspiration from memories in your life? Is this just one instance or do you feel like you think about things that you've experienced in your life and incorporate that in your work?
I think it depends. Sometimes I do. I do that for characters, but usually for characters, I kind of take like memories from strangers. But I guess like certain stories I will take from memories, but I guess it just depends. But most of the time I do. I think a lot of writers do that, to be honest, even if they don't mean to. Like indirectly, I do think people take from their subconscious minds.
Item #2: Digital Camera
So this is my little digital camera that I put little stickers on both sides that I love. And this inspires me because I have been lucky enough to travel different places in the world. And I have brought this camera with me almost everywhere. So every time I look at this camera, kind of like you said, I take from memories. Back to that, actually, I take a lot of inspiration from structures and buildings that I've seen. So I use those type of memories in my books as well. But this just reminds me of all of the beautiful and cool places that I've been, especially I was in Germany. Their normal houses are just so gorgeous, like compared to here in the States. I'm so jealous that people just get to walk around and see this every single day.
You may not call yourself a photographer, but do you find that your artistry when you take pictures, helps compose a scene in your writing? If you're taking some sort of composition with your digital camera, do you ever find inspiration within that?
I never thought of that before! Yeah, I guess I think so. I love to scrapbook. So I guess like sometimes I'll take pictures with like the thought of mind of, oh, this is going in a scrapbook. So I say, yeah, I do. I would not consider myself a photographer though, because I see so many people that are just like so talented when it comes to, I'm like, how did you even think of that?
So when you are taking pictures and you're getting inspiration, is this something that you find really important in the process? Like how important are mood boards to you while writing?
Oh yeah, 100%. I love Pinterest and I recently found like another website called Cosmos. I love [and] need visuals. Anytime I'm writing, I have to have a Pinterest page open. I have to have a mood board open. I have to have some sort of visual. I have to be able to see what I'm writing, especially in scenes where I am describing a new setting for the reader. I need to be able to see it myself. And sometimes what I've done is if I can't find a picture of what I want, I'll like sketch it out or something. I'm nowhere near being an artist or anything, but sometimes, especially my main character, she lives in this underground subway and she's taken like 2 carts and pushed them together and made it into a home. But obviously, that's not something you can really look up. So I've had to like kind of draw my own thing, especially when I'm writing. I can't be confused because if I'm confused in writing, who knows what the reader's going to be thinking when they're reading.
Item #3: Star Wars DVD Set
Funny enough, I watched Star Wars for the first time [last] September. I'm very late to the game. It was because my sister has loved Star Wars for years. She's older than me. And I remember her going to the theaters, like, seeing the sequels and stuff. I just remember always thinking, “why would she like this? It's just some dumb sci-fi story. I don't know why anybody would want to watch this.” And I remember watching, just the main trilogy, and then the prequels and the sequels, and I liked all of them. But I remember after watching them, I was so in awe. I was genuinely speechless.
I mean, to be fair, literally, the prequels made me cry so hard. I was like on the floor sobbing. It was so bad. But I love stories that get you emotionally invested. And I was thinking after this, I was like, okay, I need my stories to be like this. I need people to be on the floor sobbing, wondering why I wrote this.
But even I was so amazed at the world building in Star Wars. I had no idea that there was so many unique planets. There was one planet where it was very futuristic, and it was reminding me of my own book and [it became] such an inspiration to me. And especially, I had no idea that Star Wars had gut-wrenching romance in it. I literally had no idea. And afterwards, I'm like, “Melanie, why didn't you make me see this sooner?” She's like, “I've been begging you for years!” I was so hooked. So with all of that said, huge inspiration to me. And I cannot believe I did not watch it sooner.
What are some things that you take away from Star Wars and apply to genres of sci-fi, like your book that you're writing right now?
I would say specifically I loved the technology. My book is very like technology heavy. and that's something I'm actually not too educated in. So I was like, I need to research this more. And I would say technology, but also like the really rich world. I recently went to a master class and it was talking about like, writing your book, but having series ideas in mind. And one of the key things about that is having a very rich universe that you can pull from, but also look at from different angles. And that's something that I really admired about Star Wars, because it's such a simple idea, but the universe is so rich. You can literally look at it from so many different angles.
This is something that would be further into the future because you're currently writing this story right now. But because you're looking at it in a lens from other angles, would you consider doing other parts and building off of this world in like a serialized fiction or other dream projects? Maybe further expanding this universe you're creating?
It's actually so funny you asked that because I've literally been thinking about that the past like week and a half. So the project I'm working on right now is a duology. And I really only see it being a duology just because of how my main character's arcs are. But in this world, there's four different cities. And this duology is focused on mainly one city, but also another city. So the other cities are more of just like in the book because of lore. But I have had ideas of being able to tell like the same story in the same timeline, but maybe from different people that are from these different cities. So yeah, it would be a dream of mine. Leigh Bardugo, who wrote Six of Crows, I know that she has like a trilogy and a duology that are separate, but they're from the same world. And when I saw that, I was like, wait, I didn't know you could do this, it’s such a great idea. So I've been thinking about that recently.
Item #4: Headphones
We have my headphones because I listen to music all the time when I write. I barely write in silence. I just, I can't do it. It gets too loud in the way. So I know a lot of people that cannot listen to music that has words in it. I used to be that way. I used to only be able to listen to instrumental. But recently, I've been able to start listening to music with words. So I listen to a mixture of different types of music. Honestly, when I write, depending on the project, obviously, I have specific playlists for each project, as most writers probably do. Sometimes I will, if I don't want to listen to music, I listen to brown noise, which is like white noise, but it's softer.
But music is such a huge inspiration to me as well. I feel like most writers also think that. But it really, like, sets the tone. If I'm listening to music, it can still put me, like, in the world again. For the book I'm writing right now, I love soundtracks. I love, obviously, the Star Wars soundtrack. I love the Arcane soundtrack. I also love the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack is one of my favorite classical music. But one of the albums I listen to nonstop for Project Eclipse is the AM album by Arctic Monkeys. I love that album. And I will literally listen to that album on repeat while writing. And it's a 40-minute-long album, so sometimes I'll just listen to the whole album and just write that entire time. But besides the fact that music is like a huge inspiration, it also just helps me focus because sometimes it's really hard to get distracted for me sometimes when it comes to writing, especially if I like don't want to write one day. And it's just a way to kind of get me in the mood.
Do you have playlists for the worlds your write or specific characters?
I do have one for specific characters. Sometimes I get kind of anal with my playlist. I'll have a main playlist for a project. Sometimes I have certain playlists for a romance between two characters, and then I'll have individual playlists for characters, mainly just main characters. I have ones for Project Eclipse for one of my main characters, but I think that also really just helps me with character arcs, character art, character motivation, internal thoughts and things like that.
Item #5: The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift
So this is my CD of The Tortured Poets Department. And if you know me, I love Taylor Swift, but I love this album in particular because I remember when - it's two years old now, actually, as of yesterday. That shows you how much I'm obsessed with it because I know when it was released. I literally feel like Taylor broke into my house and read my diary and wrote this album about me, and I know a lot of people feel that way. One of my favorite things about this album is, like, the lyricism. I love everything with desperation, angst. I love anything tragic. I cannot write a book that's, like, super happy. I will read happy books sometimes, but I just can't see myself writing them. I specifically love to go through and flip through the lyric book. But I just love being able to look at the actual lyrics and stuff. I used to actually write a lot of poetry. I don't really anymore. But something like this, I'd love to look through this before writing poetry as inspiration. But like I said, music is just a huge inspiration to me in general, and specifically this album, because I feel like she's able to put so many different emotions into words.
And obviously as a writer, your goal is to be able to do something like that. And I just feel like the way she encompasses heartbreak and grief and just everything is so perfectly put into words. And it's like, I aspire to be like this. I aspire for my books to at least be 10% as well written as this.
Want to support Emiley’s work?
Emiley’s Socials: Instagram, YouTube, Substack
 | A guest post by
|