Guest Interview - Ryan Dunar

Below is the first interview of my wednesday-guest-blogging series. Many of my guest bloggers will be innovative teen writers from Fictionpress or those who also have a blog. Ryan Dunar, another teen writer, shares some of his opinions and knowledge about the writing experience.

What do you write? (Fiction; nonfiction; the genre;)

I write Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, and Fantasy. I guess you can think of me as a Lord of The Rings type of author, except with historically accurate battles and a combination of swords and guns.

Have you been published in any form? If so, explain what happened.

Yes, I have in fact been published in the past. This is what happened: An author by the name of Allan Wolf was due to visit the school that I had been attending, and my language arts teacher chose me to introduce him. I proudly accepted and went to work, and all of this with the wrong directions. I ended up arriving late, but just in time to introduce him in the final moments of his being there. We shook hands and chatted for a few minutes. I told him that we had been writing some poetry in class and that I was a budding author myself. Long story short (if you call this short), I sent him an E-Mail with the poems we had written; he enjoyed mine in particular and posted it on his website - so I am, in-fact, a published author . :P

Are you taking on any writing projects now? Explain.

Currently I am trying to get back in the spirit of writing. Until I can think of ‘the ultimate idea’ to write about, I am stuck trying to plan one up.

What got you into writing?

Alright; this happened when I was just about 11 or 12 during the summer break after my fourth grade year. My dad brought home the movie ‘The Last Samurai’ and I stayed up late to watch it (during that time, late would be past11 o’clock) and was so inspired by the final battle that I decided to write.

I don’t remember exactly how it started or what I had written - the pages were not saved to my computer, instead written in the message posting box of an online forum (its exact content fell into the dark abyss of deleted stories while I had gone on vacation). I remember staying up 'till around 1 A.M. just writing. My mom woke up and spotted me typing away. Since she was in a nice mood, she helped me edit my paper.

It brings back good memory’s to think of how she had tried to edit my post, but the message posting timer always went off right before we could post the finished product. This continued on for a few nights; in the end, I might have written about 5 or so chapters with about 2,000 characters in each one (As the content was deleted, I can not know for sure).

What are your career interests?

Writing, as you can probably tell. I plan to become some kind of author (freelance is the direction I am going in at the moment), using a college degree in history (anything along the lines of American wars or ancient cultures/wars) to make my worlds more realistic and hopefully get famous!

Who are your inspirations?

First of all, I would have to say my father (May he rest in peace. July 5th 2007) as he brought home the fateful movie that started my interest and guided me to become who I am today. Then I would have to say my English teachers - Ms. Nowell, who allowed me to meet Mr. Allan Wolf, and my current teacher Ms. Lucus, who occasionally allows us to free write during class and/or for homework.

What keeps you going as a writer?

This is hard to say... I am currently going through a major writers block as I try to find my passion once again. Besides that I would have to say the world around me. I love to read and use ideas inspired by those books to write. I watch movies and try and write about things inspired by them. I guess you can say that I try to get inspired by anything I can be inspired by.

What advice would you give to other teen writers?

Hmm advice to teen writers. This is a very hard one, and I can only say good luck to my fellow writers. Trying to manage school work, preparing for college (if you are preparing), and living your social lives all at the same time. What a hard thing to do for people who might not even be driving yet and are trying to succeed. The only thing to remember is that we are only human and have so little free time (use it wisely, for school is very important). Keep working hard. I hope that you all accomplish great writing feats!

Is there anything you'd like to add?

Only that I am so glad that you (WriterGurlLW aka Tiffany C.) have allowed me to be posted on your blog, and that I wish you the best with ‘The Awakening’ {Savior of the Supernatural}

If you are interested in this post, please check out my upcoming blog http://writersawakening.blogspot.com/ or my fiction press account (still working on posting some of my writing on it) at http://www.fictionpress.com/~ahmenrah

Thank you for reading:
AhmenRah (Ryan Dunar)