About Rrrenbo:
Rrrenbo is a South African writer, singer, actor, and professional overthinker. He is the author of two books available to read for free on Wattpad, with many more on the way. In his free time, Rrrenbo enjoys reading, singing, drawing, making cringey YouTube videos, working out, and binge-watching his favourite movies and TV shows.
What inspires you to write?
For as long as I can remember, writing has been a passion of mine. When I was in preschool, I would come up with all these weird and wonderful stories, and ask my grandmother to write them down for me. I remember my first "book" was called 'the Adventures of Boongi and Slovery', and the first one was about a dog and a snake that had to help the Mouse King save Christmas for his family. After that, it sort of became like an "anthology", if I can call it that. I remember a couple of stories I'd come up with ended up in my preschool's magazine.
Then, moving on to primary school (grades 1 through 7), my writing sort of slowed down a lot, due to me being bullied and basically having no motivation to do anything at all. Then, when highschool (grades 8 through 12) came about, I thought, 'screw them' and started channeling all my hurt, anger, and trauma into an old passion: writing. That being said, I never scored below 80% for an English subject Creative Writing assignment. I spent most of grade 8 and the first couple of months outlining and detailing a series of 8 books, and then between April 2019 and April 2020, I wrote and self-edited my first book of the series, Dragonfae, and made it available for free on Wattpad. As of now, Dragonfae is in the beta-reading phase, and I am writing the second book of the series, Ghost of a Chance.
The reason Dragonfae took a year to write (it's +-73 000 words) is because I changed schools twice over that year and spent most of my time catching up school work, but I started Ghost of a Chance in April 2020, and I am at 60 000 out of a 100 000 word goal as of July 2020.
While I was outlining my series in grades 8 and 9, I started writing fanfictions on Wattpad simultaneously, in order to build up skills and gain practise.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
Colleen Houck is my absolute favourote (and criminally underrated) author. Some others include:
George RR Martin
Liane Moriarty
Jenna Moreci
Lois Lowry
Jane Austen
Stephenie Meyer (kind of a guilty pleasure)
And JK Rowling (Please note that I do not respect her as a person and do not, in any way, stand by or support any of her comments and transphobia, I just read her stories)
Tell us about your writing process.
It's quite simple for me, really:
– Outlining
– Writing and critique partners
– First self-edit
– Second self-edit
– Beta readers
– Third self-edit
As of now, that is my process. Once all eight books of the series are written, I plan to try and get them traditionally published. If that doesn't happen, then I plan on self-publishing. But I don't plan on leaving them on Wattpad forever.
I am a planner through-and-through. I spent roughly a year planning and outlining eight novels, and I still go back every now and then and revisit/revise my outline(s). I have what I jokingly refer to as a mural on my bedroom wall, which is basically just a messy collection of sticky notes. Whenever people look at it, they're like "how on Earth do you understand what's going on?" and truthfully, I'm surprised I don't get confused by it. I say that because my books are told through different POV's, so it's not just one timeline, there are different branches that extend from the main timeline, and that's most likely what confuses people when they see my mural.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
This is an interesting question. I think it depends on the character. For the main characters, most definitely! Each book in my series has a slightly different cast of characters, but most of the characters appear in more than one book. For example, the lead character of Dragonfae (Jazpah) appears in a flashback in Ghost of a Chance, and a supporting character in Ghost of a Chance (Agatha del Sordas) has a minor role in Dragonfae. So, I sometimes take two or three characters, and I think 'if they were real, and they were all trapped in an elevator, how would that play out?' If the characters would end up not getting along and arguing, but the scene I'm trying to write needs to be calm and mellow, then I won't have those specific characters in that scene together, if that makes sense?
Also, what I'll sometimes do it put myself in a character's shoes, and be like, 'what would such-and-such character do?' if I feel like their reaction or something seems out of character, so to speak.
What advice would you give other writers?
Set yourself goals. Without goals, you'll always say 'I'll do it later', but last I checked, there were seven days in a week, and "later" isn't one of them. If you don't stick to your goals at first, then don't beat yourself up over it; you're still figuring things out, and seeing what you're actually capable of. For instance, if you're a single parent of fifty-two kids and have eleven jobs, setting a goal of writing 10 000 words a day is not realistic, and if you don't meet it, then that's perfectly understandable, so try and adjust your goals to fit you and your lifestyle. Your goals should be achievable, realistic, purposeful, and have a deadline.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
As of now (July 2020), my plan is to publish each one to Wattpad, until I have all 8 books in my series written up until the final draft, and then I can spend all my time and energy looking for an agent, and then go from there, as opposed to doing what so many authors do, by trying to write and edit and look for an agent and a cover designer and reread all at the same time. I know myself, and I know I can only do so much at a time. So while my approach may seem strange to some, I know it will be what's best for me and my mental health.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
For the near future (let's say the next 5-10 years), I see the publishing industry staying strong, in put physical and digital copies of books being made available. As for beyond then, I see books being made available online more and more, and physical copies less and less.
What genres do you write?: Fantasy/Drama/Romance/Sci-Fi
What formats are your books in?: eBook
Website(s)
Rrrenbo Home Page Link
Your Social Media Links
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
