Scottie is a 12 year old writer from the United States. She juggles both her music channel on YouTube and her account on a writing site called Movellas. She is MrsTomlinson1224 on this site and she loves to talk with fellow writers, poets, and hopeful young authors in search for writing advice. She loves to write songs, stories, and poems. Scottie has been encouraged to write for some time now, but has not really gotten into it until late 2010.

How long have you been writing for and why did you start?

Well, I have been writing poetry for some time, I think since I was 8 years old. So, that would be 4 years since then. I have been writing songs since God knows when. But back in Elementary school, they were stupid songs about stuff like fried chicken and slinkys. Now, I love to write actual songs that would be sensible to put on an album or something. I’m currently working on two; Alright and Famous. I have been writing books for 2 years now. I wrote a full-blown short-story for an english assignment last year- A!

Do you have an author that has inspired you the most? and if so how?

As most others do, I love Jaqueline Wilson. She is a big inspiration, her writing just jumps out at me. I love it.
A book I’m currently in the middle of is Uglies by Scott Westerfield. I’m only on, say, chapter 4, but it really is magnificent work. I haven’t really gotten to the point where everything clicks since I’m so early in the book, but I have a pretty good idea. Where the book is going, I can tell it is a fantastic book.
I also love work by Wendy Mass. She’s written a lot of books, but I really love 11 Birthdays and 12 Finally. There is a 13 one, but I can’t remember off the tip of my tongue. Her writing is humorous and Wendy Mass, I must say, is quite talented with her cliffhangers! I also love to keep my readers on the edge of their seat with my work. I’m not sure how that’s working out for me, though. I also love the Matched series by Ally Condie, the Divergent series by Veronica Roth, and The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins (like a lot of other people, I love those books so much).

Whats your preferred genre? (and why?)

I love them all! Biography and information books normally bore me- unless they are world record books or something like that. I really love a really specific kind of genre, probably not even a genre, and those are Dystopian love stories. My favorite out of those is Divergent and Insurgent because it gives me a glimpse of the author’s point of view of the future and Beatrice and Four (Tris and Tobias) going on adventures and going through it all. The Hunger Games is also undoubtedly a fantastic book. I also love Delirium by Laruen Oliver. I haven’t finished that yet. Dystopian stories catch my interest because it tells me what the author’s thinking is about the future and what kind of thing goes on in their thoughts of the future.

Do you plan on making a career out of your writing?

If my whole plan in the music industry and my plans for X Factor don’t work out, then writing and becoming an author is what I really want to fall back on. Writing is really fun for me, any kind of writing. Writing this interview is actually kind of fun too! I love writing everything, but if I ever become relatively famous, I don’t like writing biographies so I can hire someone to do that for me. Haha! I’m interested in making a career off of writing like other users on Movellas, but I’m not sure if my writing would be good enough. I would have to have a lot of time, too!


What’s the process you go through starting from having an idea, to a completed book?

Sometimes, I will just be humming a song and I come across a very good lyric. I write that down on a slip of paper and once I get access to my notebook or my journal, I look at that lyric and think about what kind of ideas could go along with that lyric. Once I select an idea, I start writing a prologue to see if I like where my story is going. If I don’t, I trash that idea and pick another from my list so I always have some other ideas to fall back on and work with. If I do like it, I sometimes go on Movellas and post the first few chapters to see what other users think of my work. If they like it, I keep going until I finish it and see if I complete my book with a cliffhanger. I love cliffhangers- it keeps your readers in suspense! Sometimes, I see people flip out on how much they want the next chapter- some people are crazy like that. Then again, I do that too.

How often do you write?

It depends on what I’m trying to write. If we are talking about a song here, pretty much every day. Just a few hours ago during 2D Art class, I was talking to my friend on how I had a bad day a few weeks ago. I said, “I need a new day.” and a new song was born. I’m working on the verses right now and it should be done by, probably, tomorrow. I usually can’t htink of a topic to write my poems on, so I take an idea from my song and I turn it into a poem. Now if we are talking about stories, it takes me an hour or two to actually complete a chapter. Sometimes, I just don’t have time to proofread and I end up with tons of mistakes! But, everyone makes those now and then. Overall, I would say I write fairly often.

How many stories have you written?

I have written quite a few, but barely any of them are finished. On Movellas, for my stories that are acutally stories, I have 13 stories that I have actually come up with myself. The rest of them are ideas that aren’t really mine, I was just chosen to co-author with certain people. I have a few poems and a lot of songs in the works. I try and come up with ideas for updating quite a lot. My friends say I am completely obsessed with writing! But really, I’m completely obsessed with both music and writing! I love having two things to work with, it makes me feel like I actually have things to do. People like what I write, people like what I sing, and people like what I play on guitar, so why quit if people like it? Ooh, I like that! That is a good bit of advice.

What advice would you give young and perhaps inexperienced writers?

There are lots of books that are really fabulous out there and you never know if it is a good book or not unless you read it. Same thing with movies and books.
Your opinion might not be important to others, but it is important to you. Stay true to yourself, your thoughts, and your writing.

Thanks a bunch Scottie!