Take a moment to read "Unclean" (CLICK HERE) and then come back to learn about how Emily shaped this story.
----interview with Sue Bradford Edwards----
WOW: What was the inspiration for “Unclean”?
Emily: I was drawn to the specific aspect of coming of age in which you start to see the distance between your expectations and reality. One area I've noticed that this often appears in for young women is sex. You spend your teenage years growing attached to a theoretical version of the act, informed by romance books filled with orgasmic, idealized lovemaking. However, for many, early explorations of intimacy can be deeply unsatisfying. You not only find yourself coming down from a flood of hormones, but also from the intoxicating rush of that failed fantasy. I wanted to write a story about a young woman's first time that was less about a loss of "innocence" and more about this concept of the death of a dream.
WOW: I think you've written something that will definitely resonate with female readers. Revision is such an important part of the writing process. How did this story change during revision?
Emily: Since "Unclean" is about a young woman grappling with complicated feelings about her first sexual experience, I wanted to make sure I communicated her emotional state in a way the reader could easily connect with. While editing, I tried to be precise with the imagery that I used so that even while the character jumps between her memories and the present, readers can feel immersed in her perspective and hopefully connect with the underlying emotions tying these moments together.
WOW: Your bio says that you like working with morally grey characters. How is this character morally grey? What is it that makes these characters interesting to you?
Emily: I've always been drawn to morally grey characters because I feel like they are often the most honest. Dig around long enough in any person's psyche and you are certain to uncover something ugly. For the young woman in "Unclean," this is her naïve and flawed belief that because there are boundaries that should keep her from the man she sleeps with -- those being the fact that he is married and her teacher -- her attraction and attempts to pursue him are safe and acceptable. I wanted her perspective to represent how overindulging in fantasy can limit your perception of reality and lead to a self-indulgent and ultimately damaging way of viewing the world.
WOW: You definitely showed how her beliefs led to this situation. In addition to writing flash, you have a novel on submission. How does working on one form of literature inform the other?
Emily: I actually have always found flash fiction much harder to write than novels. It challenges you to do everything that a good book should do -- immerse you in a new perspective, foster a connection with a character, and draw readers into the world you've created -- in a fraction of a fraction of the time a novel gets to accomplish that.
But if you are a writer looking to work on your craft, I think writing short fiction is one of the best ways you can accomplish that. After my debut went out on submission, I challenged myself to write a piece of short fiction every morning while I tried to figure out what project I want to work on next. I've noticed that since getting into that habit, my writing has gotten much tighter, so I would especially recommend any writers who struggle to cut down their word count try it out.
WOW: That's an excellent recommendation! What advice do you have for our readers who may be trying to decide if they should focus on one type of writing (novels) or write multiple forms (novels, nonfiction, flash, etc.)?
Emily: Whether you are a new writer or someone who's made a career of it, I highly recommend trying out as many types of writing as you can. Play around with poetry, write a narrative non-fiction essay, try out flash fiction if you've been primarily writing long-form or vice versa. Regardless of whether you stick with any of those forms or not, you will probably be able to implement something from that experience into the form you do want to stick with long term. The more you experiment and explore, the better your understanding of the kind of work you want to create will be.
WOW: Thank you for sharing with our readers not only how you create your own work but also how our readers can explore various forms and shape their own writing!
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