We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chynna Williams a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Chynna, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I had a goal to become an Athletic Trainer during my undergraduate studies at Chico State. Growing up, I was constantly surrounded by sports so I always saw a future in sports. For my Bachelor’s Degree; I studied Kinesiology, participated in an Athletic Training internship, and worked with the men’s basketball team. I did everything to reach my goal of becoming an Athletic Trainer and even applied to graduate schools for Athletic Training programs. I was accepted into all those programs, which was surprising for someone who only got into two undergraduate schools after high school. During my internship, I realized that Athletic Training was not my passion and that it was what I was expected to do. I found my passion and purpose for writing when I studied abroad in Italy for a semester.
I wrote a blog all about my travels and adventures because contacting my family at home was difficult due to the time difference. It was a form of connecting to people when I couldn’t connect with them daily. Once I returned home, I continued to exercise my writing and realized how much I loved telling stories. I continued to write whenever I could but could never finish anything.
It wasn’t until the pandemic, that I realized I wasn’t happy with where I was in life. I was only doing the things that were expected of me to do within society. The most important thing to do for someone’s sanity and peacefulness is to do what makes you happy. That’s when I decided that writing was my life goal and why I took the leap to go to graduate school for writing, completely changing my path in life.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
First and foremost I am a writer and creator, I love telling stories whether in screenwriting format, prose fiction, or short-form video content. Right now, I am working full-time as a Social Media Assistant. I don’t have much going on in terms of writing because I am working full-time now. I would love the opportunity to talk about writing with other up-and-coming writers. So, while I have time I am continuing to write to be able to share my writing someday. I am writing a Great Gatsby adaptation, taking a modern and gender-bent approach to the classic tale, which I would like people to read. I am also getting back into blog writing to expand my writing exercises and reach a new audience that I don’t get through social media.
My writing style stems from rich fantasy and science-fiction worlds with dynamic and diverse characters. I am an avid bookworm and most of the stories I write are inspired by the books I read. I love to read fantasy, literary fiction, and historical fiction which are usually the genres I write in. Some of my favorite authors are V.E. Schwab of the Darker Shades of Magic series, Holly Black who writes The Cruel Prince series, and Leigh Bardugo known for Six of Crows.
One thing that is unique to me is that I am a huge K-pop stan. During the pandemic, I got into the band BTS through my roommate who was a huge fan of them. I was taken aback by how they dance so perfectly in sync while singing live in their performances. I also found their training background to be extremely unique. K-pop music videos are extremely bright and colorful, and I find inspiration in their music videos and song lyrics for my writing. My favorite bands are BTS, &TEAM, Tomorrow X Together, Stray Kids, and Ateez.
As someone, constantly inspired by this genre of music, I would love to work in this arena. Whether creating my own K-pop world, which I have already done through my web series called “The K-Verse.” But I would also love to teach K-pop artists about Western culture and cultural appropriation. As a bi-racial artist who loves K-pop, many things need to be changed at the fast pace this genre is growing globally. I would love to be a part of that change somehow.
Apart from my passion for writing, reading, and K-pop, I also love to travel and hope to travel more. Last year, I traveled to Tokyo, Japan, and Seoul, South Korea. I would love to travel throughout other Asian countries and even the Scottish and Irish territories because I often find inspiration for writing while traveling.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Three skills every writer should focus on is being hard-working, applying accurate research to your writing, and speaking out when necessary.
Hard work is a quality that often leads to success. Most of what I did growing up and during graduate school was through my hard work, dedication, and drive. I have worked since I was sixteen years old and I think that’s where most of my hard work comes from. I don’t think you can just skate by in life to be successful. You have to put in the effort to get things done because a lot of the time opportunity doesn’t just come on a silver platter. In graduate school, I noticed, that I came from a very different background than the vast majority. I paid for graduate school through loans when some people wondered why I was doing that. There is more satisfaction in doing things on your own even if it might be more stressful because you can tell yourself you did it, on your own. I take that approach into all aspects of my life.
Another skill I am most proud of myself is that I love to research. I write a lot of complex worlds, some fantastical, some historical, and sometimes even both. Some people might not like the stories I reveal because I speak the hard-truths. But it’s important to be accurate because that was the world people lived in. I want my stories to be correct to the time period I write and I don’t want to sugar-coat anything to make it more appealing to the general population. For example, I wrote a show set in the 1950s Jim Crow South, and even as a Black and bi-racial creator there was a lot about this period I wasn’t aware of. I did hours and hours of difficult research to be accurate even though some people weren’t happy or believed me.
I also wrote a time-traveling science-fiction piece where a character was thrust back into 1800s Japan. A Professor said I shouldn’t have an entire sequence written entirely in Japanese, even though most of the research showed that there weren’t a lot of English speakers during that time. Some people weren’t happy but again, I wanted to be extremely accurate to the time-period I was writing in. I fought to have this script mainly written in subtitles even if it was to be shown to a largely American population.
This leads to my next quality or skill which is extremely important to have as a female writer. Growing up I was quiet and didn’t speak out when I felt I was being talked down to. I grew a tough shell in graduate school because I thought it was the only way people would hear me. The entertainment industry is very male-dominated and very White, and as a female bi-racial creator I know my voice is not going to be heard. I had to make my presence known in graduate school, I fought for the situations I wrote about and spoke out when I wasn’t happy with what others were writing. I think it is important to speak out when writers are degrading to women and to a certain race. I also think it’s important to speak out when you have a story to tell, a story that might be difficult to speak out on, a story that others might not be able to believe. However, it’s important to share your opinions on a certain note or feedback you don’t think is necessary. That’s the only way I can be successful as a writer even if others might not like it.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
There are many challenges I am facing right now, but one of them is being able to network. In my line of work, there isn’t much opportunity to network with people in the industry, because I work for one person. It’s difficult to network and share my work with others, especially, coming out of graduate school after a writer’s strike. The industry is still slowly starting to come back from that strike. A good way to network is to enter competitions but finances right now are tough and competitions are expensive. So, I have to be careful when I enter festivals because money is tight which is another huge challenge I’m facing. I would love advice on where to network or even to have the opportunity to discuss writing with other creators.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://chynnaw16.wixsite.com/chynna-williams
- Instagram: @chynna.writes94
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chynna-williams-802413a9/
- Youtube: @chynnawilliams1233
Image Credits
Chynna Williams Keerthana
