Welcome to my second feature interview! Here’s an interview I did with Nia Mahmud, who is a fifteen year old writer from Florida. She writes primarily contemporary fiction and poetry, and she’s been writing since she was seven years old. If you’d like to keep up with Nia’s writing, follow her on instagram @nia.m.writer and take a look around her website here

What are you currently working on? When/where will it be available to read?

I am currently working on a contemporary fiction novel and poetry collection. I’ve actually only started writing poetry in March of this year, whereas I’ve been writing stories and coming up with novel ideas my whole life. Which is why it’s a little crazy for me that I halted writing my novel in order to focus on my poetry collection. Nonetheless, I’m planning on self publishing my poetry collection in November or December of this year! After publication, I’m planning to dive back into my novel.

What gives you inspiration? How do you translate that into your writing?

Everything gives me inspiration. Nature, my friends, laughter, little memories, feelings, conversations, family. I draw inspiration from nearly everything around me. In my writing, I turn all of this inspiration into poems and stories. Different things that people have told me will stick with me, how someone made me feel, going places with friends, being with family that lives far. I sit down to write and draw from those experiences. My writing is a direct result of everything around me, and I have never encountered a lack of inspiration.

What’s your biggest writing struggle?

My biggest writing struggle is definitely imposter syndrome. It’s this overwhelming feeling that my writing doesn’t measure up to other writers, or even to the standards I’ve set for myself. It holds me back in my writing a lot.

What do you want your readers to take away from your writing?

The most significant thing for me is I want my readers to feel seen and heard. I want them to feel recognized. For example, in my novel writing, it’s really important to me to show Latinx main characters. I don’t see many Latinx characters represented in novels, and I grew up never really getting to recognize that part of me in characters I read. I want to write that and have readers feel seen and represented in a way they haven’t really gotten to feel before. 

In my poetry, I want my readers to feel seen, and like they belong. Whatever topic my piece is touching on, I want my readers to feel impacted by my words. No matter what I write, I want the takeaway to be a feeling. I want my readers to leave feeling what my work was impactful, I want them to leave feeling moved in some way. That’s the most significant thing to me in my writing, and the best thing anyone could tell me- ‘that made me feel something.’

What’s a unique writing “quirk” you have?

I don’t know if I’d call it a quirk, but I always write with music, and I make specific playlists for it. When I’m editing, though, sometimes I’ll listen without music.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

I would tell my younger self to stop being afraid and stop waiting. I didn’t start writing consistently for a long time because I believed to pursue a career in writing I had to wait until ‘I grew up.’ I wish I hadn’t waited and known that it’s never too early to start going after your dreams.

Can you share a sneak peek/quote from what you’re currently working on? 

‘what more will i put my heart through,

beating, racing,

slamming against my ribcage

how much more

will my heart be forced to love

pausing to smell the blooming flowers of spring

resting in the summer sun until it burns

lingering on the leaves of fall once they’ve withered to nothing

rolling around in the winter snow once its melted’ 

-a part of a much longer poem that will be featured in my poetry collection

What’s your favorite part of the writing process? Why?

My favorite part of the writing process is the initial idea and draft. I love coming up with an idea, sitting down, and being able to just type and let the idea come to life. It’s a sort of delirious development of fingers flying across the keyboard, and my idea materializing. Any spout of inspiration that causes a writing burst, in which I don’t even go back to edit while I’m writing it- that is the best part of the writing process for sure.

What’s writing advice you often hear you believe to be false? Why?

I absolutely hate hearing the advice to ‘write every day even if you don’t feel like it.’ I feel like it perpetuates an ideal in writers that productivity is valued over the quality of your art, which I wholeheartedly disagree with. The advice operates under the idea that writing is the same as any other non-creative profession, and pushes the ideal, as society does, that productivity is the most important thing. It makes writers feel bad when they take a short break, and they shouldn’t have to. 

Some of my best work comes when I’m on the brink of creative burnout and I decide to take a week break from writing. When I take that break, it not only reminds me how much I love writing, but it allows me to be still, and be inspired without feeling pressured to create. When I return from that break, I’m more productive than I was before. More importantly, I’m happier writing than I was before the break. I think like all advice, it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. There are days when I just don’t feel like writing and need to force myself. There’s a difference between needing to push yourself a little to write and burnout. I think the advice ‘write every day even if you don’t feel like it’ tends to blur those lines.

Big thank you to Nia for her amazing interview. I hope you enjoyed having an insight into her work.

If you’d like to be interviewed for my blog, sent me a message on instagram @elizarkent