Interview with James Eu

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Hello everyone! Welcome back to another interview. This week, I asked James EU some questions about what writing means to him. I also included information about his new book on productivity. Check out the questions below! Find more information about him and his book at teenproductivityproject.wordpress.com.

1) What does writing mean to you? What do you think the purpose of writing is?

Writing is a way to preserve something I deem important enough to put down in written form to achieve a specific purpose. Some writing is done out of necessity like with business or personal communications. Creative writing, however, arises more out of a desire. When I am bursting with emotions or feelings, I may turn to poetry as an artistic way to capture my state of mind. When I see my kids struggling with something or wish to convey to them the importance of something (perseverance, for instance) and find that simply telling them isn’t enough, I feel the desire to write short stories for them to subtly infuse the learning element into the story.

As my kids are avid readers, the stories are more effective at reaching them than parent lectures. With my upcoming book “The Teen Productivity Project: Master Your Time, Crush Your Goals,” my desire was to help my kids navigate through all the many distractions and obligations in their lives, to help them prioritize their day, and ultimately to free up enough time for them to be able to do what they enjoy the most. To answer your question about what I think the purpose of writing is, I would say it’s highly dependent on my immediate goal. But essentially, writing is a way to communicate my thoughts and ideas, both as an art of preservation as well as a dynamic tool for evolving different narratives.

2) What particular genre do you write in? Why are you passionate about that genre?

Realizing that my background leans more toward the technical side than the creative, I seek out opportunities to leverage creativity in my technical work which ends up enhancing it. I say that to provide some background into why, out of all the different genres I am passionate about, I chose the Self-Help genre for my first attempt at writing a book. As someone with diverse interests, I have story ideas in various hybrid genres: Science Fantasy, Culinary Fiction, Romance/Adventure, Cyberpunk/Existential Sci-Fi, Techno-Thriller, and Middle-Grade Fantasy Adventure, all of which I’d like to explore in the future. Of course, I have more ideas than time to execute! Among these genres, I prioritized Self-Help for its high potential to positively impact readers and for its timely relevance to my own children.

3) What does being a writer mean to you?

At this point, writing is more of a hobby for me. Even so, my mind is consumed by whatever writing project I am working on to the point where I tend to view everything through the lens of potential material for my work. Unfortunately, this also means I occasionally forget important tasks, such as paying bills on time.

4) Where and how do you find inspiration?

Inspiration for me usually emerges organically – from interactions with others, from something I’ve read, or simply being observant and letting my thoughts flow. Interestingly, sometimes one thing leads to another and what starts out as unrelated ideas end up fitting together to form something worth exploring. My kids, often unintentionally, provide inspiration like with my first book and a couple of others I’ve started.

5) What are some of the challenges you face as a writer and how do you combat them when you sit down to write or even just prepare to write?

By far, my biggest challenge is having more projects than time allows, which forces me to prioritize among them. Trying to focus on the project at hand while fostering new ideas that sometimes arise out of the blue to avoid forgetting them is quite a balancing act. Combating these challenges is a work in progress but applying proven time management and productivity principles certainly helps. It’s a bit ironic that a productivity book author sometimes struggles with productivity!

6) Where can we find some of your writing?

I have not published my previous works because I never considered publication until recently. I’ve dabbled in poetry but have not created enough pieces to publish and many of them are poems written for specific people. However, friends encouraged me to publish the teen productivity book I wrote for my kids “The Teen Productivity Project: Master Your Time, Crush Your Goals” to help other teens who may be struggling with time management, goal setting, and productivity. Look for the book on Amazon in the weeks ahead!

In the meantime, readers can visit my blog for actionable tips on various aspects of teen productivity.

After that, I plan to resume work on a Middle-Grade Fantasy Adventure, “The Story Hunters.” It follows a tech-addicted middle schooler who discovers that he can manipulate reality through writing in a magical dimension, and he must now team up with other uniquely gifted teens to embrace their destinies and protect both their world and our own, from those who want to control the narrative. I started this story in hopes of encouraging my kids to see writing as a powerful communication tool, especially when used effectively.

7) Where can we reach you?

The best way to contact me is via my website, teenproductivityproject.wordpress.com.

8) What are some interesting facts about you?

I’m a lifelong learner. After graduating from grad school, I loved the learning environment so much that I continued to sit in on classes until one day my advisor noticed and asked me about my intentions. Fortunately, learning new things has become easier these days with the abundance of resources available for virtually any topic you can think of, eliminating the need to attend classes unregistered.

Here’s a fun fact about me: I once prevented a fire at work from spreading out of control by remembering the location of a fire extinguisher. You know how we may pass by something nearly every day and never notice it was there all this time? Luckily, being observant, I remembered the fire extinguisher in the hallway that led to the large room where dozens of us worked in cubicles. When a space heater somehow caused one of the cubicles to catch on fire, I ran out to the hallway and used the extinguisher to put out the flames before the fire could spread. They still evacuated the entire building and after the fire department allowed us back in, the ventilation system had left a fine layer of soot covering every surface. Cleaning off the soot took much longer than putting out the fire!

Thanks for joining, James! Best of luck with your upcoming book. Once again, you can learn more about him and Teen Productivity at teenproductivityproject.wordpress.com. Happy reading!

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