Meet Katya Awar | Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Katya Awar and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Katya, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I started writing from a young age in order to process some deep and confusing feelings I was having about myself and life in general. I think when you’re young, people doubt the severity of your issues, so I relied on the online community I found through Wattpad.com. Being able to publish a chapter of my novel every week and have people immediately comment and resonate with my writing was a great source of comfort. My success on the website gave me the confidence to pursue writing professionally, and it excited me to think of turning a creative outlet into a career, especially since I grew up in such a logical family.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My main focus when writing a story is developing relatable characters with real-world problems, and then creating an insane story for them to live through to give the reader a little escape from reality. One of the reasons I love reading is because I’m transported into worlds and circumstances I could never find myself in, but when a character has similar traits to me, I can play pretend for a while. I’d say the hardest part of my creative journey so far was transitioning from novel to screenplay, because you have to be so clever and intentional with every scene you write. My first screenwriting professor at Northeastern University really put her faith in me and walked me through the basics, and my professors at Chapman University completely shaped my skills and grew my love for writing even more. I attribute all my talent in screenwriting to those professors, and it’s crazy to think of how far my writing has come even just from my novel. I give a piece of myself to everything I write, whether it’s in the problems my characters face or just writing characters that look like me, so having work that’s so personal be well received by professionals is very fulfilling.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
The best thing about LA is that there are endless things to do! I would definitely take visiting friends to the beach, probably in Santa Monica. We’d have to do the classics like the Hollywood walk of fame and shopping at the Grove, but there are also cool events like listening to live music at the LACMA or catching a screening at the Academy Museum. The best restaurant I’ve eaten at so far is Open Sesame which serves authentic Lebanese cuisine, or honestly the random taco trucks parked on the street! Bar Lis is a nice bar for dancing, but I’ve been frequenting All Seasons or Little Bar to sit down and talk to people.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to dedicate my shoutout to Anna Todd who wrote the After book series on Wattpad. It was the first novel I ever read on the website, and it’s what inspired me to write my first novel. I wouldn’t be on a career path I thoroughly love if I hadn’t been inspired to publicly publish my writing, and seeing her series translate to film is what inspired my shift into television. So thank you Anna!

Website: https://katyaawar.wixsite.com/portfolio

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katyaawar/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katyaawar/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/katyaawar