Q: Advice you’d give to other writers?

This is always so hard for me to answer!! See, my brain is just wired to want, no NEED, to sit down and write these stories so it's incredibly difficult for me to give advice because all I can think to say is "Sit down and write." And honestly, that might be the best advice I can give you. If you never write a word, nothing is going to happen. Stop worrying about it being perfect. The first time you get those words down on paper it will be so far from perfect. (Here's a little secret: It will never be PERFECT.) But if you never get anything down on paper then there's nothing for you to polish and make the best that it can be. If you have a story in your heart that you need to tell, you have to sit down and write it. I can give you all the little tips in the world, but if you never do that, you'll never get anywhere. That being said, here are a few tips. 1) Set small goals for yourself. Whether it's a word count goal or an amount of time worked on. Word count goals work best for me because they're easier to quantify. 1,000 words is usually an easy one for me to hit but it wasn't always that way. I got to this place, I didn't start out here. So start with a small goal. Even 100 words. Those words add up. 2) Have a playlist of music that gets you in the right headspace for the book you're writing. Whether you listen to it while writing or before you sit down to write, having this can be a big help. 3) Have writer friends. As much as your friends and family love you, nobody will quite understand what you'll go through like another writer will. 4)When you get stuck, do a diary entry in the point of view of whichever character you're writing. Seriously, I do this fairly often. It has helped get me unstuck more than once

Question 1

What is your favorite book/author/poet?

Accepted Answer

It's so difficult to pick only one!! So when I get this question I usually cheat in two ways (lol) and list three favorites. One of which is a book series.
 
1) the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
2) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronté
3) The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
 
Authors (I'm choosing five) (also sometimes my answers change, it's just too difficult):
1) J.K. Rowling
2)Emily Bronté
3) S.E. Hinton
4) Maggie Stiefvater
5) Trisha Wolfe
 
Poets:
1) Emily Dickinson
2) Robert Frost
3) Edgar Allan Poe
4) Amanda Lovelace
5) Sylvia Plath
 
Favorite Poems:
1) Stay Gold by Robert Frost
2) Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe
3) "Much madness is divinest sense..." by Emily Dickinson
4) Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Question 2

How old were you when you started writing?

Accepted Answer

I've been telling stories since I was two years old. My mom would write them down and I would draw the pictures. My fist "book" was about Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. Construction and printer paper stapled together. I still have it. Then, when I was old enough, I would write the stories down on my own.

Question 3

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Accepted Answer

I think when I was around eight years old. I always loved telling stories but in my third grade class we focused a lot on writing. We had Writer's Notebooks that we were meant to write in three times a week, I think. I wrote in it probably five times a week. And we would write stories and share them with the class. When I got so many positive comments and saw the the other children wanted to know more about the story and even gave ideas on what they wanted to happen, I knew I'd found something. I was eight, so I didn't entirely know what, but I knew I had. I kept writing like crazy and when I was ten I would go to the library and get as many books as I could about writing and even the publishing industry.
 
Also, in third grade the first thing I wrote and shared was a biography of Walt Disney. My teacher thought it was too good for an eight year old and called my mom in for a meeting. In which she suggested I'd copied what I shared from a book. I hadn't, which my mom convinced her of. That's when she suggested to my mom that I should consider a career as a writer. (So basically, my third grade teacher accused me of plagiarism. But I love her for it.)

Question 4

Favorite thing you’ve written?

Accepted Answer

This is always such a difficult question because everything I've written holds a place in my heart for different reasons. My poetry is much different than my fiction and my favorite out of those would be Beautiful Broken. My Heart is Yours was my fiction debut and I started that when I was fifteen, so that holds a special place in my heart. Working on Strength: Lives Touched by Cystinosis was and is massively important to me.

But if I HAD to choose it would be the Beauty of the Dark series. It's really the culmination of years of work. I also have never felt as connected to my characters as I do to the characters in that series. I love the mix of darkness and romance in it. And even though it takes place over only six weeks there are a lot of intricate story lines and backgrounds to keep track of. I think the character development in that series is my strongest yet. I'm immensely proud of that series and even though the trilogy is over, I can't leave those characters behind. So there will be more to come. <

Question 5

Advice you’d give to other writers?

Accepted Answer

This is always so hard for me to answer!! See, my brain is just wired to want, no NEED, to sit down and write these stories so it's incredibly difficult for me to give advice because all I can think to say is "Sit down and write." And honestly, that might be the best advice I can give you. If you never write a word, nothing is going to happen. Stop worrying about it being perfect. The first time you get those words down on paper it will be so far from perfect. (Here's a little secret: It will never be PERFECT.) But if you never get anything down on paper then there's nothing for you to polish and make the best that it can be. If you have a story in your heart that you need to tell, you have to sit down and write it. I can give you all the little tips in the world, but if you never do that, you'll never get anywhere. That being said, here are a few tips.

1) Set small goals for yourself. Whether it's a word count goal or an amount of time worked on. Word count goals work best for me because they're easier to quantify. 1,000 words is usually an easy one for me to hit but it wasn't always that way. I got to this place, I didn't start out here. So start with a small goal. Even 100 words. Those words add up.

2) Have a playlist of music that gets you in the right headspace for the book you're writing. Whether you listen to it while writing or before you sit down to write, having this can be a big help.

3) Have writer friends. As much as your friends and family love you, nobody will quite understand what you'll go through like another writer will.

4)When you get stuck, do a diary entry in the point of view of whichever character you're writing. Seriously, I do this fairly often. It has helped get me unstuck more than once

Frequently asked questions

What is your favorite book/author/poet?

How old were you when you started writing?

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Favorite thing you’ve written?

Advice you’d give to other writers?