Beautiful People: Authors

Beautiful People is back in the new year! Yay! This is a link-up hosted by Paperfury and Further Up and Further In where you answer questions about your characters. I participated in Beautiful People #1, #2, #3 and the villain special last year, and Beautiful Books #1, #2, and #3. I kind of love this link-up. ^ ^' It's really helped me explore my characters in my books. This month is the author edition where the questions are directed to the author in this case me. ^ ^' If you'd like to participate in this link-up yourself, check out either Paperfury or Further Up and Further In to see how. Here we go!

The manga version of me.

1. How many years have you been writing? When did you officially consider yourself a ‘writer’?

I have writing for about ten years (as in a completed my first novel to start), but I didn't consider myself a writer until I was sixteen, and I went to a writers conference. I discovered the writer community, author Bryan Davis taught me that writing is an art form, and I saw what it took to become a writer. Then I thought to myself, "This is what I want to do."

2. How/why did you start writing?

Technically I've been making up stories since I could dictate. This stemmed from my mother reading me stories and teaching me how to make up stories and then me becoming an avid reader despite my slow reading pace. I like a lot of books, but I wanted a book that had everything I wanted it in so I decided to write my own. 

I didn't start writing until I got around eight. I wrote and illustrated a fragment of a novel called "John and His Adventures." So original, I know. Then I completed my first novel at eleven called "Aladyne". Yes, I know it sounds a lot like Aladdin, but it was pronounced A-lah-deen. I dreamed to be the youngest writer ever. Yeah, that totally didn't happen. 

As I got into my teens, I just enjoyed creating stories, and I couldn't get them out of my head. I used to call my best friend every day at lunch to tell her my new book ideas. Now my reason for writing is I want to minister to people through my writing. So it's changed over the years as I've matured.

3. What’s your favorite part of writing?

That's a hard question to answer. I really enjoy creating characters, but I also like discovering new scenes while writing my story. Thirdly, I like hearing how my books have impacted others. I'm not published and my books and characters have already made an impression on my betas and people who read excerpts of my writing. Those three give me the most drive to a be a writer.

4. What’s your biggest writing struggle?

Waiting. Waiting for feedback from betas or critique partners. Waiting to hear back from agents. Waiting for God to deem it the right time for me to be published. Waiting for things to happen that are out of my control is the most agonizing for me. I can shove through writing a draft until I'm exhausted, I can read writing blogs and writing skill books until my eyes hurt, and I can edit other people's work until my hands are sore. But I can't make people like what I write or make people publish me. I can only try my best.

5. Do you write best at night or day?

Night definitely. I'm a night owl. I like the moon and the stars and everyone being asleep, but me. I like turning all of the lights off and just burning candles while I'm really hard core writing. It's peaceful to me.

6. What does your writing space look like? (Feel free to show us pictures!)

I write on an oak desk my family randomly gave me surrounded my by geek posters (Some signed by the actors. Squee!) with books and candles close by. On the desk is my sketch book with my latest sketch of my characters.

7. How long does it typically take you to write a complete draft?

About three months. Any time I let it stretch too long I start tiring of the story, and when I write too fast I feel too stressed. I almost died during NaNoWriMo. 

8. How many projects do you work on at once?

I usually work on one at a time then switch to another project while I'm waiting for one to rest before editing. Then I go back to the former one.

9. Do you prefer writing happy endings, sad ones, or somewhere in between?

I like somewhere in between. I can't stand sad endings and too happy endings are a bit cheap. I like the characters to end up happily, but they suffered loss along the way. 

10. List a few authors who’ve influenced your writing journey.

There are quite a few, but I'll try to keep it to a reasonable length: Bryan Davis, Jill Williamson, C.S. Lewis, Steven James and J.R.R. Tolkien. I talked about this in more detail in another post. 

11. Do you let people read your writing? Why or why not?

I do, but I'm selective. I usually don't let my family read my writing. Only one of my cousins has read a full novel of mine. I let betas read my writing, my writing buddies, and people I let critique it. But I don't let just anyone who asks read it, because often you let them read it and they either rip it apart or don't ever actually read it. Learned that the hard way ... I'll be more comfortable when I get published because no one can change it, because it's already published.

12. What’s your ultimate writing goal or dream?

I'd like to be able to support myself off of my writing, and I hope it helps others. When I'm published, I'd like to do a lot of touring since I love traveling. My wild dream would be for my books to be turned into a movie, but that's slim. 

13. If you didn’t write, what would you want to do?

I honestly don't really know. Writing is what I feel like has been my destiny to do. I guess if I didn't write, I'd pursue my art more. Perhaps graphic design.

14. Do you have a book you’d like to write one day but don’t feel you’re ready to attempt it yet?

I have NA Steampunk Romance in mind, but considering I haven't ever been in a relationship (Haven't found anyone suitable. Being part of the 1% INFJ clan bites sometimes.), I don't feel ready to write it. It's not a big hindrance though since I have several other books to work on. I just have plenty of ideas in stock.

15. Which story has your heart and won’t let go?

Subsapien. I have been working on this book for nearly seven years. It isn't my first novel by far, but it has me in an iron grip. Some people have told me not to work on it, but the characters and themes are so close to me that even after working on another book for a while I bounce back to this one. I'm determined to get this baby published.

Well that was a little about little weird me. Actually I'm not that little, I'm 5' 9", but that's beside the point. There was my segment, Author Origins: Stori Tori. I hope it was somewhat interesting to read. Thank you for stopping by!

Have you done this link-up? What are some of your answers to these questions?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)