1.When did you became to write, and when did you decide you want to be writer?How did you found the literature?
I decided I wanted to be a writer when I was nine years old, after reading all the Goosebump books. This decision was later affirmed by my constant love of many books, including books and works of literature. I consumed volumes of literature in my teen years.
I began writing poetry, but didn’t think about becoming a novelist until after I realized I had a complete MS one spring break when I was nineteen. I never thought I would be able to actually complete an entire book. Three years passed, and then, to my surprise, I ended up writing another book.
2..I know that this is the question that every writer hates, but everyone always asks: How do you get inspired?From where do you get your ideas?
Most writers probably do hate this question, but I really love it :) While it may be true that ideas are everywhere, I believe that each and every writer pulls ideas from somewhere special.
I pull my ideas from the same things that inspire me. For me, it’s a very specific process.
Pretty in Black is an eclectic mixture of all the things that inspired me while growing up. The Land of Nevermore really used to only be a land I dreamed of visiting when I was a teen. I’d sit in class and daydream of this place. I took inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe, and from music by The Raveonettes, and the beauty of cemeteries.
Currently, I am inspired by the Gothic and the beauty of the Grotesque and true Love.
When I write another book, that is not Pretty in Black, I will pull inspiration from a completely different set of unique things.
I think this is important to writers—to taste a little of everything, but devour the things that spark within them a great passion.
3,How do you keep on staying motivated?I know that to write a book it`s a really hard work,so how could you continue this work?
This is a very good question, because writing a book truly is hard work and you have to be dedicated. For me, it helps to stay motivated by having a story that I really care deeply about. A story that keeps me awake at night. The characters have to be real to me, and I must find myself having conversations with them in my head. If I’m not passionate about a story, it is less likely I will finish it or even get beyond chapter three.
But, even with a good story that I care about, I tend to lose motivation from time to time. When I do this, I remind myself of how excited I was about this story. Another thing I do to help me stay focused, is I make soundtracks or book playlists for my novels, so that whenever I’m lacking inspiration or have writer’s block, I can listen to a song that will spark the creativity again.
And, now that I know I have readers, it is you guys that help me stay motivated the most. Because I know that at least one other person out there is going to want the next book from me and it would dishearten me to disappoint them.
I began this thing recently, where I announce a future book, way ahead of time, because I know that one person out there is going to keep asking me about a book I mentioned until I finally complete it and this helps!
And sometimes, inspired or not, I just sat down at my desk and write anyway, and force the Muse to come out to play.
4,How did you found the subject for your books?
I am attracted to: cemeteries, Victorian Era, Gothic, the grotesque, the elegantly decayed, Grunge, the bitter-sweet, heartbreak, and true love. So, these will be concepts that can be found over and over again in my stories, therefore, these become my subjects. The things that get my blood pumping really fast. More or Less, I didn’t find them, they found me. :)
5.Tell us your three favourite things on this world
1. Music—I could not live without this
2. Possibility—This is what gets me out of bed in the morning
3. Love—The reason my heart keeps beating
6.Where do you start a book,with plot,characters or dialogue?
I believe that each and every one of my books have started somewhere entirely different. The first book I ever wrote started with the very first line—a phrase that I could not get out of my head for the longest. This phrase educated the next sentence, and eventually I was able to meet the speaker of that entire paragraph, and he became my very first character.
I will say, that I have yet to start a book with PLOT and feel that sometimes my books may not have plot, because they are more character driven.
Dialogue, I often do hear conversation in my head and jot it down.
Pretty in Black started with an apparition or a hallucination. Before I knew the story, I was inspired to write it, after seeing what I thought were two people—a guy and a girl—sitting atop a grave, talking, but their embrace was tragic and I wanted to know why, so I brought that image home with me.
Next, there was a song called “My Time’s Up” by The Raveonettes and this gave me a feeling that I carried over into the first book in the Pretty in Black series.
Finally, the characters emerged.
My next book, Frankie’s Monster, started from a dream of a boy with stitches on the bottom of his ice blue lips, and a beautiful, yet haunting song.
SO, I guess you could say, I usually start a book with a song or an image!
7.How do you create the characters?What questions do you put?
I have heard about character creation and that some authors actually do sit down and write out questions and answer them for each character, but I suppose I work differently.
I do not outline anything; once inspired, I just start writing and the character always emerges. He comes fully fleshed. I know, telling you that may sound strange or not real, but this has always been how it has worked for me and my characters. I carry them around in my head, they go shopping with me and when they do I know which items they’d buy, I take them to the cafe and know what drinks they’d order, I know what music they like, I know their dreams and their fears. They are real.
8.What advice do you have for teen writers?
You are all unique and special; do not censor yourself or stop yourself from writing a certain story just because someone tells you that it is odd or weird or no one will like it or that it’s not a commercial story or that’s not how you should write a story.
Write the story that you really want to write, the one that excites you, and write it however you want to write it; writing is more than just putting words on paper; don’t fear yourself. Only you can write your story, so don’t be afraid to put your personality into it; this becomes your style, this becomes the reason why someone will want to read your book because it’s different.
Dare to do something that hasn’t been done before. It really is okay to break the “rules.”
Also, keep everything you write, even if you do not like it. This will help you see how you have evolved as a writer.
9.How was your life at my age(13)?Did you kept a diary?It was a special notebook or just an ordinary notebook?You decorated it, or you have draws in it? Unfortunently, I can`t keep a diary because my life is soo booooring!
I remember when I was 13, I was an observer and I always felt like an outsider and I didn’t have any friends because I was “odd, strange, creepy, etc.” I had a composition notebook, it was black, and I wrote down my emotions and how I felt about everything. I was also a daydreamer and I sometimes wrote down my daydreams. I put in that journal a little of everything: poems, pictures, feelings, observations, dreams. My life was boring too! It really, really was!
But when you get older, you will see that it all actually becomes quite interesting and you will be able to take inspiration from your younger self. I don’t think I’ve changed all that much. I still feel like an outsider, people still think I’m creepy, and I still daydream, but you know what? I LOVE my life now. That’s probably the only thing that has really changed.
10.Where do you write?Do you write with music, or do you have something that help you to have imagination?Do you write in a special notebook?If not, in what?
I do listen to music when I write! In fact, I have to, it helps to get the feelings, emotions, and scenes just right.
I write at home, at my desk, on my laptop. I post inspirational images on my image board, to inspire each book.
11.When is your birthday? And how old are you?
My birthday is December 31 and I am 23!
12.When you were a beginner in this work, how do you handle, and when you have no inspiration, what did you do?
When I first started writing, I read tons of books and wrote only poetry, because at the time, poetry was the only thing I could write.
Sometimes, I would take my favorite book, or a book I was reading at the time, and copy, by hand, my favorite phrases, into my journal. This helped me learn what great writing felt like, flowing from my mind, through my body, down my hand, into the pen and onto the page. How the words tasted on my tongue and what images or emotions they evoked. I did this long enough, that I was able to begin creating simple images and feelings by using words of my own.
This is how it began for me, up until the day when I was 19 and decided I would give writing a book a chance. Inspiration came to me much later, after I had collected experiences to extract thoughts, feelings, and emotions from.
13.How many time do you spend by day writing?
Some days I write nothing at all. Other days I write for ten hours straight! It varies. I have to feel my way through it. If I don’t feel like writing, I simply don’t because I cannot force a story to happen or it will run away and never return.
14.What is your favorite quote?
15.How many pages,or how much do you write by day, I mean, do you write 3 pages?
I write whatever amount is willing to come to me that day. One day, it might be a really superb day and I will end up with 10,000 words. On another day, I may only write one beautiful phrase or sentence. I do not have a routine. I am random and I need it to be different each time or I get bored. I have a very short attention span.
Me, I have a really big problem when I begun to write.Everithing I write, I start quite good, but after two days(I don`t write all the day, but let`s say 1hour and 30 minutes), I always come with a better ideea, but this ideea changes everithing...I don`t know how to decide on a subject, and to finish it, because I always put to myself this question: If this story is best that this?What can I do? And, when you write, you write at you computer?
This is how you know you’re a writer! I do the exact same thing. I will write something and I will think it is good, but I will return the next day with something even better. Writing is rewriting. I change things a lot! It never stays exactly how it was in the beginning.
I think about things I wrote in the past and I want to go back and change them even to this day!
Thank you very much, you are incredible! What message do you have for your fans from Romania?
It`s incredible to speak with someone who do what you want to do someday, and to ask him things, and to take him interwiews!
You are very welcome, I enjoyed! My message to my Romanian fans this time, is: I Heart You Guys, and hope that perhaps you will be able to read Pretty in Black AND Black Satin soon!!
