❤ Interviewing Writers ❤

Hubrism

Intro: "Marianna Leal/Hubrism has been coming up with her own stories since she was a kid with difficulty to sleep at night. Eventually she stumbled upon the world of anime fanfiction online, where she found the catalogue of Spanish stories to be lacking. That was how she forced herself to learn English, so she could read and write online.

Soon she started writing original fiction and fifteen years later, she has written fifteen complete novels and multiple shorts that have sent her mind traveling across various genres. She loves romance and everything she writes has strong elements of it, and she's dabbled in YA and Adult in categories like contemporary, fantasy, sci-fi and supernatural. These days she makes it a point to always have a protagonist from her home country, Venezuela, because she is a strong proponent of diversity and representation.

She has also physically traveled her fair share, having lived in three countries across two continents. Currently she resides in Florida, USA, where she works a full time corporate job. Her favorite hobbies aside from reading, writing books and odes to her couch, complaining about drivers, the weather and noisy neighbors.

Her works on Wattpad are featured on multiple genre lists and you can find her latest on-going novel MAKE A SCENE, a contemporary YA at: (Hubrism)"

1) Are you working on anything at the present you would like to share with your readers about?

"My current WIP is a YA fantasy about a (Venezuelan diaspora) girl who is sucked into a world that exists on the other side of mirrors, and is caught in the middle of a magical war between light and darkness. Unfortunately I'm not planning to share this one online! But after it's done my next WIP will be a NA contemporary that I'll share up on WP."

2) What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of good writing?

"Soul. That's really it. You can have the coolest characters or plot, or the most wonderful twist of words, but if the combination of these elements doesn't touch the reader then a technically good story is forgettable."

3) Writing can be an emotionally draining and a very stressful pursuit. Do you have any tips for aspiring or young writers?

"You know, to me writing is not emotionally draining or stressful. Writing is something that feeds my soul and gives me purpose. At the end of a long work day, I can't wait to get home and at least jot down what my characters will be up to next. The only times I've had a negative feeling while writing are when (after much introspection), I realize that I was writing the wrong thing. Ultimately that's my advice for aspiring or young writers: if you're writing the right story, the spark of joy and excitement will be there."

4) What was your favorite part, and your least favorite part, of the writing journey?

"Let's just establish that I'm a weirdo, okay? My entire writing journey is my favorite part, even the tough times when I couldn't put words on the page, or when I got rejected or someone said my work was bad and I should just quit. All of those things helped me learn and grow and get even better. And that's only up to now, looking back on how far I've come without knowing where else I will go! That said, it's a different story regarding the writing process. I hate editing :)"

5) How many books have you written? Which is your favorite and why?

"I have a little file somewhere that says I've written 15 complete novels, which is wild to see, especially because I'm starting my 16th. That excludes short stories and incomplete novels and all things considered something close to 1.5 million words. Of all of them, not a single one is my magnum opus. My favorite is always whatever WIP I'm working on at any given time, which I think is the subconscious way I trick myself into focusing on that WIP alone and not get distracted by any new shiny ideas."

6) Do you have a favorite character that you have written? If so, who? And what makes them so special?

"Similar to the previous answer, I don't have a favorite character. All of my main characters have some facet that I recognize in myself, which makes them all my children and therefore, like a good mom, I can't play favorites!"

7) When you're writing a very emotional scene, how do you get in the mood?

"Music helps me get in the level of sentimentality necessary for the scene, and how the song makes me feel viscerally is what I use as inspiration to describe those feelings from my character's perspective."

8) What is the most surprising thing you discovered while writing your book(s)?

"That often my subconscious is smarter than my conscious. That's the part of my brain that really weaves the web in my books and ties it all together into neat knots at the end. Those are the moments when I sit back and say, damn, I wrote that?"

9) If you could spend time a character from your book whom would it be? And what would you do during that day?

"I'd get all of my female main characters from my YA contemporaries here on WP together for brunch, where the topic of conversation would be: okay ladies, how can we systematically take over the world? I'm sure we can achieve it together."

10) What famous author do you wish you could meet?

"This year I had the chance to meet Brigid Kemmerer, which was fantastic!! I've also been to a signing by Marissa Meyer but I'd love to be able to meet Marie Lu, Angie Thomas, Chuck Wendig, Susan Dennard and many others."

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Thanks for a great interview Hubrism I hope you enjoyed it!