𝐵𝑒ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠 (Featuring Many Great Authors)

Author [@yabookprincess]

Welcome, everyone. Today we have the lovely yabookprincess

A big thank you to her for taking the time to answer these questions.

If you haven't read her books then please do. They're amazing...

Without further ado...

...

1. What inspired you to start writing?

 Other authors who wrote some of my favourite books. I also used writing as an escape from my life and makeup stories that I planned for no one to read. I just wanted my voice to be heard and for life to get a little better. There's something about writing that just makes you believe that magic is real and anything can happen.

2. Did you have any writers' block along the way? how did you get past them?

Oh yeah but it's usually whenever I don't like where the story is going and I need to delete the most recent thing I wrote. Whether it's a paragraph, a scene or an entire chapter, chances are that the last thing I wrote was what was giving me the block. So I erase it and start writing a brand new, different take on the situation. That usually helps. 
Either that or I'm burnt out from writing and I need to read more books, watch a TV show or movie that's kind of similar to mine. So let's say I'm the author of Twilight and I get a writer's block. My approach would be to read Vampire Academy and watch The Vampire Diaries. That way I don't completely exit the world (of vampires) but I don't stay in my own imaginary world either.

3. Do you see yourself in any characters and why?

Yes. I think I can say that at the time of writing all of my stories, I could see myself in every main character. Maybe not completely since their personalities are quite different but there is always an aspect or an emotion of me put into their stories and backgrounds. I also try to write side characters I can relate to because I don't want them to be the kind of characters you could replace with a lamp and no one would notice. The character I can relate to most so far is November Lace from Entangled. Let me tell you, that girl and I went through sh*t together and I will forever stay loyal to her even though she's fictional. She dragged me from the dark side and taught me what it's like to have a healthy relationship with yourself, your body and everybody else. She taught me that it's okay to feel your emotions and not let anyone shame you for the way you react to things. Entangled is honestly the highlight of my life and I could talk about it and its characters for days.

4. How old are you?

I just turned 21 on December 17.

5. How old were you when you started writing?

I was 15 when I first posted on Wattpad. But I used to write on Fanfiction.net about Divergent and The Mortal Instruments and that was back when I was about 13 or 12.

6. Can you remember what you felt when you first started writing? what did you feel? 

 Can you remember what you felt when you first started writing? what did you feel? This is going to sound cliche but I never ever thought anyone would read my stories on Wattpad. It didn't even occur to me that people were reading it until I hit 20k reads on my first book My Bad Boy Neighbor which just shocked me. Then I started feeling the pressure to be perfect, to write better, to deal with constructive criticism well even though at the time it wasn't even criticism but straight up savage hate. Then for a while, I let those numbers get into my head - not because I felt better than other people - but because they started validating my worth and made me feel like my family would finally see me and be proud of me. I started to use those numbers as proof that I can achieve great things if I put my mind to it. But sadly that's never enough for them.So when I first started writing, I felt like I needed an escape from that exact cycle of toxicity between my family relationship and my friendships. I just wanted to be accepted and feel like I had a place to belong. My characters never judged and let my voice be heard. What writing did for me still makes me cry to this day because I'm so grateful for it.