Hey! I’m Jasmine.  I’m currently writing  a story called While You Were Teaching.  Check it out if you want!

Three things I love besides writing:
1. Listening to Taylor Swift at extremely unsafe levels.  This also involves dancing around my room singing into a hairbrush
2. Camping, hiking...anything outdoorsy.  A little nature never hurt nobody.
3. My family. My friends. Taylor Swift(what? I can say her again).

Three things I hate:
1. Stereotypes or just people in general who judge others without actually knowing them.
2. Cancer. If there was one thing I could change in this world…
3. People who can only see the world in black and white.  I like to think we live in a world of grey. (Laters baby! Sorry I had to!)

Why do you write?
I started writing because for as long as I can remember I’ve had stories play over and over in my mind.  I used to go on a lot of roadtrips when I was younger, which I LOVED because it meant 10 hours in the car with my cd player and making up stories for hours upon hours.  Some of these stories stuck through with me over the years, and I used to have trouble sleeping because my mind wouldn’t turn off and I’d be up until 2 in the morning with some stupid scene playing over and over in my mind.  I guess I thought that maybe if I started writing it down I’d finally get some peace. ;)

I started writing because I’m the girl who sits in the back of the room.  Who doesn’t raise her hand when she has something to say.  Who doesn’t go up and talk to the cute guy in her math class even though he has the most beautiful smile she has ever seen.  Who doesn’t get the final word.  Writing is wonderful because I can write about what would have happened if I said “hello” to him, instead of walking away.  What would have happened if I said I was sorry.  Or really anything.  Writing gives you the final say.  For me, writing has always been extremely personal and I don’t think I’d want to write if it wasn’t.  These stories are my diaries.  

What is your favorite story you have written?
Hmmm...this is difficult.  To date, I have written approx. 1,000,000 stories so I don’t know if I can pick a favorite.  No, I’m just kidding.  I actually just started writing so my favorite story would have to be the only one I’ve written so far, While You Were Teaching.

How do you create your characters?
Well, in a lot of ways, Avery(main character of WYWT), is a lot like me.  I didn’t mean to make her like me, and in a lot of ways she’s completely different.  But from the very beginning I wanted Avery to be someone that readers could immediately relate to.  A lot of times in stories or tv shows main characters are perfect or when they do something embarrassing it still ends up working out well for them.  Real life isn’t like that.  I tried to make Avery as realistic as possible.  I wanted this story to be something a girl in her senior year in high school could read and have it make college feel a little less scary.

What do you do when you have writer’s block?
I do the very worst thing.  I STOP WRITING. *gasp* Yeah, I said it.  I put down the paper and I don’t write. AT ALL.  When I’m experiencing writer’s block, I force myself to forget about the story for a few weeks and then I come back later with fresh eyes and bright, more fabulous ideas.  

How do you plan out your stories?
The process of “planning” I guess begins when I’m picturing the scene in my mind.  A lot of the time this happens during math class or when I’m trying to fall asleep at night.  I usually just get like a random flash of a quote or something that a character will say and I kinda go from there.  I can’t even begin to tell you how many random pieces of paper I have hidden in my room for scenes that are coming later in the book because I thought of the perfect thing to say 10 chapters before I’ll need it.  

Then about a few week later, when I’m actually read to try writing it I start with only the dialogue.  For some reason with this story, dialogue is really important to me so I always try and write that first and then I add the details later.

What are your writing weaknesses?
Showing not telling.  I tell way too much, and people always call me out on it so I must be pretty obvious about it.  I definitely am trying to work on that.  

I’m also awful about visually picturing a room or scene where the characters are.  It’s hard to picture that stuff in your mind.  

Strengths?
I don’t know.  I think you’d have to ask someone who’s read one of my stories.  I don’t know if I have any strengths.

What genre do you read?
Used to be predominantly romance.  Got kind of bored with that and have recently switched to mystery/murder books.

What genre do you write?
Romance.  I think mystery writers are on a completely different level.  I’d like to get on their level, but I’m not there yet. ;)

While You Were Teaching Excerpt:

“Dominic Brown was my soul mate.  He was my first true love and you know what they say about first loves.  They are the ones that haunt you forever.  When I think about the moments in which I was truly happiest, he was in every single one of them.  But he was also a part in some of my worst moments, and I can't leave those out as much as I would like too. The sad parts are as much a part of our love story as the happy ones.

Everyone says I should have known from the start.  And they're right, I should have because we were doomed from the start.  We never had a chance.  But we were too blinded by each other, too busy declaring that no one else would ever understand us, to notice the telling drops of rain.  When we did notice, the storm had already begun and we were too weary and he was too scared to put up much of a fight.”

[Find the story in the External Link]