Best Fiction Competition Winner!

Three things you love besides writing/reading?

1) travel

2) rollerblading

3) lazy binge days (movies, internet, reading or TV)

Three things you hate?

1) unjust treatment of others

2) coffee

3) bitterly cold winters

Why do you write?

Too many stories floating around my head and I like watching them develop and change as I write them. If I didn't put the words down on paper, then I wouldn't get to know the ending. For non-fiction it started as a way to keep people I knew in the loop with the lowest time commitment, but then I grew to enjoy writing about places I had visited and bringing them back to life.

Out of all your stories, which one is your favorite?

Survival - It has the most twists, turns, tension and mystery. I also put a lot of the issues that really rub me the wrong way in there so when people pick up on those underlying themes I get excited.

How do you create your characters?

Just start with an idea, give them some dialogue and suddenly they come to life with a back story and all. They just generally need an age, cultural background, and role/job before they get introduced.

Out of your characters, which one are you the most like?

Using non-fiction would likely be a cop out. I put different parts of my personality in different characters. From Survival, a lot of Olivia's trust issues and inability to communicate when emotional stakes are high come from me. Vita's being the invisible girl behind the social friend in high school came from my experience. Edward gets a bit of my sense of humour and, most of Peyton's environmental concerns and conscious mirror mine, but no one character is really an author insert.

What do you do when you have writer's block?

Procrastinate, Netflix and read. But to get unstuck, I usually look at what's making me insecure about the scene (usually a lack of direction in the scene or an issue that needs further research) and try to tackle it. If I plain have no idea, I jump to dialogue and get my characters interacting, then cut anything that was irrelevant.

How do you plan out your stories?

Sometimes by the seat of my pants. Survival was basically a 'it's Nanowrimo and I've been dying to write something dystopian'. Throw in the character who survived based on her skills, one who you'd really think should be dead, and a really rotten romance that never should have been and I had myself a starting point.

With the sequel, I tried to plan in better detail, at least knowing the plot ahead of time and give a rough outline to each chapter. It still evolves beyond what I initially thought, but it helps.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Lack of planning and focus. Not actually writing when I should be. Then there's too much dialogue, the inability to use commas properly, and those darn typos every time I go to edit and change without proofreading. Plus not enough dialogue tags. I'm probably missing a few.

What are you writing strengths?

Dialogue, creating drama and mystery.

What genre do you read?

Non-fiction, adventure, mystery/thriller, romance/chic lit, sci-fi at times

What genre do you write?

Adventure, Non-fiction, New Adult/romance

Summary:

Survival

Violent disasters rage across America and society collapses. The living fight against the clutches of death and disease in a post-apocalyptic world. A militaristic group gathers survivors to rebuild a functional society with the shards of the last, but its intentions are not as they seem. Survivors in this crumbling society need the wit and skill to make it, or face the consequences.

Link: https://www.wattpad.com/story/9563622-survival