Undiscovered Gems: The Interviews!

Undiscovered Gem 12: RumMonkey

1. What/Who was your inspiration to start writing?

It wasn't so much inspiration as it was pure curiosity. One day I just saw my sister writing something and I made the radical decision to do it too. Plus, this is around the time I had just gotten interested in reading books, so my creative juices were already flowing. But the idea of writing my own story never crossed my mind, it was more of a spur-of-the-moment type thing.

2. What was your very first story about?

My progression of writing is a bit different than others I think. When I first began writing stories, I was around 9 years old, so my writing was complete crap and it was in script form instead of paragraph form. But, it was called Captured and for the life of me I can't really remember what it was about. I do, however, remember something about this girl going to a party and her friend getting captured and then she gets captured or something like that. I don't know, but it was bloody horrible.

3. Do you read the same genres as the ones you write?

I do actually. Whilst discovering that paranormal was my favorite genre I also realized that it's my style of writing, very dark and very mysterious. I love it! I have read and written teen fiction/romance stories before but I've stopped since most of them seem to be cliche and repetitive.

4. What is your favorite book?

I haven't read or re-read any books in a long time, but I think my favorite book is still The Summoning by Kelly Armstrong, however, Unwind by Neal Shusterman is up there too.

5. How long does it take you, on average, to finish a story?

When I used to write in script, it never took me that long to finish a story given how short it was, but now that I write in paragraph form it depends on the book. If it's a short book that I just thought of and began and posted a chapter that same day then it'll be very short and completed very fast, but if it's a book that typically have long chapters and the chapters take a while to come out, the updates will be a lot slower and the book will be finished sometime in the future. Basically, when I write a book I try to write a couple of chapters before I post them on Wattpad, so that hopefully updates will be significantly quicker, but generally I suck at updating frequently.

6. What is your process of writing like?

Once I'm bombarded with an idea I start formulating a plot along with the characters and a very broad sketch of these character's personalities and development. I don't bother to write any of this down in case the idea turns out to be a bust, so I let it marinate for a while, building upon the plot, making the story line more complex, figuring out the characters, and generating a few conflicts. This can take from weeks to a few months if I keep thinking about it constantly. It's only when I have a concrete plot and a sufficient amount of details with a few plot holes that I'll fix as I go through the story, and a general idea of how the story will end do I start writing it down. The writing part, specifically the beginning of the book, is always torture for me because I never know how to start it, and I utterly hate staring at a blank sheet of paper. So, I sit there and think of how I want the chapter to pan out, then I start writing down a sentence, reading the sentence out loud as I do so to kind of get the tone of the book. I don't do this as the story progresses, but it's great when I start the book to hear what I'm writing. I never can finish a whole chapter in one sitting, because I get distracted easily or if my attention is disrupted in any way, the urge to write will diminish. So, it does tend to take me a couple of days to finish a chapter unless the chapter is really interesting.

7. What are your feelings towards poetry?

I only like poetry that rhymes, and typically I only see a mass number of them on Wattpad. Poetry by actual poets bores me really.

8. If you had a pen name what would it be?

Angelina Bier most likely, It just rolls off of the tongue really well.

9. Is there a suggestion you would like to give to young/new writers?

I don't think I'm in any position or status to be giving advice to young or new writers, because I'm still one myself. But, I guess you should remember that quality trumps quantity all the time. Don't become pressured to post frequently or have multiple books going at the same time if it'll just divide your attention and make you overcome with stress trying to keep up with all of them. It's better to write at your own pace, the best pace that'll provide the perfect quality chapters for your readers. And if that happens to take weeks or months or a year, then so be it.

10. Who is your favorite Wattpad author?

At the moment it's iluvdaisychain, because she's awesome and her series, A Pirate's Kiss, is amazing and perfectly written.

11. CRITIQUE QUESTION: What do you think of Of Mice and Men?

I've heard of it but I don't know what it's about.