Meet The Authors Showcase Edition #3 (3 of 3)

A showcase with @EliP56, author of Sackcloth and Ashes

1 what inspired the idea of your story?

People inspired this story which is a broad and a vague thing to say. But that is the truth. The stories that my parents told me, for example how they grew up, the things they did, the things they wished they did, how their religion affects their lives. As well, as the stories of my friends, family members, stories from the news, historical stories about people--- the more I sat back and listened, the more questions I got about society. And these questions led me to do research about religion, society, psychology, and history. It eventually helped me create a character with a story. Once I had a character with a story, it got easier to make other characters with their stories based on things I have seen and things I would like to question. That was how Sackcloth and Ashes came to be-- through questions and curiosity about the stories I heard. That, however, also means I have to very careful in how I stitch up the story together since I discuss a lot of themes that seems to not be talked about often on here and can be sensitive topics. I try to write everything as respectfully as I can, while also trying to give justice to my character's strong opinions and stories.

2 what is something you struggled constructing with your story?

 People are always surprised when I tell them what is the thing I struggle with the most. I have been doing research for a very long time, I'm highly comfortable with it. In fact, I enjoy it. The research part is usually what some people expect me to say, but no. Writing in the POV of a woman is by the far the most difficult thing for me to do. It's so hard for me that I have stopped or dropped small short stories because writing the female protagonist was too hard. The funny thing about this is that I'm a woman myself. I can write female characters through the lens of a male character. I'm comfortable writing in the POV of male characters--- it doesn't mean that I cannot write stories and backgrounds of a female character. I can create them, writing through their eyes is just the hard part. I have PTSD--- it's very severe that it gets in the way of my life now in so many aspects, and even though I'm getting help, it still there. So, when I write female characters, I think about myself and the women that were part of my life and it makes me gag. The only times I feel emotions is when I write so the last time I wrote in a female POV, I was super close to breaking down and having a panic attack.

Right now, I have to write in the POV of a woman and the only way I'm able to is by writing bits by bits. It only makes my writing process take longer than it already does and it slows my updates even more, but I'm stubborn and I won't post trash. So, until I get those chapters done and I feel satisfied with them, I will post. I refuse to post something I'm not proud of. And I won't post something rushed just to get over it or just update. 

3 what did you enjoy writing most of your story?

As I mentioned earlier, writing helps me reconnect with my emotions and I love taking advantage of that. So, one of the things I enjoy the most when I write my story is putting those emotions, those inner struggles and outer struggle into my characters. I really feel proud of myself when my characters portray emotions or show struggle because no one is perfect--- we are human. We feel hurt, we feel so many things and we all have so many different ways in showing that. My main male character is a drug and sex addict--- he's not an easy character to write but God, I love writing him. He's so complex and he makes me think about the things I do, which is funny because I'm writing him. His emotions and his struggles, I just every detail of him. So when I manage to show a little bit of him, I'm just like, "yes, you did it, girl!" 

4 what's the overall response of your story from your readers?

 Some of my readers which are basically my friends now have tried hard to guess what my main character, Rueful, is. And it's the most hilarious thing to me because they have guessed what I have wanted them to guess. I low-key feel evil because of that. A lot of the comments I have received are them trying to figure out the story or my main characters. So, I won't lie, most of the time, I sit back with cup of coffee, enjoying watching the struggle as well as loving their opinions and theories of the story and characters. I'm happy that I am able to create a story where there could be a lot of theories that could be backed up by evidence or quotes.