100 Interviews with 100 Wattpad authors

Interview with LaurenDMSmith

 1. What inspired you to write?
In general? I get ideas for new stories on a near weekly basis. The only way I can hold onto any kind of sanity is to write them out. It's the only way they go away. That and it amuses me. Especially at work, where I do most of my writing at the moment, where I have no internet access and nothing to do when I'm not teaching

2. What's your favorite things about writing?
Finding out how the story ends and what happens along the way. I rarely plan more than a chapter or two in advance, though sometimes I do know how it ends before I get too far. So when I'm writing, half the time I'm finding stuff out about the characters I hadn't known either. They seem to develop minds of their own rather quickly. I actually cried when I first realized one of my main characters was going to die. And that was only about a week and a half before I wrote that scene.

3. What's your least favorite thing about writing?
Editing. I loathe editing. Especially since I get attached to unnecessary scenes far too often.

4. How's it like being an Assistant Language Teacher?
It's a lot of fun. There are days I contemplate murdering one or more of my students, after the eighth time you've told a six-year-old not to grope you you start wondering if they'd really be missed, but overall it's great. My students are adorable and often crack me up with the things that come out of their mouths.

5. If you could have one of your characters become a real person, who would it be and why?
Hmm...that's hard. I think probably Isaac. He was supposed to be a minor character but I liked him so much I kept him around. He's hilarious and the kind of person who would not only get you into trouble, but get you right back out of it. He'd be a lot of fun to hang out with.

6. Which character of yours is the most like you?
Man, another hard one. I don't think any of them are particularly like me, but if I had to pick one, I'd say Mijinji. Only because I also have a bad case of being responsible, even when I don't want to be.

7. Books or movies?
Books. I think I own nearly four hundred whereas I only have like twenty DVDs.

8. What's your wattpad pet peeve?
I have so, so many. Top one would probably be bad spelling and grammar, nothing throws me out of a story faster, and it's not like using spell and grammar check's hard. I'm not saying my work's perfect, I swear I find three new mistakes every time I reread a story, but I do try and fix it as much as possible as I go. And I have never, ever, spell "you" as "u"

9. If you could publish any one of your stories, which one would it be and why?
Cinderella vs. Prince Charming. Mostly because that's actually what I'm trying to do with it at the moment. And it's my current favourite of my finished lot, which incidentally, are mostly the sequels to it.

10. What are some writing tips you can give the readers?
Read as much as you can, keep writing, and work at improving. Never be satisfied with "it's good enough". If you feel there's room for improvement, then keep working on it. Take pride in your work.