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

A showcase with @hipstateasee, author of Falling

1 what inspired the idea of your story?

 For most of my stories, I get inspired by a certain scene that I come up with in my head. For Falling, it started with one of the main characters, Vinny. I came up with him in my head and kept adding traits to him and ended up really wanting to tell his story, so most of the inspiration for this story came from that character. 

2 what is something you struggled constructing with your story?

I struggled with putting a story around Vinny because I didn't want to follow the same routine I followed with my first two books. While I was outlining Falling, it was difficult to decide how I wanted Vinny's story told and what exactly the plot would be. Usually when I write stories, the plot gets formed around a scene that inspired me to write the story. For Falling, all I had to go off of was Vinny, so I struggled a bit with figuring out how I wanted the plot to go and the roles of the supporting characters. I also have significantly less time to write now than I did when I wrote my first two stories so I struggled with finding time to write as well.

3 what did you enjoy writing most of your story?

What I enjoy the most is getting to write the scenes that I've thought about since the outlining process. When I'm writing, I always think of important scenes that can't happen until later on in the book, so it is really satisfying to finally get to write those scenes after building up to them and then getting to share them with my readers and seeing their reactions. I like when I'm able to pull off a good plot twist that I've had to keep to myself the whole time and then seeing the reactions in the comments. It makes the waiting for those scenes worth it. 

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

A lot of the feedback I get is quite positive. I've had some critiques about the pacing of this story because it is slower paced than my other books. This was intentional because I'm trying out different ways of writing and different ways of pacing, but I understand that not everyone is going to like a slow paced book. For future books I'm going to try faster pacing and hopefully will eventually figure out a good middle ground between fast and slow paces. A lot of the positive feedback I get is out of love for the characters which I really appreciate because characters are always my favorite part of reading stories and people being able to love and connect to characters that I create makes me really happy. 

5 is your story a stand alone novel or a piece of a series ?

This story is a standalone. As of right now, I have no plans on sequels or spin-offs for Falling, but another one of my works will be getting a spin-off in the near future. 

6 what would you like your readers to take away from your story?

 I don't really use my stories to sort of "teach" anyone anything or write with having a moral of the story in mind, but I think I'd like my readers to come away from this story with the realization of their own strength. With Vinny, his whole arc is overcoming something horrible that happened to him and allowing himself to become vulnerable in order to seek help and support to overcome what has hurt him. I think it's important to see that that sort of overcoming is a process that isn't necessarily linear and definitely isn't quick and easy.

7 what advice would you provide to fellow writers, when it comes to focusing on their own story?

 I always struggle with giving writing advice because I'm always changing the way I write, but the one thing that stays constant is that I think it's super important to have the end in sight when you start writing. The path to the end can always change, even the end can change, but I think it's so much easier to write and to keep writing when you know where the story is going. Also, I've learned over the last few years of writing on Wattpad that while it's important to listen to the criticisms of your readers, don't let that stop yourself from doing what you want to do. You can listen to what they have to say and take it into consideration, but if it's going make you change too much of the story you want to create, then don't do it. It's important to write for yourself because you're putting in so much time and work you should enjoy what you're writing. Not everyone is going to like it and that's fine, not everyone has to. If you like it and you are proud of it, that's what matters. 

8 does your main character share any similarities to yourself?

I think I share a lot of similarities with my main characters. Out of the three I have so far, they all have some type of anxiety that I write into their characters because I feel like it's sort of an outlet for me to write some of my feelings into them. With Vinny from Falling, he has a lot of feelings of self preservation. He doesn't want to let people in because he doesn't want to get hurt, and I think I share some of those sentiments. With Elijah from On Thin Ice, he has a lot of feelings of loneliness I relate to. I sort of use these characters as a way to release some of my own feelings and things I struggle with mentally. I wouldn't say I'm exactly like any of them, but I share pieces of their mentalities.

9 what is something about your story you believe would draw in new readers?

 I think Falling is a little different than my other stories because it is not exactly a love story. This might draw in new readers who aren't really looking for a fluffy romance but rather want to read about main characters who are in a romantic relationship but still going through things separately. I like to think of Falling as more of a story about life and people rather than a romance. Romance is definitely not just a subplot, but it's definitely not all the story is about and I think that could draw in readers who are looking for something a little different. 

10 do you have any future projects?

I do have some future projects planned! I'm doing a spin-off of On Thin Ice called Ice Cold. It's about the brother of one of the On Thin Ice characters and a former enemy of another of the characters. I'm hoping to get that posted once Falling is done. I also have a few other stories in the works but those probably won't be ready until I'm far enough into Ice Cold to give them more attention.