𝐵𝑒ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠 (Featuring Many Great Authors)

Author [@AbbyWheelerRomance]

Welcome, everyone. Today we have the lovely AbbyWheelerRomance

A big thank you to her for taking the time to answer these questions.

If you haven't read her books then please do. They're amazing...

Without further ado...

...

1. What inspired you to start writing?

Reading did. Before I knew what fanfiction was, I used to make up my own endings when I didn't like what happened or wish it had just been different. I did write two entire romance novels (burner novels. They will never see the light of day. LOL) before I discovered fanfiction and started posting my own fic. I got kind of addicted to the feedback/interaction and got stuck in it for years, writing plot bunny after plot bunny, before I decided I really wanted to write my own characters in a world I created. But I still really love the feedback along the way. I was so happy to find Wattpad where I can get that interaction/feedback that keeps me motivated. I guess I'm a people-pleaser at heart and it's much easier for me to write when I know someone is waiting to read it.

2. Did you have any writers' block along the way? how did you get past them?
God, yes! It really depends on the kind of block. Sometimes it's just a difficult scene as far as action/ too many characters so I needed to knuckle down, break it into smaller sections and get through each at a time before cobbling them together. Other times, I'm just too busy and overwhelmed to be creative, so I allow myself to walk away for a few days. Other times, I do a throwaway exercise. For some examples: write the scene as only overheard dialogue, write the scene as if the characters took truth serum and cannot lie or hide their feelings, write them in danger and see if that raises the stakes. It's not usually full of lines I keep, but it's a good way to shock yourself out of a slump.

3. Do you see yourself in any characters and why?
I see myself in all of them, to an extent. In The Lady Pursues, I'd say Charity has my silliness, and imaginative tendencies, but she's much braver and more outgoing than I am and socially savvy. Ian is a bit more like me in how he goes through life, kind of holing up and shutting out the world, and he's awful at accepting help, as am I. But there are bits of me in all of them. Emilia's control-freak streak is in me, Pru's snarkiness and fangirling over classic literature, Ernie's love for food and his brattiness. Everyone is based on bits of me and bits of my family and friends, both good and bad.

4. How old are you?
Can I be cliche and say "a lady ever reveals her age"? I'm north of thirty, I'll say that much.

5. How old were you when you started writing?
I was just out of college. I'd always written a bit, here and there. I was a theatre major and I'd write skits and songs we put on at events and I wrote sketches when I was with Second City after college. But I didn't start writing novel-length works until I was a frustrated reader who wasn't getting what I wanted out of most romance novels and just started writing my own.

6. Can you remember what you felt when you first started writing? what did you feel?
Control and power and synchronicity. I'd get such a thrill out of a good bit of dialogue or when I had something happen in chapter 3 that I realized would be useful in my endgame. Add in the feedback of fanfiction and, subsequently, Wattpad, the enjoyment was much deeper when I got to share what I wrote and have people laugh where I hoped they would or feel things on lines I cried while writing.