Intervīews

@KeriHalfacre

Well-known for 'Natalie's Diary'

When did you join Wattpad and why?

I joined Wattpad at the very end of February 2016. I think I found it via Pinterest on a list of 50 websites for writers or something. I wish I found it sooner haha. I figured giving myself deadline to upload every week would help me actually FINISH books.

How did it feel like when you posted your first story on Wattpad?

Confusing haha. Good, I mean, but it took me a bit to figure Wattpad out. I didn't undrstand voting right away and finding book clubs wasn't very intuitive. I didn't discover the clubs right away either. I was pretty psyched to start Natalie's Diary, though.

Who/What influenced your writing?

Hmmm. It's difficult to say who my immediate influences might be. I think there might be something in the style of John Green. Less of the symbolism and more of the voice, though, just the casual, conversational style of narration. For Natalie's Diary in particular, I read a lot of real life scary stories (from Reddit, but curated by Thought Catalog.

Your inspiration?

My inspiration, probably going back to those scary stories again. I looove reading tales of people's run-ins with the terrifying so I kind of set out to write something that could make people's skin crawl a little, though Natalie's Diary is certainly more mystery than horror.

Your reaction when your book became successful?

So, I started off very dedicatedly posting in the clubs and signing up for I think 4 or 5 book clubs, getting a pretty good amount of reads per day then BAM, I was included in an official Wattpad mystery reading list and all of a sudden ND jumped to the top ten of the hot list and it was crazy. I think ND lends itself in a few ways to that success here. The Filipino Wattpad community is a huge one, something I didn't even realize when I decided Jane would be Filipina. The mystery, cliff-hangery nature of the book certainly helps. Honestly, I have other books I haven't posted that I'm sure wouldn't have done as well even if they got the same exposure. The successful has been so wonderful, though! I love the comments as readers get to the twists and try to jam the puzzle pieces together.

Your advice to the younger generation of writers?

Write, write, write! I say this all the time, but I love Pinterest as a writing tool. There are a million blog posts about writing, and mist of them repeat the same information, but it's worth reading those blog posts, or go to a writing class, or puck up a writing book if you learn one new thing that you hadn't thought of before.

And don't be afraid of planning. It's hard, but it is so helpful if you already gave an idea of what you need to write when you sit down to put words on a page.

By the courtesy of KeriHalfacre