Intervīews

@LEPalphreyman

Well-know for the 'Cupid's Match'.

Why did you join Wattpad and why?

I think I saw a link to it while I was on DeviantArt and it seemed like the perfect place for aspiring writers. I wish I had discovered it sooner - nothing has helped me learn the craft of writing more!

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

The first story I posted on Wattpad was 'Ghost' - I remember when I started posting it not really understanding how Wattpad worked. I was just using it as a bit of a tool to motivate me to actually finish the book. The few reads that I did get, I always presumed it was just counting me looking at it - I remember freaking out when I got my first comment ("Whhhhhaaaat?! Someone is reading my book?!?!)

Who/What influenced your writing?

In terms of ideas? I'm influenced by a lot of things! Music, things I've watched, things I've read. Definitely influenced by my readers as well! I love how I can tell when something in a story is working / not working by people's reactions.

Your inspiration?

That's really hard to answer! I think I'm inspired by a lot of things and people.

Reading any great story inspires me! My younger sister inspires me because she aims high and if she wants to do something she'll do it without being too concerned about the logistics!

Also I'll mention one of my teachers when I was about 10 years old. I remember her always loving my stories and telling me I'd be a writer when I grew up. On the last day of school we all got our school jumpers signed by our classmates and teachers; she signed mine with a message asking me to send her a copy of my first published book. I never forgot that, and it was something that after University - when I was working in a job I didn't really enjoy for a while and trying to determine what it was that I was 'good' at -  inspired me to get back to writing stories again. Hopefully one day I'll get to send her that published book!

Your reaction when your book became successful?

Joy! Pure joy!

When I started writing Cupid's Match I had quite a good feeling about it. In the early days it wasn't crazy successful, but I definitely noticed that people seemed to be engaging with it more than they had with anything I'd written before. Maybe about three months after I'd started writing it it really started to take off. I remember saying to my boyfriend at the time, I really think I could get to 1 million reads with this, a year and a half later I'm now on over 15 million!

Your advice to the younger generation of writers?

Keep writing!

I think to be a writer you have to be both a dreamer, and incredibly grounded. You have to really believe that what you're writing is amazing and going to be the next 'big thing', but when it turns out that it isn't, you have to be able to pick yourself (and your pen) back up and start the process all over again! It's hard, but don't stop! Keep going! The book you've just written may not be 'the one' but the next one could be.

Just over a year ago I'd written two complete novels - one of which I'd unsuccessfully queried to agents, the other which I'd posted on here and had hardly any reads - I'd tried to get featured on Wattpad but failed, and I think I had about 30 followers. Then I wrote Cupid's Match. It became number 1 in the hotlist, Wattpad featured it, it's had 15 million reads and counting, I was invited to join the Wattpad Stars program, and Fox Television Network commissioned me to write an alternate ending for it! I'm not exactly where I want to be right now (I want to be a full time, traditionally published author), but I feel like I'm getting closer by the day. I'm so glad that I didn't take my former failures to heart and that I pushed on to write Cupid's Match  - because I learnt that a lot can happen in the space of a year!

By the courtesy of LEPalphreyman.