Self Interview - 10 Questions to Dig Deep On

Why am I doing this? Because it's always good to dig deep, and evaulate yourself in your life with whatever you're doing every now and then. Asking yourself questions, and REALLY digging into them within yourself is a good way to keep you on the right track, or help you get back on it.

It was started by another vocal member - that I honestly will need to go through and get familiar with:

Of course, I am not the first to jump on this train. I was inspired by Mother Comb's self-interview article. And I thought this would be a good way to pull me out of the funk I have been in lately.

So... here we go.

What type of writer do you feel you are?

My greatest 'failure' as a writer is not having a niche. I write about everything. Life, children, love, abuse, inspiration, herbal remedies... all kinds of stuff.

But most of all, I'm a fiction writer. I write stories. Stories that I hope takes people away to different worlds, and wrap them in adventures. I write stories that play in your mind like a movie.

Or... rather I like to think my writing does these things. A good example would be my story on Vocal that I a writing Chapter by Chapter called Long Live The Queen.

What type of writer do you not want to be?

Dry. Boring. Repetitive. Droll. I don't want to be another cliche writer that is happy recycling other people's content over and over and over again.

I want to always be unique, and I don't want to be somebody that people skim over.

What do you like about yourself as a writer?

I like that my writing can help people. I write a lot of inspirational and deep pieces. I like that I can move people. That people can take in my words and get something tangible within themselves for it.

I have always been very good at words. I often have WAY too many! But I am a seamstress and words are my thread and with them, I can weave a story out of almost anything.

What do you look for in other writers?

Other writers are my muses. If I enjoy reading a particular person, it may not always be because they are a 'fantastic' writer. I read people's stories, and anecdotes, and it gets my mind going. Often times I can be inspired by other writers and take what they wrote - and go write a different article about something completely different - but alas inspired by someone all the same.

I look for honest writing. I want to see authors bear their souls in their words, like I do. This why I don't even bother with AI. I want the raw, I want the mistakes, I want the imperfection. These are the things that allow me to feel like I am truly diving into other people's writing.

What do you not like about yourself as a writer?

I have a disease called 'procrastination.' I'll go days without writing, weeks even sometimes. There was a dark horrible time in history when I went a couple of years without writing.

I find myself sometimes with entirely too many excuses.

"I'm too tired."

"I don't have time."

"Writer's block is cramping my style."

"I'd rather play a video game."

While most of the time these statements are true, but excuses all the same. I am a mom of 3 young children (5, 3, 1). I run a home business, my house is tiny with a big family 7 living in it so I'm constantly overwhelmed by chores...

So. This is what I do not like about myself as a writer. I have done MUCH better this year with it... well, the last half of the year. I'm hoping to continue to improve on my sloth-like tendencies.

Which writing genre or category do you feel is your best?

It's a toss-up between my fiction stories (not micro-fiction.. I have SUCH a hard time writing short stories. As mentioned, I have too many words) and my inspirational/educational pieces.

In which genre or category do you feel the most challenged?

Romance and microfiction. Too many words and romance is a freaking alien.

When did you first start writing?

I started writing stories with words in Elementary school. I always loved doing essays and such for school (Yeah. I was one of those kids). But then one day in 6th I realized, instead of just playing pretend, I could write down my pretend stories.

I even began to take the stories me and my siblings would make just playing pretend, and turning them into stories.

In highschool, I had started a book and got halfway through it before someone put my floppy disc somewhere it could get wiped.

I didn't attempt to write again until I graduated, and one day woke up from a very vivid and weird dream (the birth of my first novel, which is currently pulled off the market while I edit it, though it has been published originally).

Why do you write?

Because... why not? It's therapy. It helps me sort out my feelings and thoughts (and in an ADHD, anxiety abuse survivor's head that's a LOT). It helps me process the events in my life. My fiction stories help me take that misplaced pent-up darkness and put a spin on it to entertain and share with the world. Words that are put on the internet, or pages... they are permanant. Even if they are burned or deleted. Those words reached someone before they left... and if one small piece of my writing stays with someone, or helps someone... then that means the memory of who I am on the inside will forever exist somewhere... and maybe it'll carry on and continue planting gardens of seeds in the minds of future writers everywhere. Because stories, anecdotes, fiction, non-fiction, articles, and inspiration, are all important. In some way or another, they are a message from one person to another. Even a story can change a life.

For example... my first book (that I'm so mad at myself that I can't link ya'll too because I'm taking FOREVER TO EDIT IT AGRAOIHLJESKLL:KNGF:LKN! <- Keyboard frustration vent - try it. It works) my God father who adopted his 13-old-niece after her parents were tragically lost bought my boook and gave it to her as a gift.

He told my mother that she read that book so much it's almost falling apart. My book was about life after death, the spiritual realm, and transcendence, in a nutshell. It was about a young assassin who died saving her country from civil war that would have been caused by her father. Her father killed her, and her soul went to another place, where she was able to redeem herself for her mistakes in her living life.

You all cannot imagine the way my heart broke when I heard that. This teenage girl, clinging to my fiction story about death, because it was helping her cope with the loss of both of her parents?

Ya'll. I cry every time I think about this. This was several years ago. And I swear if that book EVER makes it into anything, like a motion picture, I am bringing that girl as my VIP to the premiere.

Knowing that my book brought peace to someone during that kind of grief... I shatter at the notion (I am very tough about certain things... but this? I'm fragile. My heart is a ginormous soft mess).

So that is why I write. That is why when I write my educational pieces on abuse, I re-live and tell everyone what happened. Even if it opens old wounds. Because if I can give someone the courage to leave a bad situation, it's my job to do that.

As a writer, an influencer, and someone who can make a damn difference. That is why when I write my fiction stories, I go so far into them that I delve into them. My characters take on life (and I SOB during death scenes in my own books like it was my own people that got killed) and they move people for me. In the way that I know how to do best.

Well. This has been fun.

Has it helped me out of my funk? Not sure. I guess we will see if I suddenly start writing more than once a week again. Wish me luck, everyone.

VERY happy holidays to all!