Q: What was the hardest part of writing your book? When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
A: I found that making sure the sentence structure and the dialogue between the characters made sense was somewhat difficult. I started to realize that just because it makes sense to me doesn’t necessarily mean it makes sense to everyone else. I also found that I needed to show the characters actions during a scenario rather than narrate what just happened. I found that to be somewhat difficult at times while writing my book, especially since I didn’t realize I was doing it. Lucky for me, the editors I have had picked up on my mistakes.
I’ve always enjoyed writing and I wrote countless short (very short stories) stories during my school years and even when I self published my book, Purged by Darkness (previously titled When Darkness Falls) in Australia back in 2004, for some reason, I still didn’t consider myself a writer. When I landed an American literary agent in 2006, I still felt the same way. In November, 2008 when I got an email from my agent that an American publisher wants to sign me up, I still couldn’t consider myself a writer. Despite getting really good feedback about my manuscript, I told my publisher that my manuscript can be a million times better and I would like to work on it. After five months, I handed in the reworked version of my manuscript to my editor and she loved it.
When I first wrote Purged by Darkness I was eighteen years old and I hadn’t even begun to see the real potential in my writing, partly, because I didn’t have any real life experience other than what I had experienced. My whole world at that time was from a narrow minded view. I’ve always felt that the best writers aren’t necessarily those who excel the most in English and grammar, but those who have a vivid imagination and who really have lived their lives. It was only once I began to see and live my life outside the box (that is high school) would I really ever see any growth in my writing. Thank goodness I was right and it was once I received very positive feedback from my editor and countless others since my books release did I truly consider myself a writer!
