1 ?

When I was in high school I remember coming across a discussion on unlikeable main characters and how to keep the reader reading with stories who have that kind of main character. I thought it was an interesting challenge that I wanted to try out, especially in regard to having that unlikeable main character (June in Cross Country) come to terms with their major flaws and actively trying to change themselves for the better.

2 ?

The beginning was absolutely the hardest part! It is definitely true that you're going to have a hard time keeping the reader engaged long enough with an unlikeable heroine to get to the part where the character starts to grow for the better. I know that Cross Country in its form now has major issues with the first few chapters and when I edit it next time they're going to change drastically. This includes hinting earlier on why June is the way she is.

3 ?

I am in love with the relationship between June and Jasper. I also love how in the beginning of the story it's clear that June is not a good person and it appears that Jasper is pretty innocent in terms of their relationship of bully vs victim. But I love how as June begins to realize how she has treated the people in her life, especially Jasper, in a bad way, she also learns more about Jasper and realizes he's not the person she's made him out to be. This is mutual for them both, in that Jasper also realizes the mistakes he's made. They grow together and in different ways and I love them for it.

4 ?

Overwhelming! Some people have messaged me privately to tell me how the story affected them or how much they loved it. I absolutely love reading these. Each time someone comments their reaction to a certain part of the story also makes me smile. In April my story suddenly blew up and had over 10,000 reads in three weeks, which was just insane to me. I could never imagine so many people finding my story and enjoying it. I love the criticism too (after I get over the part where it hurts), because at this point I've come to terms with the fact that I still have major growth to do in my writing ability.

5 ?

It's a stand alone but I have plans on eventually giving side characters their own books. I'm planning on doing Lila first. I fell in love with her character when I wrote her and I feel like I can give full credit to her antics if she has her own story where she's the forefront.

6 ?

That nothing is ever as it seems and that it can be and definitely is hard to recognize your past mistakes and fix them, or at least try to be a better person in the future if you can't change what you've done in the past. Also that you really can't judge a book by its cover, because until you take the time to get to know someone you won't really know what their story is.

7

Throw perfection out the window! Seriously, just dump it and stomp on it. If you strive for perfection you will never finish your story. There is always going to be room for improvement but you need to leave it and move on. Get the story written first and then go back. If something you've already written bothers you so much just write a note on how you want to change it later and just keep going forward with putting the words to the page. You can always go back.

8 ?

June loves history and hot chocolate, same as me. I once read that you should write what you know, so each main character I've written since high school has some same personality or character traits as me. Also June and I were both born in June ;)

9 ?

The genuine relationship that grows between June and Jasper. It's 100% not love at first sight, but definitely more of a realization that the other person isn't who you made them out to be, and as your unintended friendship grows so surprisingly does something more, in a slow burn and sweet kind of way.

10 ?

Loads! Currently I'm writing a novella named "Defining Life" about two cancer survivors who, for an English project, have to define "life" without using the dictionary definition. Next up is a toss up between "Ivy Dreams" which focuses on Lila from "Cross Country", or "Driving Slow" or "Picking Locks", which are both New Adult novels in which one has 19 year old Henrietta taking over a struggling Drive In business after her grandfather's death and the other has 21 year old Connie moving across the country and trying to get her life together once and for all