First off, I wanted to thank all of you for taking the time to read my Writer Room! It means a lot to me that you're interested in hearing what I have to say about writing. I don't consider myself an expert, but I have written for quite a while as a journalist. I'm also a lifelong reader, and if you take away any one piece of advice from me, it's this:

Read.Read genres you love and ones you don't. Read on Wattpad, but also read books and yeah, the classics. I had to sit through a lot of classics in high school. I hated most of them (I still loathe Great Expectations), but reading them made me realize what kind of writer I wanted to be. Also, there is a lot of value in dissecting books that generations have analyzed. It helps your brain pick up on patterns, which you can then put to good use in your own fiction.

Also take the time to read quality narrative non-fiction — some of the best writing comes in the pages of your newspaper, in magazines, and even from the world of sports. If you can read from publications such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, do so. Reading about real-life conflict can help you craft more authentic fictional conflicts.

Before I was a fiction writer, I wrote a lot of this kind of long-form, narrative journalism, stories that were between 3,000 and 5,000 words. I'd research and take weeks to write these articles, and doing this sparked a deep interest in writing books. It would take me years to finally plunge into the world of fiction, but writing nonfiction helped me immensely.

One of my favorite stories that I wrote involved an FBI agent who helped take down the Irish Mafia in Boston — but was later charged with helping that same organized crime group. The beginning of my article starts this way:

John Connolly didn't look dangerous sitting there in Room 7-3 of the Miami-Dade County Courthouse alongside the carjackers, rapists, and robbers.

No, Connolly looked exactly like what he was: a short, stocky 66-year-old guy in handcuffs. His wide face was puffy and red, as if his blood pressure were a touch high. His hue almost matched his attire — a tomato-color jumpsuit.

His mouth and brow were frozen in a perpetual, skeptical scowl. Saggy jowls hung from his jaw. His hair was the only attractive thing about him — thick, gray, and perfectly coiffed.

While waiting for his hearing, Connolly sat motionless, barely blinking. He didn't fidget with his black wire-rim glasses or look at anyone in the audience. The other prisoners were bodies in motion: throwing gang signs to their friends, blowing kisses to their girlfriends, sighing audibly. They were toothless, tattooed, and goateed, all wearing bright orange jumpsuits.

Connolly soaked it in with Zen-like calm. He eyed the judge as she called each case, followed every lawyer's word with a slight turn of his head. Occasionally he glanced at the other inmates, and his scowl deepened. He kept his hands folded neatly in his lap.

He stood when the judge called his name.

His was one of 60 cases on Judge Barbara Areces's docket that day. The room was packed with defense lawyers, prosecutors, criminals, probation officers, mothers, and a couple of reporters. Almost no one in the room paid attention to the proceedings. The din was so loud that Judge Areces — a smiling brunet with brick-red lipstick — finally pursed her lips: "Shhhh."

Soon Manny Casabielle, a tall, thin lawyer for Connolly, piped up. "My client is a former FBI agent," he said.

This July will mark my eighth year as a fiction writer, which is pretty wild to think about. When I started, I hoped that I'd someday be a full time writer, and now I am! I won't lie, though. It took a lot of hard work, late nights and missed time with family and friends to get here. I also made a ton of mistakes along the way, and I'll try to share as many of those here as I can.

First, I decide the year my character was born, then I look at the popular names of people born in that year. I also use character name generator websites. These are especially helpful for last names, especially if my characters are from another country or have a particular heritage. I confess to loving alliterative names, and you will see those sprinkled throughout my stories. Occasionally I'll choose a name that has a deeper meaning. For instance, Justine, the heroine in Constant Craving, is named that because she's a newspaper publisher who is seeking truth and justice. In that same book, Rafael's last names — Menendez de Aviles — is a nod to the first Spanish explorer who landed in St. Augustine, Florida (where my book takes place). Most of the time though, my character names don't have a deeper meaning, and I simply like the way the name sounds in my head.

I haven't written a true love triangle, so this is difficult to answer. From a purely mechanical point of view, if you're writing a sex scene with more than one love interest, I'd probably suggest getting dolls or anatomical figures so you can sort out where all of the arms and legs are during the action! Seriously, as with any POV characters, make sure they all sound unique. Give one of the love interests a vocal tic or a manner of speaking that sets them apart from the other — dialogue is a great way to show the differences between characters. I think this is especially necessary if you're writing third person POV, or if you have multiple POVs. You don't want your characters to blend together.

I get this question a LOT, and the answer is both simple and elusive. The short answer is, I'm not sure. It is somewhat of a mystery to me why I, a woman who is well over the average reader age here, writes stories that are popular on this platform. I'd like to think it's because I'm like twenty years old in my mind, and there might be some truth in that. Realistically, I think you can become really popular on Wattpad by doing a couple of things. Write a great book that's well-edited. Even if you use free sites like Grammarly or Pro Writing Aid, you can elevate your stories by making sure they're grammatically correct.

Releasing chapters often, and sticking to a schedule is also SUPER IMPORTANT. Readers want to know that you're going to finish a book, and they will be upset if you stop and start, or don't finish. (Ask me how I know this!)

But, and this is important: you shouldn't compare yourself to any other writer. Your life circumstances might be different. You might have school, work, or a combination of both. You might have kids. Others may not. I had the luxury of releasing daily chapters because I'd written and self-published most of my books prior to coming to Wattpad. This helped me so much, and not everyone has that ability. 

Don't beat yourself up for having different results than others. Everyone is on their own journey. It takes guts to put your thoughts on paper, so celebrate that instead of playing the comparison game.

Write the story you want to tell, release it on a schedule, and let people know about your book on social media. Don't compare your reads or popularity to anyone else's. That's a sure way to steal your joy.

That's all for this week. Ask more questions in the comments, and I'll answer them either in-line or in a Q&A! Next week, I'll be tackling the topic: How can I make characters more realistic and relatable?

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