First of all, thank you to all the readers who sent their questions to me. I do appreciate hearing from you guys and I want to do my best to answer your queries. Keep the questions coming and I’ll keep answering them through my blog. In this post, I will answer three more questions from readers. They all revolve around writing and hopefully, you get something useful out of it.
Where do you get inspiration for your books?
I hated it when other authors said ‘everywhere’ like inspiration hangs in the air and you just pluck it out. But the reality is that it is really everywhere. For me, I put things in ‘what if’ situations. Like for The Girl Between Two Worlds, I asked myself ‘what if the mythological creatures from the Philippines end up in America’. From that small concept, I built the characters and plot around it, answering questions like ‘why would they be in America?’ or ‘what would they be like when they’re overseas?’. It’s like a string of thought that you just keep pulling and pulling and pulling to see what it’s like in the end.
Describe the place where you write
I wish I could tell you that I write in my beautifully colour-coordinated poshly decorated writing room. But the reality is that my desk is in one corner of our dining room. Just one corner. And it’s not even a big corner. Even though I don’t have a whole room to myself, I make the most of my little desk. I keep it as organised as possible and make sure it’s got everything I need before I start writing. Every now and then, I take my laptop outside to write. I’ve noticed that when I change venues for writing, it keeps me motivated. Not really sure why it’s like that, it just is. I’ve never had to go away to just write though. It would be nice to be able to afford a cabin in the woods for a weekend just to focus on writing. Maybe one day I will try it out.
When did you first realise you wanted to be an author?
I have always dabbled in writing for a long time but as I graduated with a communications degree, I ended up being a journalist. I didn’t really think I had it in me to make fiction writing a serious thing. But you never know when you will get bitten with the writing bug. My decision to take fiction writing seriously was a super slow process. There was no big moment when it dawned on me that I am a fiction writer. Sometimes, I still catch myself referring to my job as a ‘journalist’, which isn’t really true anymore. I was a journalist but my day job (and night job) is not really journalism anymore. So now I just say I’m a writer because it encompasses many things.
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