This is my interview with motherpanic (now petcheater)

They have 1.93k followers at the moment and 10 published works including Secrets which is a Frerard and Bubble Wrap My Heart which is another Frerard that has 83k reads.

1. I'm aware that you had an account before this one. What inspired you to make motherpanic and move from your other account?

Ah you know my old account. That account now no longer exists. I finally deactivated it because I deleted everything on it and I wasn't using it anymore so it was finally time to cut the ties.

But basically my old account, that was like a starting point I guess. I hadn't really written anything since I was a teenager. I wanted to get back into it and seeing as I had probably gotten a little rusty with writing, it was like a refresher for me.

Everything on that account was just pure clichés and bad and ugh. It was all so rushed and I really didn't research for my stories back then. I just wrote these AU's that happened so fast and they were just terrible.

I have no idea how You Are Mine did so well (yes I know I remember the haunted phone story I'm shuddering remembering it). But basically I got tired of writing on that account because I felt that what I had written was just cringy and no one was really reading what I was writing.

I got the idea for Secrets and yes, I know that story is a massive walking cliché because it's Gerard with a drug problem and bad Bert and Frank who is there to save the day. But I wanted people to read it.

I know I write for myself, but it is so nice when people actually read what you write. I knew Secrets wasn't going to get any reads on coffeepot, so one day I was sorting out my CDs and I was trying to think of a new username like one that would work on Wattpad and I just happened to start looking at the backs of CDs to see is anything would pop out and make me go yeah, I wanna use that.

Thank god Gerard put that fuzz pedal on the back of Hesitant Alien because that is where my username came from. I may not listen to the CD anymore, but that is where my username originates from.

I guess Secrets inspired me to start a new account just because I actually did want to improve my writing and I thought a fresh start would help and god I remember messaging tragician_child right at the beginning asking him to read Secrets like that started our friendship I guess but yeah, motherpanic was a fresh start for me to improve and I like to believe that my writing has improved somewhat in the past two years.

2. What did it feel like to hit 1k followers?

When I started my new account, I had no idea that I would even get 100 followers. My first account had about 200 followers and I thought that was just crazy. It took time but eventually I hit 1k followers and I thought everyone was mad like, who the fuck would want to follow me?

Apparently 1000 people and now nearly 2000 people. I mean, I don't fully understand the following system on wp like I get having books in libraries cuz then you get notifs but I assume it's just so you see stuff in your news feed which makes me terrible cuz I rarely check my news feed.

But yeah, I still think it's insane that I have so many followers. I never imagined that I would have this many followers when I started motherpanic. I love and appreciate everyone that follows me and puts up with everything I do.

3. You have a really busy personal life, how do you manage to balance that and writing as much as you do?

In all honesty...I don't know. I am busy like, okay, I get a day off in the week maybe once every two weeks or more. Luckily the next couple of weeks I have my Wednesdays free so I can go out and get coffee and then come back and spend six hours writing. But my day to day life is so busy usually.

I get up, it's get ready for work. Get my daughter ready for school. Drop her off. Go to work. Come back from work. Pick her up. Then it's homework and dinner and bath time and then once she is in bed, I can write. That is if I'm not too tired to write.

A chapter can take me anywhere from two weeks to up to a month to write. I just write when I can. When I'm not exhausted.

It's hard because I want to write all the time. When I'm on the coffee machine at work I get all these ideas. I carry a notebook round with me all the time so I can jot down ideas and speech I have planned out in my head. When I'm with my daughter I can't write. It's not possible as my full attention is on her. You just can't focus.

It's basically at night when I write so sometimes I can get like 1-2000 words typed in one sitting or sometimes I only get down like 20 words. Every day is different. I just try to squeeze in writing when I can.

4. You mostly write Frerard, so how did you first get into that ship?

Haha. Well, this all started off with my friend back in school. We both got into MCR and we literally obsessed over them and we would watch whatever we could and we bought everything. I think I still have my I'm Not Okay CD single floating around somewhere.

But basically we obsessed over the band. My friend loved Gerard. I loved Frank (still do lol) and then we came across this video of the on stage kiss and me and my friend LOST OUR SHIT.

And so we totally got into it and we would say all this stuff and joke around. We were teenagers and probably didn't fully known what gay sex was back then, but we would basically talk about them being a secret item in the band and we were totally into Frerard and that was when it started.

She grew out of it and I got back into it (for the purpose of writing lol). My first ever Frerard I wrote was so terrible this was before Wattpad it was so short and shitty and they just kissed and it was so badly written and I'm pretty sure I hinted sex but yeah, I'm rambling.

Sorry. So yeah, Frerard, I first got into that many many years ago and I'm still stuck in hell using the pairing to write gay fan fiction today lol.

5. What is the hardest part about writing for you?

The hardest part. There are a few things like, I know my spelling and grammar isn't great. I always try to get it perfect but sometimes errors slip through and I find it hard when people point it out like. Fine if you're doing it to help me, but when people do it just to be difficult and make fun, that's just not nice. It really knocks my confidence with my writing when people take the piss when I make errors. I'm only human. Sometimes things slip through when I proof read.

Another hard thing I guess is like, take BWMH for example. I had that story fully planned out a few months back. The story has become so much more since I've been bouncing ideas off of Parker, and they've even given me ideas to use too which has really made the story what it has become now.

But with that, the story has changed so much. Not so much yet, more later on in the story so I find it hard to sit there and think, well if they do this, how can I now get to this? Is it still achievable? Changing plots and stories I find hard because I get so set on a storyline. Then when the changes come in it just gives me a headache, but I still sort it out.

I mean, Bubble was only supposed to be one book. Now it will be two books and a one shot epilogue. It's crazy lol.

I guess I don't find much else hard because writing is such a back seat thing for me. Is that the right saying? Because it's not like it's my main focus so I try not to stress too much over it. Sometimes it gets hard, but I like to believe anything is achievable with writing on Wattpad if you just take your time and think everything through.

6. If you could be one of the characters you have written for a day who would you choose and why?

Omg I can answer this question so easily. Frank from Bubble. I mean, he's so innocent and soft and I swear he was never supposed to be this innocent when I first started. You can thank Parker for that with his awesome ideas (man clit, food baby). But yeah, I feel this answer is going to be much shorter than the rest...BWMH Frank definitely like seriously, if I was him for a day, I would get him to punch Billie and tell Gerard that he loves him. He's so soft and sweet I love him he is my favourite character out of all the ones I have created. Bless him lol.

7. Do you have any other ships you enjoy but haven't written about yet?

I actually do. I don't write them but I plan to one day. Like, I've really got into Joshler recently and I wanna write a story with that pairing.

Gryles. God I love Gryles I love Nick Grimshaw so much I listen to him every morning he is a sweetheart my alarm is the radio so I literally wake up to him every morning it is the best. One day I will write a Gryles. Don't know when but I plan to.

I like Petekey but I do feel that that is a dying pair like I put my Petekey one shot on ao3 and it didn't do well. I mean, I feel that if I took the Petekey out of Bubble and gave it its own story, I don't think it would do well. Petekey is more of a side ship in a story for me. Peterick, a side ship in a story. Ryden, side ship. There was another one I can't think of it I'll comment on this when I remember it.

8. Do you like reading on this site as well or mostly writing?

I am behind on reading I do try to read but with my busy life I struggle. When I do have free time I just wanna write so reading has been a little neglected recently. I try to keep up but I just find it hard to keep up with writing when I'm so busy. I do both, maybe not at the moment as much, but when I'm not so busy, I will get back to reading as well.

9. Would you like to one day work on getting a book published or do you write more for fun?

I would love to rewrite Bubble as an original story one day. When it's done. Like, both books and epilogue done.

With writing so much for this story, it's getting to the point that I can see this story as an original story now. Original characters which is something I struggle with. Hence why I write fan fiction because I have characters I can imagine and know.

But I'm really happy that I can now picture the story with its own characters so yeah, maybe one day I would love to try to turn bubble into an original story. Drop some chapters from it like the last one I posted which is just smut lol. Just rewrite it and fix it and then maybe see about getting it published maybe, one day...who knows. I probably won't be done with Bubble for another year or so lol.

10. If you could go back in time and do something differently on Wattpad what would it be?

One thing I could change...never write The Artist Next Door. That story was shit it was like just, a fucking mess tbh and that threesome I got KNOWN FOR. God I remember when someone replied to me on a Potatoyoghurt fic going "well you did that weird threeway" and I died inside because I didn't want to be known for that trash heap. It was just terrible and rushed and I am not going to talk about it anymore ugh lol.

I also wish I never deleted some of my works like some went for a reason but others I wish I'd just unpublished and left because I remember them and I wanna redo them but I can't because they've gone and I regret deleting so so much.

I don't think there is anything else I would change. I'm happy with my account and I'm happy with what I've achieved so thank you xoTragician (I think it was you lol) for nominating me and thank you Starr for asking me these questions I had fun answering these questions x

I hope you enjoyed my interview with the lovely motherpanic

Update: motherpanic has made a new account they are now petcheater

Don't forget to comment suggestions for other authors I should feature next.

Love you all xxx

- starr