This is my interview with PastelPunkPrincess

They have 1.47k followers at the moment and 17 published works including My Kitten which is a Joshler and Sex Ed which is a Frerard with 172k reads.

1. You have been on this site for two years according to your page. Have you been actively writing this entire time and if so do you still enjoy it as much as you did when you started?

Yes, I have. I remember my first story I published on Wattpad was a Joshler named The Words To Make You Stay, which is still up. I had written it for a contest, but even though I didn't get anywhere close to winning, it was worth it, because it gave me the push I needed to start writing fanfiction. It feels like forever ago, but now I write stories on here all the time, using as much of my free time as possible to plan and update.

I'd have to say I enjoy it more now than I did a year ago when I first started. There was always such a feeling of "I'm never going to be that good," or "I'm never going to get noticed." It was hard to stay motivated to write when I felt like no one would read it anyway, but I stuck with it and pushed past that part, working on making myself better, and now I love writing on here. It's my favorite part of the day, when I have free time to write.

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

Amazing! It's so great to know that so many people love my stories and my writing so much, and many of my followers are so supportive and have been with me for a while. I always get so much joy out of seeing their comments and love, for not only my books and characters, but also for me, and it's astounding.

There have been a couple times during my creative process, where things didn't turn out quite so well, but they always cheer me up and help me through it. I don't think I would be where I am as a writer without my followers.

3. Do you have a book of yours that you would recommend for people not sure where to start?

It depends on what you're looking for personally, but for the classic style full body Frerard that everyone loves, I would suggest Sex Ed. It's witty zero-to-sixty fun, that's flirtatious and silly, but also emotional and deep. It has everything from cute sappy fluff to hot sexy smut, and the characters are wonderful. I think it really has something for everyone.

Many of my followers have commented that it made them laugh really hard and that it's their favorite story, some have even told me it's the only joy they get sometimes.

I have never been more proud of something I've written or so in love with characters I've created and the impact it's made. So, I think it's definitely a great story to start on.

4. You write both Joshler and Frerard. Do you prefer writing one ship over the other?

Unfortunately, I do. Which is probably not fair to my followers, but I love Frerard so much more.

I had started out in fanfiction with Joshler, reading an amazing story on A03 by one of my favorite authors and I loved the band a lot. I had created a few Joshler stories on here, most of them I took down, but I was never quite satisfied with any of them and the fandom was still pretty new. The top ranked Joshlers at the time were mostly just funny text au's, but I wanted something more. I wanted a story that had a deep emotional plot, with characters I could fall in love with, something more mature, well written, and moving.

Then I found Summertime by raughy, and I finally found what I was looking for, since then, I can read nothing but Frerard. I've read almost all of the top stories and even the three Joshlers I still have are multi-ship stories with Frerard in them.

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

I would say I almost like reading better. I have several reading lists on here that are full of awesome stories and I go through several fics at a time. There's over 50 stories in my library right now! I have always loved reading, ever since I was a kid, I would pass my summers reading book after book from my local library, now I just read on here.

Personally, I think reading is a bit like drawing, the more I read, the better I get as a writer, and the more I expand my vision for creativity. I look at top authors, styles that I enjoy, new approaches to writing, and ideas I've never thought of to help broaden my own capabilities as a writer and inspire me to do better. Also, it's a great escape from the pressures of college, it helps me to relax and forget about my day.

6. Do you have any difficulties writing multiple stories at once?

Ugh, yes. Sometimes I'll be really inspired to work on only one story and I'll neglect the others, but I try to update them if someone complains. I guess my worst problem is that I have all these ideas, but very few of them are solid enough to make a whole story out of. There's a couple I've had to take down because they were never going to get finished.

I think the easiest way to do multiple fics at the same time is to schedule them, update them on alternating weeks or days, but overall I don't suggest it. It's too easy to get overwhelmed, neglect a story, or not get the best quality because you can't devote enough effort to all of them unless you take a while to update on each.

7. Where do you get your inspiration to write from?

Most of my inspiration comes from movies and tv shows. I'm a bit of a tv junky, but I love all the awesome plotlines people think up and all the different kinds of character lives you get to experience. I like putting myself in different character's shoes and imagining what it must be like, especially ones I'll never experience or wouldn't want to personally, but are still interesting to me.

It's cool to see what it's like to be a cop working the beat, a single dad living in a crappy apartment, or even darker things, like a druggy on the streets. But I think a lot of it comes from me being transmasculine. Writing gay fanfiction kind of helps me cope with my dysphoria in a way. I can live the life of a guy through my characters.

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

Believe it or not, I'd be Frank from Sex Ed.

I don't know why, but I love him so much, which is funny, because he has so many character flaws it's ridiculous. He's rude, has authority issues, he's snarky, he likes to push your buttons, he's a little arrogant, loves to break the rules, and he really only cares about sex, but I think he's also misunderstood. A lot of what he does is to play off all the hurt and pain that's in his life too. He works hard to be the funny cool guy at school that everyone loves, because no one cares about him at home.

But Frank is also a paradox, because he has this whole other side to him that no one sees, a side that is sweet, and caring, and he can be squishy and loving too, he just needs the right person to bring out the good in him, someone who will see past all the BS and believe in him enough to get down to the real him. I purposefully wrote Frank so that you would both equally love and hate him.

Maybe he's an extreme exaggeration of myself as well, I often find an author's favorite character will have a lot of themselves in them, but he kind of reminds me of Ryan Reynolds, so that's probably why I like him so much.

9. Any advice for someone new to Wattpad who is considering starting their own book?

First thing, no matter what, always write for yourself. At the end of the day, despite what people comment or say, you need to be happy with your own story. Writing should be fun, if it's not, then you or others are putting too much pressure on you. You'll never stick with it if it becomes a chore, and don't be afraid to take a break.

Second, the more time and effort you devote to planning and writing a story, the better it will be. You'll get out what you put in. If you love your story and put a lot of work and care into it, your readers will pick up on that and they'll love it too, if you just slap stuff together and not really care, how can you expect others to?

Lastly, it can be hard to gain traction when you're first starting out on here, but don't get discouraged. It can seem intimidating and at first, hardly anyone views your stories. I started out the same way, in fact I never believed that I would ever have a story with 8.1k votes on the Frerard tag, but here I am. If you really love this, don't give up or get downtrodden, keep on working on making each work better than your last and learning how to make better plots, characters, and stories by studying how other writers do it.

If you follow this stuff and stick to it, I promise, you will be amazed at what can happen.

10. What has been your best moment on Wattpad so far?

I could say when I first saw my story hit so many views or votes, or start going up the ranks in the fanfic tag or number one on the Frerard tag, and those things are all unbelievable, don't get me wrong, but the best moments for me here on Wattpad are when I get a message from a follower and they tell me my story brightened their day, or I made them laugh so hard they cried, even better when someone tells me my story brings them joy, because there's so much bad stuff going on in people's lives. It's a blessing to make someone happy with my writing.

I've even seen some pretty great friendships start between followers because of something on my story. I've even gotten some great friendships out of it.

To me, those things mean the most, because they're real, and if I can make moments like that happen just by writing a story, then I've accomplished something far greater than I ever set out to do.

I hope you enjoyed my interview with the lovely PastelPunkPrincess

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

Love you all xxx

- starr