The 5 Standard Questions:

Question One:

What inspired you to research and write the tough topic(s) that your novel centers around?

Everyone has experienced some level of sadness in their life, whether it impacted them for a few seconds or for a few years. We wander aimlessly throughout our life without knowing that everyone has experienced bullying, torment, and any other form of misery. Once we do come in contact with someone who has felt the emotions that rang throughout our bodies in our hopeless state, we feel revived. We start to embrace the idea of hope--that it does get better because all of these feelings should be temporary. I want to bring awareness of the struggles that we humans endure silently, thinking that no one else can possibly understand how awful we feel. Yet everyone, including myself and you, has felt a degree of sadness where we didn't know if where we were headed to was the best direction in our life. We all handle it differently and if I can play the slightest role of helping someone understand that it will be okay, then that's enough for me.

Question Two:

Has writing said tough topic changed the way you view writing, or the world in general? How has it impacted your creative aesthetic?

Of course, it has. I feel a stronger connection to understanding the person I am. I start to develop bonds with anyone who writes me a message and says that they can relate to anything I've written. It proves that we humans are on a gigantic boat called life. Some areas of the boat have holes in them, and people fall into the ocean but if we start plugging up the holes before anyone has the chance to accidentally fall into it, then we can save each other. And the thing is? Humans accidentally fall into sadness. No one wants to be sad. Why would anyone choose sadness over happiness? We don't even know how far we've fallen into the ocean till you see others trying to save you. My work, ever since delving into the topic of helping falling off the boat, has evolved and now focuses on different ways that we can help others. I start to use different metaphors and connect them to real life problems, proving that even the tiniest thing can impact you.

Question Three:

How do you hope to help people with your writing?

I just want people to be aware that they don't have to cry themselves to sleep because there are people who honestly want to help them to feel happiness and love. I want people to know that they are not alone because even though another person might not live in the same place or dress the same as you, they have felt hopeless some time in their life. If I can help people understand that there are better things in the world then to let this sadness take it's toll on you, then that's amazing. I want people to accept the sadness and let it go because it shouldn't ever be permanent. Sadness is temporary, but happiness should and could thrive through all of the obstacles in life. If we don't learn to deal and cope with the sadness, it'll blow up eventually to something that could have been prevented. Find people who will love you unconditionally and help you realize that there are better things to life than feeling sad. Please, reach out. Humans aren't so bad when it isn't about politics, okay?

Question Four:

What does your writing process look like?

My writing process? Well, I like to be detail oriented and extremely organized because it helps my thoughts flow easier and find their places on the paper. My room has to be tidy and the music has to match the emotions running through my body. I start to think back to any time of my life where my mind came up with what if's. I like to compare simple emotions to objects around us. Are the stars sad when they blow up or is it just another form of life? Do humans give up when they've been tossed every problem possible or is it the way life works? Then I try to put that nonsense into words and try to make sense of what is running through my mind. Sometimes, it's hard because I can't comprehend where and how I thought that a toy car can express how unfair life can be but it happens.

Question Five:

What are your long-term goals with writing? What are your long-term goals outside of writing?

I hope that one day, I can publish an entire novel of my built up emotions and release them into the world. Sure, I have published a series of works but those were tiny, short stories and I didn't pour my entire heart onto them. I really hope that my writing has helped someone understand that even if they don't have it figured out right now, it'll all eventually unfold itself right in front of their eyes. Heck, I don't even know where I will be in five years and that incredibly scares me to the bone, but I'm just going to let myself mature in my own pace and let it come to me. I want to finish college, get a Master's degree, build my own foundation of security and stability so that I wouldn't have to rely on anyone but myself. I don't like going to others for help; is it hypocritical of me that I like giving others advice and helping them? Maybe. I mean, I have needed help before and I have accepted it. So maybe, I want to help people to the point that they don't need my help. So they can represent themselves as a strong, independent being who doesn't put up with anyone else. I want to be part of that process because I have had people push me forward because I needed that boost. I'm thankful for the boost and I hope I can boost people up too. Oh, and I hope that I can teach people the meaning of good grammar. That's another long-term goal, outside and with writing.

The Five Unique Questions:

Question One:

Therapy is a particularly moving short story. What compels you to tackle topics such as those addressed within the story?

Therapy is a conversation between two completely different people who struggle with the same emotions. I want to address that to the world as much as I can. We are so different from one another but we are all fighting the same battles; some people take a longer time to win but that's okay. If I can get that message across through each chapter, then everything is worth it.

Question Two:

How do you translate emotions so well to paper (or screen)?

Ah, I honestly don't know. I don't think that I have reached my ultimate potential in writing. I grow every single day and I know I will never stop growing; even at my deathbed, I will be learning to accept death. I will never reach perfection which I'm completely fine with because if a person reaches perfection, where can they go from there? Nowhere. It's pointless. I just try my current best to let everything pursing inside of me out in the formation of letters so I can prevent myself from exploding. When ever you feel incredibly sad, that you can't even cry because your vocals have been shut down, write about it. Write that your vocals have been locked away. Write about the moment when happiness spun inside you like a ballet dancer. Express, compare, and write. Oh, and repeat.

Question Three:

Best "quotable" sentence that you have ever written.

Hmm, that's a hard one. I was so proud when I came up with Therapy's hook that I almost couldn't stop smiling even though it's a sad quote. "They told us that we needed therapy, as if medication and tainted words could fix broken toys." It's a complete summary of how I write. I compared humans to broken toys, pretty much. That's my work shrunk down to seventeen words.

Question Four:

You have a very unique way of telling stories. Sometimes through poetry, sometimes through prose that breaks apart and jumps ahead. How did you come up with this format?

I feel like formatting my words in a certain way can express the personality of the emotion or action. Rather than just writing "I fell." I can break that word up and one letter can be on the right side of the page, while the other in the middle, chopped up into fragments and tiny letters. No one just falls into sadness or in love flatly. Nope, we trip over memories during late night conversations, we accidentally step on dreams, we try to sprint past nightmares, and sometimes, we don't look ahead and we miss a step, which starts our tumble down. Just like how that letter is in bold, and how that one is slanted, or how that letter is far apart from the rest. It visualizes the emotion through words.

Question Five:

In SHADES OF BLUE, your Wattpad Prize 2014 winning story, each chapter is titled with a different shade of blue. What inspired this?

To me, blue is a color that has different meanings. One meaning of it is that it is associated with sadness, and I realized that everyone experiences sadness in their lives, but all in different ways. So that's when I thought of the line 'everyone has different shades of blue' (a line in the story) meaning everyone has different degrees of sadness, and one thing led to another. Next thing I know, I'm titling the chapters with different shades of blue. I could be so sad that my shade of blue is dark with splattered black dots merging in with the blue. One day, I could faintly remember a moment where I was a little kid again, who fell off my bike and cried. My shade of blue would be a light blue, speckled with grey. Everyone has different shades of blue, and some shades are a little darker than others. But it all comes down the fact that if we mix two colors together, a new one will form. So let's mix sadness with love, and see what will be the outcome. Surely, it'll be a beautiful shade.

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