Howl-oo,

And welcome to the first of three interviews we have lined up.

In this interview, please welcome TheSydneyMarie🌙

🐺Can you share your Wattpad username with us and tell us the story behind it, if there is one?

Sydney Marie is my first and middle name. My previous Wattpad username, Sydney724 was my Club Penguin username, which was my favorite online game when I was younger.

🐺What led you to Wattpad initially? Did you join to read or write?

I joined Wattpad to read stories the summer before I started high school, and I wasn't a big reader before that. I didn't think about writing my own story on Wattpad until my freshman year started, and my best friend and I decided to each write a story and post them.

🐺How long have you been writing?

I've been writing consistently since I was fourteen, but I remember trying to write a book about fairies when I was around nine. I handwrote the fairy book on printer paper and stapled it together but never finished it.

🐺Do you like to write in the same genres as you read? What are your favorite genres?

I read all genres of fiction and nonfiction, but my favorite genre to read is Fantasy Romance for the escapism, and that's also my favorite genre to write in. I love the Fantasy genre in general for its world-building and creative details, and I've always loved Romance. If I'm watching a movie, odds are it's a romance.

🐺Besides reading and/or writing, do you have any other hobbies?

Outside of reading, writing, and school, my favorite thing to do is travel. I grew up in an airline family, so I've been traveling since I was a baby. My favorite places I've been so far are the Mediterranean and Great Britain. The places I've been the most are the Caribbean and China. My next adventure is Japan and South Korea, and I'm super excited!

🐺What does your writing environment look like?

My writing environment is in my room, on my bed, with my two dogs, and nothing to distract me like music or TV. I don't snack because I can't stand touching my phone or computer with greasy fingers.

🐺Where did the inspiration for The Dark Alpha come from?

The Dark Alpha feels like a combination of all the Werewolf stories I've written on Wattpad. I don't read in the Werewolf genre anymore, so all of my inspiration for my Werewolf works are rooted in Wattpad Werewolf stories that were popular in 2014-2015. I took tropes and genre 'rules' from those stories and made them into my own which have been (hopefully) improving over the last ten years.

🐺Can you share some of your methodology when it comes to researching and writing in the werewolf genre?

I have no methodology other than the things I learned from old popular Wattpad Werewolf stories when I was younger. I often get comments from readers saying my stories aren't like other Werewolf stories they've read, and it's probably because I depend a lot on my own creativity, which I think is a good thing. Not only does this provide different takes on the genre, but it pushes me to be more creative and unique.

🐺What part of the writing process do you find to be the most challenging?

My challenges often feel very Wattpad specific. The biggest challenges for me, I think, are maintaining continuity and well-flowing character development. Because I upload chapters as I'm writing the story, it's hard to keep everything in order compared to the process of writing and editing a story and releasing it as a completed work.

🐺Do you experience writer's block? If yes, how do you beat it?

Yes. All the time. Constantly. Sometimes writing feels like the most impossible thing, and what I end up with seems utterly horrible. I think my best solution to this has been picking up another book and reading until I feel inspired. If I'm struggling to produce good sentence structures, descriptions, anything and everything, I turn to an author I look up to and ground myself by reading their work.

🐺Do you have any favorites or least favorite topes when it comes to werewolf stories? Please tell us why you like or dislike them =)

One of my favorite tropes in all Romance genres is Soulmates, and I think I've written Werewolf stories for so long because it's a large part of the Werewolf genre. Seeing the soulmate trope in other Fantasy-Romance books has also been inspiring, and I've found myself branching out my writing interests because of it. I also love the tropes goodgirl/badboy and enemies-to-lovers. I use goodgirl/badboy a lot in my werewolf stories, so maybe it's time to do more enemies-to-lovers.

🐺Do you find that listening to music or making graphics help the creative process?

While I don't currently listen to music while I write, I used to all the time in high school. Music is a great source of inspiration for me when it comes to writing. I'm a Lana Del Rey fangirl, and I love the Alternative genre. I also listen to the Twilight soundtracks when I need to get in a Supernatural/Werewolf mood.

🐺Planner or Pantser?

I used to be a major panster, but as I've tried to improve my stories, I've found myself planning stuff out more and more. Now I do a lot of planning for stories as a whole, but I still wing details chapter by chapter. I think planning is only getting more important to me, especially since I started writing The Dark Alpha which is my first series.

🐺Anything else you would like to share with us?

While writing throughout my youth and taking creative writing classes in high school and college, two big lessons I've learned is to be dedicated and to have patience. I used to be easily discouraged by negative feedback and comparisons, but I've really come to understand that writing is a skill that takes time and experience to develop. I'm comforted by the fact that I'm improving gradually, and while that progression might not seem significant at times, I remind myself that it's there. I look back at my oldest stories on Wattpad whenever I need a reminder of how much I've improved.

So, if you're wanting to write something good like I hope to do someday, keep writing. Write a lot, read a lot, be dedicated, and never give up. You'll get there.

🐺We are so happy to have this great interview with you, TheSydneyMarie .🐺

You can start binge-reading Season 1 of The Dark Alpha now!