I recently interviewed Wattpad author, Amanda Pate. You might know her for her novels “By Order of the King” or “Keeper's Children.” When she's not topping the What's Hot list with her historical romance novels, she's working as a nanny and a photographer. Her dream is to become an English professor and travel the world.
You can read her stories here.
1. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Amanda: I think it was after I finished my first novel, To Save a Kingdom. I wrote that just for fun. I couldn't find a certain type of book, so I wrote it. It was barely a hobby. But after I finished the book, I thought, "You know what, I can do this." I immediately started writing the second book (By Order of the King). So I kept going from there.
2. What do you love most about writing?
You get to create your own universe. I write for myself —not for anyone else, so I love the act of writing, rewriting, revising, and most of all I love the act of creating. Creating something no one could ever experience. It excites me; therefore, I write.
3. What do you do when you're not writing?
Well, I work full time, so I have a job apart from writing books (that's why it takes forever for me to update sometimes). I am a nanny for two beautiful children, and I'm also a photographer, so I have a lot of sessions and weddings on the books, plus editing time.
4. What do you think makes a good story?
Identifiable characters, intriguing plot, and emotional writing. If you really want to make it amazing, throw in moral quandaries.
5. Where do you get the motivation to write a novel?
I don't really know. Sometimes a thought, story, plot, etc. pops in my head, and I just can't help but write it. It's like a monster inside of me tells me to write, and I have to otherwise I will burst.
6. How do you deal with writer's block?
I keep writing! ALWAYS write! I try out a number of things if I'm struggling including: writing in a different place or a different time, listening to different music, reading books that inspire me -books that are similar to what I would be writing, read poetry -that helps me to write more metaphorically. All of those help. Change is the most common among the list, but I never stop writing.
7. Have you ever gotten criticism for your stories? How do you handle it?
I've gotten quite a bit of criticism, especially recently. I will say that there is definitely a difference between constructive criticism and outright cruelness. I like to know what I've done wrong and what I can do better —that helps me out when I revise. So I don't mind people pointing out mistakes (though I would prefer it not be grammatical because I know I've made grammar mistakes, and those I can easily fix). Now being cruel and calling me incompetent will only get you a kick in the butt. I don't take crap from people who don't know me. They can hate my book as much as they want, but in the end, I don't write for them —I write for me, so they can keep their nasty thoughts to themselves.
My advice to people receiving criticism. Take it graciously. It is only to help you. You can disagree with them, because in the end, it is your story and not theirs, but they probably do have a point somewhere mixed in that is at least worth taking a second glance at.
8.Something must have inspired you to write By Order of the King or To Save a Kingdom. Where do you get your ideas for stories?
I have always been intrigued with fantasy and historical fiction. I want movies, shows, read various books on those subjects, so it's something that has just been fostered within me, so I'm first going to write what I'm passionate about -at least for now.
9. Everyone had a writing process. Some wing it, others plan out their novel to the color of their main character's bedroom before writing it. What's your process?
Mine might be a mixture. I definitely don't wing it, but there are many things about my novels I have left up to Creativity's hand. Nothing is ever set in stone.
First I come up with an outline for a plot. A ROUGH outline which includes a few characters (protagonist, villains, a few secondary characters, etc.), turning points in the plot and/or characters, various scenes that I've thought up. I do that for the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
Following that, I start writing. I brainstorm each chapter before I actually sit down to write, but it's pretty much like that. I do a once-over before I post it on Wattpad. EVERYTHING I HAVE ON WATTPAD IS FIRST-DRAFT.
10. You're pretty famous on wattpad. How would you describe the process from going from just another username to a frequent number on the What's Hot List?
Honestly, I have no idea how it happened. I just wrote what I was interested in. I'm glad so many people have enjoyed my work and stories, but I honestly never did it for them. It was always for myself.
I guess what probably helped was promoting my story on websites (though I really didn't do it much). I had a few friends who had a couple hundred fans who promoted my stories, so they checked it out, and from there, it just snowballed I guess.
11. Do you have any advice or amateur writers out there? If so, what is it?
Write. And write ALL the time! Carry around a journal; you never know when inspiration will strike. Write for yourself. Write for the sake of your story and for the sakes of your characters. Write for the reason that you will burst if you don't write. Write a lot and read a lot. If you don't read, don't even think about becoming a writer. You learn how to write by reading and seeing how other authors create characters and such. Also, it doesn't have to be written perfectly. It just has to be written.
Don't worry about not being discovered, your time will come sooner or later, if you really work at producing good literature. There's also a lot of terribly written literature out there that has sold millions of copies (i.e. 50 Shades). Don't worry about being popular or known, just worry about becoming a better writer.
12. From experience, what would you like to improve on Wattpad?
I would really like a vote-all facet to stories. For example. If you read the entire story and loved it, all you would need to do was click a vote-on-all-chapters button, and they would receive as many votes as they had chapters.
I also wish that the age of Wattpad would get older, which might help produce better literature, instead of teenage literotica, but they may just take time, and I'm cool with that.
13. What is one of your pet peeves when it comes to writing?
People who hate on someone's writing just because it's not as good as published novels. Obviously, it will not have gone through an editorial review on this site, so why would you judge it by that criteria.
This interview was initially posted on Wattpad. Feel free to comment below.
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