Your Favourite Wattpad YA Authors

Jr0127

Author: Jr0127

Books Well-Known For: Cheater. Faker. Troublemaker and Find Her, Keep Her

How long have you been writing? I've been writing stories and poems since elementary school. My grandmother used work with well known children's authors so I grew up around a lot of writers. They'd come over to the house and share bits and pieces of what they were working on or read books that they'd already published so I unknowingly became really passionate about the process of creating stories and have been ever since.

What do you love about writing? I love connecting the dots between characters in fiction and the real world. My co-writer, Kristen Maglonzo (@kaelking12) and I enjoy writing material that throws readers into the nitty gritty reality of heartwarming and heart wrenching situations. We pull a lot of inspiration for things we've gone through or people we know have gone through to make our characters as real and relatable as possible. The hope is to help teach and reach out to people through fictional stories, to help them become more empathetic towards situations they may have not dealt with before, and to look at their own lives in a different way. Connecting with people's experiences on a heart to heart level is the most amazing thing about writing for sure!

What's your favourite genre to write and why? I love YA Contemporary Romance. I definitely jump into YA Thriller every now and again. But romance is something I really enjoy mostly because it's so much more complicated and beautiful and disastrous than you think, especially when it comes to YA aged characters. 

Do you have and advice for aspiring authors? Haha well, I'm still an aspiring author in more ways than I can count (and I think all writers are). But if there's an advice I'd give it's to always make sure you are writing for the right reasons. A lot of people don't talk about this, but it's easy to fall into the trap of obsessing over numbers, sales, getting published, trying to "make it", having a best seller, hitting a million + reads, etc. I think when you start down that spiral (which I definitely have at points and still do) it's important to stop and remember that writing is about telling the story that's in your soul. 

 Writing the story you want to write without shifting your voice or your work to fit what will sell or make you popular. So always be real with yourself. If you find yourself fame chasing, really get down to the bottom of why you feel like you need that. If writing becomes about validation try to figure out what's at the root of that so it doesn't poison your passion. For any artist/creative person, it's important to remember where and why you started what you did, and as hard as it is, remember that no matter whether you "make it or not" that's not why you started this in the first place.

You love the pen and the paper, and at the end of the day, that's all you need to love what you do.  

Do you plan to have a future involved with writing? As long as I enjoy doing it and keep a healthy balanced relationship with it absolutely. I threw myself way into the deep end after my books were published and after going through that I want to make sure that writing doesn't end up taking over more of my life than it should.

What project are you currently working on? I'm getting ready to jump into the final book in the Cheater.Faker.Troublemaker series with @kaelking12! I'm also writing two completely new side projects both YA Contemporary that I'm excited to eventually release on Wattpad. I'm also doing an entirely new rewrite of The Runaways and working on a MG book as well. So a lot of projects all at once!

To conclude the questions today, can you tell us a fun fact about yourself? I used to work in the music industry in Los Angeles for many years before I found my faith and decided to leave and start working with kids and young adults overseas!