Hello, @alwri-tes ! 👋
Congratulations on self-publishing 2 novels! That’s a tremendous achievement! ✨
What got you into writing? Do you enjoy it as more of a profession, or a hobby? Were there any mediums that inspired you to take up the creative journey? 💫
Hello!
Thank you!
I don't think there was ever a moment where I specifically "got into" writing-I was a very imaginative child, and from the age of nine, if not earlier, I would make up stories in my head and sometimes write them down in notebooks. If we're talking about beginning to take creative writing seriously and as a legitimate endeavor, then I think that was when I was about thirteen, when I attempted to write my first novel over the course of a summer. It was one long story broken up into three separate parts, a trilogy of sorts I guess. I completed the first part (It was around 15 pages iirc) and felt immensely accomplished. But for a variety of reasons I never completed the second or third parts and eventually abandoned it. Though I might return to that idea one day, who knows. I was actually thinking about it for the first time in years the other day.
In a weird twist of irony, the first book I published was one I had not started with the intent of writing a novel. It was a quarantine project that I took up to distract myself from the world crumbling in 2020, and it just grew and grew and grew from there.
To answer your second question, I currently see writing a bit more of a profession than a hobby, especially since I now get real life money from book sales. The monetary aspect of it has definitely changed how I view it. I don't write with the intent of making money-I write with the intent of creating something-but now that the self-publishing and selling process is something I have to consider, I now think things like how long or short should this be? and I need to force myself to write to stay on top of it so I can sell this sooner.
There are a lot of mediums that have inspired me over the years. Books (obviously). But also television and movies, particularly animated ones. I've loved animation my whole life, and it's been a long time wish of mine to be able to animate my stories, but I find that writing them is a better fit.
