Writers as Readers

1.) When I read, I don't necessarily have a specific environment that I need. I just need a place that's not busy, silent, and has comfortable furniture (I still read at school though). At home, I like to light a candle and play some low-key music.

2.) The genres that I am most interested have to be fantasy and science fiction. I love fantasy because
it requires so much creativity to create an entirely different world from scratch and convey it into a digestible reading. I'm always impressed when I read a good fantasy book, they're difficult to write. My love for science fiction books, I think, stems from my early love of video games. A lot of video games have a science fiction/fantasy feel to them, and I guess I was drawn to the same type of books.

3.) Sometimes I feel like I write like Nathaniel Hawthorne, especially when I try to describe something. It often turns into a much bigger description than I was hoping for. I really try to not write like that, at least in terms of the length. I feel like it just begins to drag on and on, and becomes a pain to read such tedious sentences.

4.) One of my best memories is when I finished the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series. I remember feeling extremely satisfied.
The Lightning Thief was the first book I ever finished completely. Finishing an entire series of 5 books for me was quite the accomplishment. It might be insignificant to people who pump out 1-2 books a day, but for me, I thought it was pretty cool. Also, I loved that series so much, that I started reading other books, and I feel like this series was the spark that started the fire.

5.) Every single book of the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series, I couldn't put the book down. I was just so engrossed and immersed in this great world and this character that I could somewhat relate to. After The Lightning Thief, I felt invested in the characters, and I was so happy when I learned that there were going to be more than 3 books, a point when many series end. I almost started to read too fast through some of the dialogue because I wanted to read the action scenes and the climax of the books so badly.

9.) When I finished reading The Last Olympian, I was sad and happy because I had just finished this amazing series and the fantastic story, but I had also just read the last of this exceptional array of books, which made me sad.

11.) I certainly envision the reader when writing. The reader affects nearly all of my writing, except for ideas that other people don't have an influence on. For example, I might change sentence flow or dialogue to make it easier to read, but I will almost never change a plot event unless it just doesn't make sense. When I write for myself, I never think of plot order, sensibility, or word choice. When I write for myself, I just love creating the story. Sometimes I just write paragraphs that describe a completely different world.