Some people say that when they have dark times personally they have dark times creatively but that's not really the case with me. And I'm beginning to hate the word, 'dark,' its starting to get really cheesy. I write pieces intrepreted as dark no matter what is going on in my life. It's a way to grip the plot and the happenings down to plant them so that it doesn't turn into a comedy show which my work has also a liking toward. I take incidents or feelings from my life but not really darkness my mind creates- it just takes bits and pieces from things I've seen or read and turns it into something else.
The first book and the 2nd have a few similar themes: friendship, creativity, love, but they're two totally different things really- they feel like completely different journeys which I suppose they are really but I'm laughing to myself right now thinking of when people ask if I've grown as a person or writer since the first book. I know I have as a girl for sure but I can't tell if anything has matured at all! I'm probably a kid and wacky in the same old ways and the writing, the shaping is is probably similar as well. I don't know though- I'm sure I'm a bad judge- maybe there are signs of growth and and development change, maybe it can't be helped. I read so damn much that I'm sure different influences have shaped the stories. I read alot of Cormac McCarthy while writing it and strange as it sounds, that's an influence I can see in the dialogue structure and descriptions. There's only so different the two books of mine can be, both having a 1st person structure but its alright, as long as they're recognizable to me and to the people who read what I write.
When you look around at other people who are struggling it makes you fit in and feel better and develop worthwhile ideas and the best idea I got from that was how much more proud I was of my material than other people I encounter are of their material and that surprises me. Alot of what I've achieved has been because I believed in what I wrote and that people would enjoy it. Just write it and get it how you want it and then go out and talk about it and be proud of it, get people excited about your hard work. If you believe in it, your enthusiasm will be contagious.
Marie Antoinette is a girl I love.A girl with flair who couldn't grow up as much as she tried, a hilarious colorful kid in a grownup body that couldn't seem to please anyone but herself.