Interview with Melanie Paige

Published 2017-07-12.
What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
Unleashing my imagination!
Creating worlds is so much fun, and keeps me out of trouble - I leave that up to the characters, and oh boy does trouble find them! ;)
Writing is a way for me to express myself and explore my own mind and imagination in a fun way.
Publishing books gives me such a feeling of accomplishment, and knowing I've created lives, stories and complete worlds makes me so happy! I can't wait to share more work with people who love my books :)
Describe your desk
I try and keep it relatively clean, but it usually has a coffee, cappuccino or butterscotch latte with some dark chocolate next to me ;)
My computer screen also has a heap of sticky notes around it with reminders and events because when I'm creating worlds, it's easy to forget the most simple things!
How do you approach cover design?
I like to give aspiring artists a chance to create my covers so their work has another way of reaching people. Who knows? Maybe someone likes their work, and since I always put any contact details, social media or website links under the "About the Illustrator" part at the start of the book, people have a way of finding them easily :)
When did you first start writing?
I've always loved writing stories ever since I can remember.
I used to only read spiritual and self-help books as I wanted to understand and learn more about spirituality and the universe, and how thoughts and emotions can impact our every day life.
Then when I was about 18, my Grandma put a romance book in front of me. It was a few months and several books later when I decided I could write a book, so I picked up a pen and pad of paper and started writing. Turns out it's a huge passion of mine!
What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
Life.
There's so much to experience in this world, so many places to see, people to meet, music to listen to, and of course - books to write! :D
What do you read for pleasure?
When I do read (which is't very often as I'm too busy writing haha) it's usually anything that I can learn from on a spiritual or universal level such as those from Pam Grout, and Jerry and Ester Hicks about the Law of Attraction.
I've also become a fan of those visual novels from the Google Play Store on Android which I read on my tablet. It's also made me realise that I would love to turn my books into visual novels as well if I had any illustration skills whatsoever, or if I found someone who has the time to draw the scenes and characters then we could work together. Not that I have any clue as to how to actually make a visual novel as far as the programming etc goes haha.
What motivated you to become an indie author?
I have so many ideas for books and I want to share them with people :)
What book marketing techniques have been most effective for you?
I've mostly shared my stuff on Facebook, but lately I've joined Twitter and Instagram as well.
Sometimes I'll pay to get my Facebook posts boosted so they reach more people, usually when I've just published a new book.
When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?
Singing, dancing, playing video games, watching TV shows, and basically enjoying my life.
I look forward to travelling and seeing the world, volunteering wherever I visit, and also getting my own small farm so I can adopt some rescue animals and be self-sufficient :)
I have so many plans that I cannot wait to put into action when the time is right.
What is your writing process?
I usually only write when I have inspiration. If not, I say it's ok, a break can be good, so I play games or watch shows.
Sometimes the inspiration flows so fast I can barely keep up, and I tend to bring out my laptop if I can't sleep and start writing again haha.
Aside from my book, I have 3 other word documents in the book folders:
1: "Scene by scene breakdown" to keep track of upcoming scenes explaining the basics of each scene, who is in it, what happens, what's revealed etc.
2: "Notes" where I type up any information, details, characters, events and so forth that I want to add in the story though not yet sure when or how.
3: "Characters" where I have all information and details about each character from the main ones to the ones only in a single scene. It helps me better describe them because I can see them easier if I have all their details such as their height, personality, eye and hair colour etc.
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