What would you like to tell readers about yourself?
Today Amanda Meuwissen will be talking about how she became a writer and what inspired her in regard to the story she's promoting.
* I don’t know if I could pinpoint the moment I first started writing and wanted to tell stories as a little girl, but my teen years writing fanfiction is what led me to want to pursue writing professionally.
* It was a Final Fantasy VIII fanfiction that sealed the deal for me. A particularly moving and difficult fanfic I was reading about the character Zell Dincht ended in tragedy with him taking his life. It followed a plot line I see a lot in fanfiction for that age group—depression, suicidal thoughts, because it’s something a lot of teens are experiencing, and writing about their favorite characters going through what they are can be very therapeutic.
* It was a long story that I eagerly awaited the updates on for each new chapter. I was confident it would have a happy ending, because of the struggles we as readers had been a part of, but sadly, no, at the end…Zell went through with his suicide and couldn’t be saved.
* I contacted the author explaining that I felt it would have been served better to end differently, that I wished there had been another way, and she responded that she agreed, but hadn’t been able to figure out how to write a happy ending. This began a correspondence between us that gave me permission to write an alternate ending for the fic where Zell lived. It was only three long chapters from me to rewrite the ending, but it was so meaningful to address those issues and how someone could begin to work toward healing, even if depression and such thoughts, especially at a young age, continue to be a struggle.
* When I posted the first chapter, which was where things initially deviated from a tragic end to a hopeful one, an anonymous reviewer opened their heart to me about how the changed ending had touched them, and that it had prompted them to look at their own life differently and struggle to find a way to want to keep living when they too had entertained thoughts of suicide.
* There is nothing more powerful than
