Ask the Author: Ali Harper
Answered Questions (5)
Ali Harper
My advice is simple, effective and sadly...boring: WRITE! Write whenever and wherever inspiration hits you, be it whilst you're on the tube (or subway for you new yorkers, or the train for the rest of you), whether you're stuck contemplating ramming a pencil in your ears at a mind numbingly boring university lecture about the laws of thermodynamics (I highly advice you not to do this), or whether you're stuck at a family function be it a wedding, a bar mitzvah, a birthday party, reach for that napkin and pull out that eyeliner pen (or guy liner) and start jotting down those ideas because they come ago much like lone ships in the dead of the night, quick, fast and go unnoticed unless you do something about it. Write, write every day, at least a page. And read a lot, and I mean A LOT, especially that of your genre.
Ali Harper
The "Beautiful Bedlam" series are very, very loosely based, more inspired by my life and contains many true life events and a lot of the characters are based almost exactly to people in my real life, thus the reason for using my pen name Ali Harper. As someone who has suffered from mental illnesses almost all my life, I've always felt as though the media, movies, books never really portrayed or handled mental illnesses particularly in young people very well...not until recently anyway, so I'm glad to be one of the few authors can give a real account of how it is to "come of age" so to speak whilst battling with mental illness, particularly depression, grief, loss, pain, etc.
Ali Harper
I am currently working on "Breakaway", the fourth instalment of the Beautiful Bedlam series which I am about a third way through as it shall be quite a fair bit larger than the previous three. All I can say is if you liked the first three, you'll love the fourth! ;)
Ali Harper
Much like reading, writing is a form of escapism for me. I enjoy being able to escape in to another world, in to someone else's mind other than mine for a while, in to someone else's problems, live through their issues and being abel to control this little world of mine I've created. I love that writing much like art is subjective, that much like people and the characters in the novels, the words I've written are often not what they seem at first glance, they're intricately woven with semblances of truth, fiction, pain and parts of me. All writers are only as immortal as their words. In a sense we'll live forever and there's something rather scary yet beautiful about that, and that has always appealed to me. The ultimate best thing about being a writer has to be divulging all that buried passion, all those manic thoughts, all the extra ideas in to one simple art form, I find it to be rather therapeutic and always feel a tad bit better afterwards. And the hours are pretty great too seeing as you can write when you want, where you want, however the hell you want to write.
Ali Harper
Hmm, I wish I had a really interesting informative answer like I pull a Charlie Sheen and sip on a tiger's blood, sadly my life is not so exciting nor dramatic. Instead I sit in front of my laptop and try to fork out at least a thousand words a day, whatever mood I'm in, i literally have to force myself no matter what. I've noticed for me consistency is the key. Sometimes I do take a much needed break but alas, I'm sorry guys, like most of you I have not yet found the magic cure to writer's block.
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