Featured Story of the Week: The Devil's Angel

The Devil's Angel is a wonderful fan fiction based on The Vampire Diaries series. In this week's Featured Story, we take a closer look at this amazing work!

Give us a brief summary of The Devil's Angel.

It's hard, per se, to summarize the story because I tried to add so many different elements to it, but basically it's about a girl named Mia suffering from memory loss, and through some twisted fate and untold prophecies, she ends up in Mystic Falls. It's only after she meets the mysterious bad vampire Damon Salvatore that she starts to dream about her past life and the most prominent part of those dreams turns out to be Enrique Parisi, her childhood best friend who she doesn't remember now but still feels a strong connection to.

It's not just a love story, it's about self recognition, discovering past and mistaken identities and how these make up the future, because crossing that final line to happy ending is not easy and there are some tough choices and sacrifices to be made that ultimately shapes up the story.

What inspired you to write The Devil's Angel?

I don't know actually where I got the inspiration from. It was just the first sentence of my story that had been nagging me and I had to write it down on a page to give myself some peace of mind and eventually when I stopped writing, I noticed that I had written quite a few pages and had some pretty basic story line to work with.

Another reason might be that Damon was one of my favorite characters from the show and to see him struggle and fight for happiness and then watch him lose everything he had built for himself might have made me a little sentimental that I had to give him a proper story with glee filled hours and such. I mean, who doesn't want to see a bad boy reform his ways?

How long have you been working on this story?

Well, I gave it a month before I published it and once I started to get feedback from the readers, I completed the story in about four months.

What is your favorite thing about writing The Devil's Angel?

Ah! There are so many to write.
I love how it pulls me in and while writing I'm totally lost in another world where I get to play every character, thinking about a same situation with different perspectives and that raw connection with the characters and their emotions is amazing. I had a lot of fun shaping up my characters and their relationships, especially with Damon, Mia and Enrique. I loved transitioning their feelings for each other and how they coped with it. This has been my first story ever and before this, I had no idea how fun writing actually was.

What is the most challenging thing about writing it?

Challenging...a whole lot of things. As a fan of the show myself, I wanted to shed some light upon the history of the characters and for that I had to watch the show over and over again to make sure that I didn't miss an important point or change anything from that created universe. Also, I had the ending in my mind from the very start and I had to steer the story in a way that it would make sense and reach the conclusion that I wanted it to and as much as I loved building up the relationship of the characters, it was difficult to pace it. And...I'm babbling a lot now so, I'll spare you all.

Have you ever experienced writer's block with this story? If so, how did you overcome it?

Yes, it is one of the most frustrating things. I used to keep writing the story but while reading it myself afterwards, the words just felt empty, but that was the extent of it because, like I said before, I knew the way I wanted it to end but the pathway to it was total blank and to fill those holes...I suffered from that disease a lot.

How to overcome...you know, the usual. I used to give myself a break from writing and watched the show again (Yes, I do that a lot. I'm crazy like that. I must have finished it like 3-4 times.) Another major thing was music. Sometimes, while listening to the song, the whole scene just played in my mind and it was very effective to write the scene matching with the lyrics. Oh, and reading the comments from my readers, it works like magic in overcoming the notorious block.

Do you write with an outline, or just wing it?

If knowing the ending of the story counts for an outline then, yes. Otherwise, I hadn't planned on anything. Sometimes, I used to surprise even myself with any twist that I added out of nowhere. It keep things interesting.

Do you have any pre/post writing rituals?

Nothing major. I just need calm and quietness to let the ideas flow - except for the playlist that I had devised while writing it - but I write mostly late at night when no one comes in barging through the door.

Is there anything you would like to say to your readers?

Yes! That you guys are amazing people who might not know how you've slowly changed me with your continuous love and support. Your involvement in the story and the comments, they never cease to amaze me and I love everyone of you. It means a great deal when someone appreciates your writing, and you have done that for me. Thank you so much.

Special thanks to Fandango and Maddi; for editing!