VeraMicic Presents: Bullied and Writing in English as a Non-Native Speaker

Hello, everyone! My name is Vera. I'm the evil writer who likes to surprise her readers with a lot of unpredictable twists, ups and downs, and her personal favorite—cliffhangers. I just love emotional stories that contain inspirational and educational messages, so if you happen to stumble upon my stories, you better prepare yourself for an emotional roller coaster ride with a lot of heartbreaking moments.

My book Bullied, which is the first book in the Bullied series, deals with severe bullying issues, which many people have, unfortunately, experienced or encountered, but not many are able to speak about. This is a story that came from my heart, which was fueled by my need to show the cloudy side of the world—the one filled with sadness, loss, prejudices, mental issues, dysfunctional families, poverty, and bullying.

Bullied is a bit darker YA romance, which shows pure cruelty and how badly bullying can influence a person—up to not being able to fight back because of fear, low self-confidence, and distrust. Sarah Decker, my main character, suffers from social anxiety as a consequence of being bullied over a long period of time, which is just one of many possible effects of the long-exposure to verbal/nonverbal abuse.

At the same time, I tried to show the importance of understanding other people. Each coin has two sides, which means that we shouldn't judge others too quickly. Bullied is also a story of bullies. It shows both sides of the coin and what leads dysfunctional individuals to bullying, as it can be seen in the example of Hayden Black, who is the main male character of the series.

Sarah and Hayden are enemies in the start—two damaged, dysfunctional people who can't understand each other, separated by many twists of their fates—until they are intertwined and able to reconcile, which can glue the pieces of their broken hearts together and let them heal.

Sarah and Hayden's romance is a long, bumpy journey, and it's the one that blooms on the ground filled with hatred and misunderstandings. Their story is filled with a lot of ups and downs on their way to healing and becoming better, showing that even in the darkest times a tiny flame of love can survive and turn into something much stronger and powerful if two individuals manage to overcome their obstacles and reach mutual trust, respect, and understanding.

The Bullied series will consist of five books in total, and the first three (Bullied, Pained, and Damaged) cover Sarah and Hayden's complex story.

 And now, let's move onto the challenges of writing in a foreign language!

Back then, when I made the decision to start writing in English, I was so insecure about it that I even googled to see if there were any famous foreign authors who had done what I was trying to do. I had a plan to publish the Bullied series from the start, but I was worried that publishers won't even look at my manuscript since I'm not a native English speaker.

However, I didn't let that deter me, thinking that if I can write a novel that's as good as those of native English authors, I can succeed in time.

So you can do it too. You can improve your writing in a foreign language and write a novel that will perfectly express what you want to say.

I started writing Bullied for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) 2016, and it was my second English novel. My first English novel was a science fiction novel The Time Shifter in June 2016, which I unpublished from Wattpad in the meantime due to bad grammar and a huge difference in my writing compared to these days.

I've been writing since I was 9, but writing in English posed new challenges for me since I had limited vocabulary and my word flow wasn't fully natural. I've been studying English since I was 8, so I counted on my advanced knowledge, but writing in English was something else entirely. So I had to adapt to it. A lot.

My main issue was my inability to know how bad my writing actually was, which manifested in my poor vocabulary and clumsy writing. However, I continued writing on a daily basis, trying to read as many books in English as possible to enrich my vocabulary and improve my grammar. There are many useful websites that offer great writing and grammar tips, which I fully recommend if you want to master your craft. Just google writing tips and techniques, and you'll find an abundance of great websites.

If you want to improve your writing, whether you write in your native language or not, you have to write continuously (on a daily basis, if possible) and read, read, read. Reading English books as a non-native speaker (in my case—young adult literature because I'm writing YA) can help you get a better idea of the dialogue and the way of speaking. It can teach you slangs, idioms, metaphors, and so much more and help you construct more natural sentences.

It's really true. There is no shortcut to achieving your dreams. You have to work hard day by day, month by month, year by year, until you can finally get to where you want to be.

It's a long and difficult journey but never give up or stop believing in yourself. I've been writing in English for almost 2 years now, and I still feel like I'm miles and miles away from how I want to write, but I'm patient and confident that I'll be able to improve little by little despite the obstacles.

So, believe in your writing and your progress, no matter how slow or hard it is. It's normal to have setbacks from time to time, but as long as you don't stop writing, they can be overcome.

And even if you encounter negative feedback (just to clear this up, I'm not talking about a constructive criticism) or extremely rude comments, don't let that stop you. After all, you're the only one who can put a limit to what you can do, so if you want to improve your writing, don't shy away from it.

Remember that even the best authors receive negative comments. So instead of observing negative feedback as something detrimental to your motivation to continue writing, embrace it as a way to develop a thick skin because let's face it—the amount of rude comments increases proportionally to the popularity of the author—so you'll need that thick skin if you want to start a writing career.

And that would be it from your evil author aka the evil twists addict (my readers know my inner evilness and its influence on my writing haha)! If you've read this far, I'm sending you the golden edition of my evil popcorn and lots of love! ;))

In the end, I'll leave you one of Hayden's poems in Bullied that depicts the inner turmoil he experiences on a daily basis.

"Feeling dead inside, breaking to pieces, but you don't mind.

Forever lost, I turn to light, only to see it's useless to fight.

I scream, suffer, and bleed inside; every single day is a tough ride.

I love you today, but tomorrow hate will prevail.

It's a roller coaster, and you'll never know

What is like to be so high and then fall so low."

★ ★ ★

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