When did you know you would be a writer?
I never knew I would be a writer until I realized, one day, that writing was what I did best. As a child, I wanted to be a singer, an actress, a veterinarian. I never thought I wanted to be a storyteller or a writer. I didn't hear the word 'writer' until I was in high school and it didn't occur to me that someone had to write the books I was avidly reading in middle school. Ever since I was two, I was a storyteller, a puppet to the characters in my own head, but I never meant to tell those stories until, at thirteen, a teacher told me I wrote description very well. Then, it was like a switch flipped. I started writing scenes on paper. I created characters that poured like ink onto a canvas in detail. I knew, then, that I could give words to my fantasies and allow others to see them. But I did not know I would be a writer until my early twenties.
How does your past influence your writing?
In ways I don't notice until someone tells me. My past usually comes out in the theme of the writing, which is something I actually don't focus on. So, it is amazing that I have been told by multiple people that my writing has strong themes. I have an unbelievably poor memory. I actually only remember a handful of my own memories and I have to be told the rest from others that know me well. Because of this, I tend not to pull from my past and, instead, try to pull from my heart. If I cannot feel the story, cannot relate to the topic, characters, or situations, then I don't write it. This also means that my mood, as much as I don't want it to, affects what I write, how I write, and whether or not I actually want to write.
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