When did you first start writing?
I remember the day I first wrote something creatively merely for myself like it was the back of my hand. I mean, sure, I had written here and there for school work, but, up until that precise moment, I had never truly written something for myself, for my sheer enjoyment.
I was relatively young, at the youthful age of nine years old, and was watching some show on the Disney channel. In case you aren't aware, Disney has an incessant need to sing. Their characters are constantly belting out a tune, which I usually followed along with, though I sounded like a dying cat. On that particular day, however, I stopped singing along...
In the middle of one of their shows, during a musical scene, I scrambled up from the floor and ran into the other room, desperately in search of a notebook and a pen. An original song lyric had popped into my head and I knew I needed to get it down on paper as soon as possible. Once I'd found the objects of my desire, I sat down on my bed and began scribbling away furiously, the ideas in my head flowing through my hand and onto the paper as quickly as they came to me. By the time I was finished, my little nine year old self had concocted a full song, complete with three verses, a chorus, and a bridge. I felt quite accomplished and, more importantly, I felt truly alive. That was the day that I knew I wanted to be a writer.
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up in a town called Newport, KY, directly south of the border of the well-known Cincinnati, OH. My home life wasn't the greatest, which definitely had an impact on my writing. Often times, I would barricade myself in my room, shutting myself off to the world so that I could get lost in my writing.
Writing has always been a creative outlet for me, as it is for all writers, but it was also my escape. Within the realms of my mind, I was able to create a new life, alter egos, and venture into a fantasy world I could only ever dream of being a part of. Young as I may have been, some of my greatest songwriting, poetry, and short stories were created during that era of my life.
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