How I Got Into Writing

Most writers always say they knew they wanted to be a writer from the time they were about six or seven. Not me. When I was six or seven, I had no idea what I wanted in life. Did I enjoy writing? No, I know that for a fact. I hated writing things out. When I was six until about the age of twelve, I was convinced I would be the next Britney Spears. Albeit, a chubby Britney Spears, but a singer nonetheless. When I was a freshly turned teenager, I recorded myself singing and discovered I couldn't sing. Being an emotionally charged teenager at the time, I was devastated by this revelation, but like everything else in a teenager's life, I moved on.

The same year, I became a fangirl for the Jonas Brothers. Over summer, I was a bored fangirl and discovered a website with fanfiction and that's how my writing life came to be. The writer was born that summer and she never went away.

I know, I know. Most people turn their nose at fanfiction, but it's still writing! I oftentimes (now) don't even write about the canonical person. I use their name and face as the character, but their personality is completely up to me. I could easily change Harry Styles to a name like Jameson O'Keefe (and I did... not really).

You see, Jameson is a character in my novel Vigilant. His name started as Jameson, and I went through a small blip last summer where I changed it to Harry for the sake of posting it on Wattpad. I didn't like it, so I took it down. I reposted the version I was more comfortable with eventually, but the notion still stands that Harry is Jameson.

Since my writing career began, it's all been online. My whole being is charged around the internet (thanks Wattpad!) and I've adapted to the changes. Years ago, writers would think up characters and imagine their faces as people they've met. With the internet, we're able to picture "celebrities" (I hate the word celebrity, but we'll roll with it) as our characters. So it's really no surprise that the apple of my eye (because I didn't want to use celebrity) is Jameson.

I don't know when I knew I wanted to be a writer, but as soon as I started writing, I knew it made me happy. Even now, I can't think of anything else I would rather be doing than writing.