I always thought that writers had a desk they needed to sit at in order for the ideas to start coming out. I thought they had a very specific routine where they had to have their favorite beverage just the right temperature and it couldn’t be anything less than perfect. This is why I didn’t consider myself a writer when I was six because I would just spend all day on a story about once a year. 

I would print it out, give it to my mom, and be upset when she would tell me I needed to use more details. I would stop writing until the next time I had an idea. Then I switched schools. My new school did something called the Young Authors program. We were assigned to write a page a day for about two weeks. I would type a page on the computer, and then bring it in. Then my books would always be super long because we had to draw illustrate them.I never won the contest because children’s books aren’t around 40 pages.  I think it ended in seventh grade about the time I started a story about a group of people who killed the president. 

The president in the story was one of my classmates, and I asked them permission to kill them before I wrote it. I never finished that story. I have a horrible track record finishing stories. I always get distracted by a new idea, and then come back to the other project later. The point is writing always calls me back eventually even if I get discouraged. Don’t let your own insecurities keep you from doing something you enjoy. I learned in college that being a writer doesn’t mean a specific place or routine. Writing is just chasing an idea and seeing where it leads. I hope that I always continue the chase no matter what gets in my way.