How Writing Changed My Life

Lately I’ve been having a little bit of trouble thinking of things to blog about. My friend Fabio suggested that I do one about how writing has changed my life. This question actually took me a surprising amount of time to answer.

I’ve always loved to read, and I don’t remember when I realized that in order to read a book, someone had to write that book. But I wouldn’t say it was that realization, or my desire to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) when I was sixteen that changed my life. My real turning point was putting together this blog and my platform. 

I started sharing my writing with people outside of my family when I was about 18, and discovered fanfiction. After I shelved my first manuscript, writing kind of sat on the back burner for awhile. I didn’t have any new ideas, and I was attempting to pursue a theatrical career, so that took up most of my time. Fanfiction allowed me to spread my creative wings without the pressure of designing characters or a universe out of thin air. Still, until 2016, I only shared what I wrote with members of my fandom. It was a fun, engaging hobby that helped me relax, but nothing more serious than that.

Eventually, I switched my major to English and started watching a ton of writing videos on Youtube as I became more serious about learning my craft. One of the most common pieces of advice I kept stumbling across was to set up an author platform long before I was ready to publish a book. After a few months of planning, this blog was born. And I can’t even express how happy I am to say that.

Whenever someone asks me to give advice to new writers, I always tell them not to be afraid to be active on social media. The writing community has done wonders for me in the past 13 months. Because of this blog, I’ve been published twice, had the fortune to intern at a small publishing press, Owl Hollow Press, met some amazing new people (@_KimChance, @jennamoreci, my awesome CPs @ingrosso_fabio @HHKnowsNothing , and @tanner_childs to name a few). My current WIP wouldn’t even exist without this platform, because it was inspired by a prompt given to me by Leslie Conzatti for my Suggestion Box exercise.

Writing has always been a part of my life, but it’s this platform, and the amazing people that I’ve met thanks to it, that have given me the opportunity to pursue it in the future.