Becoming a Writer

How did you begin writing?

I’ve always thought my path to becoming a writer wasn’t normal, but recently, I’ve begun to wonder if there is such a thing as typical in a writer’s life. Truth is, my inner child shudders whenever I answer this question.

Because I know the exact moment I became a writer.

If there is such a thing as normal in a writer’s life, then I’m certain this doesn’t qualify. I vaguely remember writing stories as a child. I pitter-pattered all night long on my keyboard that was attached to a big, boxy, cream-colored monitor. I wrote more stories than I can remember. I’m sure of this, even though I never shared them with anyone. Some were flash fiction pieces set in the realms of my favorite television shows or movies. Some were longer. Some helped me to understand the world and the struggles I had been facing.

But that’s not when I became a writer. A real writer. That wasn’t the moment. Every writer knows the one. That moment of pure clarity. The moment where you fall in love with something, someone. The moment that caused the dominos to fall.

It all started with a movie.

Stonecoast Graduation and Washington DC Trip

On Saturday, January 17, 2015, I graduated with my Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. That was three days ago, and it's still bittersweet. I wanted to reminisce, to reflect on my time at Stonecoast. To do that, I needed to go back to the beginning, to a time when I wasn't the confident writer...

I started writing my novel in 2009. While each new year brought the same resolution—finish your novel!—I still felt as though something was missing.

I found that something at Stonecoast.

In December 2012, I graduated from the University of Wisconsin—Parkside with a Bachelor of Arts in English, and in January 2013, I began my journey at the University of Southern Maine’sStonecoast program. Before I graduated from UW-Parkside and before I applied at Stonecoast, I searched high and low for the perfect graduate school. I knew it existed somewhere. I just had to find it. And I refused to settle.

I was looking for a school that would let me work one on one with my professors, a school that would let me focus on my writing rather than taking more courses that taught me how to write. After four years of undergraduate English courses, I was ready to step out of the classroom and into the writing world. I had also always wanted to study abroad, something that so few schools offered. But most importantly, I wanted to work with professors who were writers I grew up reading (or, at the very least, had heard of). I wanted to work with writers who were currently in the industry, who were prolific in their own way. I wanted to work with writers who truly knew the young adult market and who also wrote their fair share of vampire novels.

It’s fair to say my Buffy-obsessed self wanted to work with Joss Whedon.