You want to hear my journey?

I started writing creatively in early elementary school.

so...

First

I was so young I don't remember what motivated me to start, but I remember having a lot of fun.

I wrote a children's book, a song parody, a play, and a lot of fanfiction.

How's it going now?

fasting forward...

I stopped in high school and eventually forgot I loved to write until my gap year during the pandemic. Then I decided I wanted to switch from pre-med to creative writing in college.

I initially wanted to be a fiction writer, but then I tried writing poetry for the first time in sophomore year and fell in love with the genre.

I am still working on my confidence though.

I really want to keep writing and improving.

Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun and ended up writing a honors thesis I'm super proud of!

I wrote and learned a lot in college, but I struggled to be as optimistic and passionate about writing as I was in elementary school.

I struggled with imposter syndrome and had some sad workshop experiences...

I was never able to establish a writing routine and felt stressed about workshops and grades all the time.

Luckily, I no longer feel as lost as before on where to go from here.

found interview takeaways

Ocean Vuong

Embarking on a journey means that you're looking for something. What a writer should be looking for is a satisfying end to your writing career, not a way to keep journeying forever.

It is fine to take the beaten path and not know how far along you are. As long as you remember that you're a poet, you will always be a poet.

Writing doesn't have to mean you are writing words on a page. Rather, writing means perceiving: it means to look at the world with a writer's perspective until you have enough to write. Otherwise, language becomes cheap.

A poem is about experiencing and imagining with language, not tweaking it and finding a correct conclusion.

It is not "I have already been writing x amount of years" but "I have only written x amount of years." To be a writer means to always be growing.

Chen Chen

Writing should be fun. It doesn't have to be for anybody but yourself, so let your poems be true to who you are.

Growing as a person leads to growing as a writer, Make happy memories and experience new things. Poetry happens all the time and everywhere.

There is no formal writing process. A poem can be born out of both inspiration or boredom. It can even start with a scribble.

Be patient and gentle with yourself. There is no way to tell how long your journey will take, so what matters is that you are enjoying yourself, even if you don't think you're making any progress.

No matter what, we become a new writer every day because we are a new person every day.

Franny Choi

A poem doesn't need a greater purpose or deeper meaning. Let your poems be a safe space for you from the world. Write for yourself.

Writing is not something that needs inspiration. It is something that can be learned and practiced. Learning how to look at the world as a poet is key to improving your writing.

A poem is a separate organism to keep you company and help you grow, not something that you can control. Let it thrive on its own and surprise you.

Anything that you feel right now whether writing related or not is okay. If you don't give yourself time to live life, your poems won't be as good anyway.

The creative process needs love to grow and stay strong.

Victoria Chang

You do not have to be a "writer" to write. Whatever lifestyle you lead makes you the unique writer you are today.

It is normal to feel lost and not know what you're doing. When that happens remember why you started writing and just focus on writing the best you can at that moment in your life.

A finished poem doesn't necessarily accomplish anything. It's just an attempt at something larger. Let your poems be who you are. Let yourself and your writing be free.

Writing is a spontaneous process. It is a process you can come back to whenever you want, and something you can drop whenever you want. Don't beat yourself up for not writing anything.

conclusion

Though I listed my key takeaways from each author, the amount of comfort and insight I received from each one of these found interviews can't possibly be summarized. Hearing that famous authors still believe that they're growing up has helped me realize that I have so much more time than I think I do to grow as a writer and accomplish my goals.

Their interviews made me question what my goal even was: I have been telling other that my dream is to be an author, but I had never asked myself why. Now I've recognized that I want people to admire my work, but most importantly I need to admire my own work the most.

My plan moving forward is to now reignite my love for writing, even if that means not writing at all for a long time, or only writing silly things. I was afraid of ending my writing journey, but now I've learned that part of that journey is taking breaks, and that the goal of my journey is for it to end satisfactorily, I'm more confident that graduation is a next step rather than an end.