by Kyla

Created on: July 16, 2009   Last Updated: July 19, 2009

I have loved to write ever since I was a little kid. In fact, I still remember the first book I ever wrote- a children's book called 'Dogs Don't Look Both Ways.' It was a moralistic story that I was extremely proud of. I graduated after that, up to a teenage detective named Jessica who was all of 14- a great, big, grownup age. You can solve mysteries at 14, ya know. From there, I sort of just drifted, until I arrived where I am now.

A lot of people, especially those my own age, don't get it when I say I'm a writer. It's a 'huh?' moment for them. To them, a writer is just someone who sits down and cranks out a story. Apparently, they've never written.

Maybe there are some people who can just sit down and churn out a story in a matter of hours. Not me. I am notorious for starting a project and never completing it, which explains why I have about fifty stories on my computer that are in various stages of completion. When I do manage to finish a story, it comes out after long, long...long hours of work.

That's another thing they don't understand. People who aren't writers think- "work? How can sitting at a computer all day be work?"

Ha. Try it for a day. It is work- especially when all your characters come to bug you. Oh yes, the characters. I myself often have them visit me. Which is why I walk around talking to myself, something my little sister and friends will never understand. When I say I've been speaking with my characters, they think it's about time they book me into the hospital- or an insane asylum, one or the other.

Being a writer is an adventure. I never know where my next idea is going to take me, which is wonderful! Yes, perhaps its strange to think that we writers have absolutely no control over our characters and the events. Well, we have control over the events, but not the characters. I know, I know- they're our characters, we should make them do what we want.

If only it was that easy! My characters always seem to have a mind of their own- they will do, say, think what they want, no matter my feelings on the subject. Which is, of course, another thing people don't understand.

Is being a teen writer any different than being an adult writer? Well, since I've never been an adult writer, I couldn't say. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Why don't you try it out, then tell me?

Would I stop being a writer? Besides the fact that I don't think I could stop being a writer- no way! I love what I do. I'm not quite sure why I do it, but that's okay. Isn't all the fun supposed to be in just doing the thing you love?

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