How I didn’t become a writer, and how I did

Author Gay Degani is running a series on her Words in Place website called “Journey to Planet Write,” where writers describe their path toward their literary careers.

A while back, Gay invited me to participate, which was thrilling! But as I began drafting my literary origins, I kept coming back to the stories I told myself about how I should have become a writer, how I kept imagining the path I wanted to be on and the milestones I was supposed to reach. And how in college I met a twelve-year-old with a better “origin story” than I had.

So I started there, with my literary fantasies and failures, and wrote about how I finally let go of those ideals, and how I’m still in the process of becoming of writer.

Head over to Words in Place and check out my essay, “Why I Felt Jealous of a Twelve-Year-Old,” and then hit the archives for more writers’ journeys and origin stories!