How did you know you wanted to become a writer?

It's time for another post from the list of 101 Blog Post Ideas for Writers. Yay! Let me know if you answer any of these questions on your blog...I'd love to read about them!

Today's question: How did you know you wanted to become a writer?

I never had a lightbulb moment where I leapt up and exclaimed, “AHA! I know what I want to do with the rest of my life…I want to write!” or anything like that. I started writing “books” the summer after fifth grade, so I was eleven at that time. They were only ten pages or so, but I was addicted. I think I started writing because I was unsatisfied with the books I read at the time. It was that awkward time in my life where I’d spent two or three years reading Harry Potter and couldn’t go back to the skinny chapter books I’d read before that because they just weren’t as good or as challenging. (Basically, Harry Potter ruined most middle-grade books for me. Thanks, J.K. Rowling.) Plus, none of the books I read were about the things that interested me, so I decided to just write my own.

The only books I read for five years.

I have since found books that interest me again (though it took until ninth grade for me to read anything other than Harry Potter), but thankfully I’m still writing. It got me a college degree, after all. And 1/4 of an MFA so far.


Your turn: why did you decide to start writing?