Author, I Never is a new segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I try to mix it up a little and ask some hopefully novel questions along with some of the old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never to find out what cardinal writing rules you've broken. 

Question the first: Beth, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

I’ve known I wanted to be a writer for as long as I’ve known that “a writer” was something you could “be.” There’s a lovely picture my mother took of me sitting with a pile of lined paper and chewing on a pen when I was barely a year old—so even before I knew what writing was, I was drawn to it! I also have hard physical evidence of the chapter books I wrote (and illustrated, bless ‘em; the protagonists were mostly horses with magnificent crayon-scribbled manes and tales) from about age five on. I started early, and never stopped writing stories. The sad thing is, it wasn’t until I turned thirty—after multiple publications, and decades of this deeply embedded identity that compelled me to constantly crank out words!—that I started telling people I was “a writer” without feeling like a fake. Imposter syndrome is real, y’all. 

Author, I Never is a new segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I try to mix it up a little and ask some hopefully novel questions along with some of the old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never to find out what cardinal writing rules you've broken. 

Question the first: Katya, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

I’ve been writing from a very young age (mostly, poetry), but it wasn’t until a few years ago when I got serious about it and decided to pursue this whole writing/publishing thing for real. 

Author, I Never is a new segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I try to mix it up a little and ask some hopefully novel questions along with some of the old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never (kid friendly version) to find out what cardinal writing rules we've broken.

Question the first: Monica, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

I knew I wanted to be a writer since I can remember! I’ve always loved words and storytelling, to the point that whenever a teacher assigned us vocabulary words and tasked us with writing a sentence for each, I would link my sentences together so they would form a story. The more vocabulary words we were assigned, the better. I’m sure the other kids didn’t feel that way, but I found it such a fun exercise. I have a draft from the first story I wrote when I was 8, but stories had been filling my brain well before then.

Author, I Never is a segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I try to mix it up a little and ask some hopefully novel questions along with some of the old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never (kid friendly version) to find out what cardinal writing rules we've broken.

Question the first: Amber, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

Real talk? I didn’t. I was a science geek, who just happened to be creative. Dance had long been my outlet for that, but as I got older I found myself listening to my imagination more and putting it on paper. The first book I ever wrote was the one that kickstarted my writing career.

Author, I Never is a new segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I try to mix it up a little and ask some hopefully novel questions along with some of the old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never to find out what cardinal writing rules we've broken. 

Question the first: Christina, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

Probably in the fourth grade. One day, my teacher asked everyone in my class to write a story on a sheet of paper. I wrote ten sheets too many about the adventures of an orange house cat. My teacher was impressed by the length and asked me to read the story in front of the class. I can’t for the life of me remember what happened in that story, but I do remember that everyone clapped at the end. That means it was genius, right?