I love everything that involves creativity: writing, music, and designing handbags. When I can’t think of the words that I want to say, I often play the guitar or violin to express how what I’m thinking until I can start to feel the words form inside my head. Even when I’m writing in front of the computer, I listen to music. The type of story I’m writing dictates the style of music I listen to. Sometimes I read aloud what I have written to listen to the rhythm of the words and sentences.
All of my quirks, the good and the bad, shape the characters in my stories. With every story that I write, I begin to understand a little bit more about myself through the development of these characters and the actions they take in the story. My characters tend to be middle or working class men, unhappy with their mundane existences and searching for a sense of meaning or even a temporary escape from reality. In the novel that I’m working on, a group of young men are so frustrated with their menial jobs and this feeling of being trapped, that they play video games and fantasize about a zombie apocalypse as a means to escape.
I appreciate and value honesty. I’m not afraid to hear what I need to do to make my work better. My biggest challenge has been learning to trust myself in my writing and not hold myself back because I’m afraid to make a mistake. Most of the time, I’m extremely shy, and I take the world a little too seriously (something I’m trying to improve).
