I didn't burst forth into the great, wide world the conceptual, quick thinking, meticulous writer I am now (and my ego was quite a bit smaller back then, too). Like most writers, my start wasn't glamourous.

 

I began writing crappy little short stories, mostly involving dinosaurs, Disney characters, and my siblings. The plots were anything but sophisticated and as full of holes as Swiss cheese, but, I mean, I was like five. Don't tell me you were writing beautiful sonnets and thought provoking essays at five. That would make you a big, fat, dirty liar, and nobody likes big, fat, dirty liars. Nobody.

 

These stories soon made way for terrible, predictable pop songs with a, b, a, b rhyme schemes and painful overuse of the word "baby". These were written primarily with the Backstreet Boys, the Spice Girls, and 98* in mind. You know, bands I knew would soon become timeless classics.

 

As I became a teenager, these god-awful lyrics turned into slightly less god-awful poetry. Sure, it was angsty and forced, but I finally had some actual technique. I started writing short fiction again, now with slightly more sophisticated plots and a lot fewer dinosaurs. I aimed to become the next Hemingway, minus the obsession with bullfighting, whiskey, and cats (although I've since warmed to whiskey and cats).

 

I graduated high school, and came to San Francisco to study at the Academy of Art University in the Advertising department. It turns out, you don't have to be a drunken novelist or angry poet to write engaging things. I could still totally write you an angsty dinosaur poem if you wanted, though.

 

everybody's gotta start somewhere