I’ve been creatively writing for about six and a half years now and I’ve been through so many things as a writer. I’ve had amazing ideas… and then lost them. I’ve written several pages… and never finished them. I’ve had writer’s block and everything in between, but the best feeling is when I finally get something done. I’ve written several songs and poems, I’ve written short stories and I’ve even written a children’s book that I read to a class of first graders. Let me tell you, reading a children’s book to little humans and seeing their bright, happy faces is one of the best feelings ever.

For the most fortunate, writing can come easily. Being naturally good at an art like writing is definitely a plus for an aspiring author. However, for me, I needed a lot of work and I’m not afraid to admit that I need more and more of it as I continue my writing. Usually, I would hate getting criticized on my writing, but once I applied it to my stories, I realized that it actually helped a whole lot. My stories started getting better and my writing started looking neater. Of course, there is still so much for me to learn, but I can actually read over my writing and not want to change every other sentence knowing what I know.

Writing isn’t only for stories and novels and poems. Singers, for example, don’t just suddenly know the words they’re singing and what notes to sing them on. They write them down just as if you were writing a grocery list. You don’t want to forget what you thought of! As someone who loves to sing, I also love to write songs. I couldn’t tell you how many I’ve written all together, but the number of songs that I’ve written that I believe are actually decent is about two, but that doesn’t stop me from continuing my writing.

My writing is very important to me, whether it’s a short story, a novel, a poem, or a song. I am very protective of my writing and I don’t know where I’d be without it. When I think about how I started, it just boggles my mind. How did wanting my handwriting to be better lead me to write several songs and poems, a couple of short stories and a children’s book? Yes, that’s right; I wanted my handwriting to be better so I wrote everything down, which lead to me writing all of my songs, poems, etc. down on paper before I typed them all.

My whole point here is this: If you have a passion, whether it’s writing, or singing, or playing an instrument or anything at all, always, always, always go by your own judgment first. If someone has constructive criticism, take it! Take it like someone’s giving you $1,000. Never ever let someone’s criticism make you think that you are not creative and amazing in any way because you are. You are the only person who can decide whether or not you’re good enough to complete a goal. If someone tells you that something is wrong, or that something doesn’t look or sound right, never ever take that to heart. Don’t take it personally because that will only cause your work to be worse and worse until no one wants to even hear about it. Take everything as it is and apply it to your work. Do you think J.K. Rowling’s work was perfect in the beginning? No. She was rejected nearly seven times on her original manuscript of "Harry Potter." But, one day, you are going to hear of the amazing author, Aria Yañez, you’ll know her story and know that she was not a perfect writer by any means. She was just a girl with a pencil, a notebook and an idea.

“And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right."

- Ray Bradbury