Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

Hello, SEers. Mae here with you today. Recently, I’ve been thinking about stories I wrote when I was younger. Much, much younger. It made me realize how long I’ve been creating characters and worlds—with zero breaks in between.

The first story I wrote happened when I was six. It was for a class assignment, but it makes me wonder if I hadn’t been fashioning stories in my head before that. Certainly, I never stopped writing afterward—ever. Sometimes people will take a break for a number of years, but for me writing has been a constant, ongoing, never-ending passion from childhood.

At six-years-old, I don’t think I set out to be a writer. It just happened. As I grew older, I fed the desire and followed the path, venturing deeper, pruning obstacles, and setting a concrete goal—that of published author. It’s been an uphill journey, filled with plenty of potholes, but…