I realised that I had always been writing things that other people wanted me to write and not what I really wanted to write, so I felt like I was losing my way.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I was always meant to be a writer. I've felt that way since I was a child.
Writing happened to me. I didn't decide to start writing or to be a writer. I never wanted to be a writer.
I had just been in some repressive situations - the black middle-class college scene and the crazy United States Air Force - and so I just felt like getting out of that. I thought, now, that I wanted to be a writer. I had something that I wanted to do, that I was interested in doing, so I wanted to pursue that.
It was failing part of my Ph.D. that led me into novel-writing. By then I was 29, had remarried and had a second baby. It struck me that I'd lost my path in life and I felt frustrated. That's when I started to write.
I don't think I knew I would be a writer. I wanted to become a writer, and I tried to write.
In retrospect, it seems like everything in my life led to me becoming a writer. I just didn't realise it at the time.
Writing has been so much a part of my life that I'm really quite annoyed that I can't do as much as I used to.
It took me a long time to even dare to envision myself as a writer. I was very uncertain and hesitant and afraid to pursue a creative life.
I actually started writing publishable stuff the day I decided I'd actually like to write something I'd like to read, and stopped trying to think what does everyone actually want.
I always felt that I was a writer, that was what I had to do.