Hello, my name is Katie, and I am a writer.

For a long time, I've resisted the idea of writing. I have always been content to be the reader. It's not that I haven't tried writing; I have, and I've given up many times. Now, I'm admitting it. I'm "coming out" as a writer. I have plans for a novel, and I will write said novel. Eventually.

Although I'm giving writing a shot, being a published author is not my career goal. I aspire to be an editor or literary agent. I like the idea of reading things before other people and helping decide what gets published. I want to work in publishing, but I would like to be published as well.

I knew I wanted to be an editor when I first got involved with fan fiction. It sounds silly, but you'd be surprised at what a strong community can be provided by the readers and writers of fan fiction. I started lurking around websites reading Harry Potter fan fiction, mostly at MuggleNet Fan Fiction (which is a wonderful site full of wonderful people and stories). I noticed some of the poorly written stories were difficult to read because of their mistakes. Then I heard about beta readers. I thought, "Hey, I could be a beta reader!" I knew I wasn't up to writing, but I could definitely proof others' writing.

So, I began beta reading stories for people, and I loved it. Then, I got a little braver and considered writing one. It didn't make it past a few paragraphs. I thought it was crap. I didn't have anywhere for it to go. I just shoved it aside.

The summer after I graduated high school I tried to write once more. This time I wanted to do original fiction. I had an idea for the book. The main character was semi-autobiographical. The story contained elements of magic. There would be romance. I made character sheets with detailed descriptions of my characters. I wrote the first chapter and the beginning of the second. I let a few close friends and family read the first chapter. My sister and friends raved about it (though I'm sure they were being too kind), and then my mother brought me down. I asked her what she thought, and she laughed and said it was a funny story and basically told me it was cute that I was trying to write.

I went off to college and gave up any notion of writing. I became an English major and set my sights on a publishing career. I read books constantly, wrote tons of papers, and slept a lot. Typical English major stuff. Now, almost two years later, I have decided to try again. I'm not going to resist it anymore. I have my dear friend Amanda to thank for this. She is a writer and has been for some time; she's written one novel and is currently working on her second one. She is the one who pushed me to give it another shot.

We were in my car one night, bouncing some ideas off each other, and one good one came up. She said, "If you don't write it, I will." (She had been insisting for some time that I was a closeted writer. Lol.) I said, "Okay, I'll try it; I've got some ideas." Then I sat down in my Shakespeare class, and I started taking down story notes about characters and the world in which the story is set, and suddenly, the story just transformed. A whole new plot line emerged, and it was much more awesome and detailed than the first one, and I was super excited about getting it down on paper.

Then I knew I was a writer.