Both reading and writing came late to me. I did not learn to read until I was around six due to dyslexia and writing properly with any semblance of correct spelling came even later. I remember the moment everything clicked though - suddenly understanding a word and the euphoria it brought. From then on I can honestly say that the written word has fascinated me. I practically devoured any book I could get my hands on; I was reading The Lord of the Rings when I was eleven; Gormenghast when I was fourteen. I have always wanted to write, ever since I understood that first word. I wanted to grip people the same way I was gripped.

I was seven when I wrote my first short story. It was an unfinished piece about a scientist, who invented an invisibility potion and tested it on himself, only to discover that there was no antidote to it and was therefore invisible forever. I kept writing various short stories but I could never finish them - I didn't yet understand the techniques for writing, I simply wrote freehand - no planning, no logic, just writing. My father always encouraged me and read my work but it eventually fizzled out. I became a teenager and discovered music, friends, boys.

It wasn't long before I was lured back in though. When I was sixteen I decided that I wanted to write again. My family have always had something that they could 'do': my mother and sister are artists, my father a musician, my other sister a scientist. I attempted art and I enjoyed music, but I wanted to excel in something. I sat down one night and started writing poetry. It was the first time I had written in years, and it was completely out of my comfort zone. Looking back on it now, the poems I wrote were awful and due my age they were somewhat angst-ridden. But no matter, because they sparked something in me - I realised that not only did I enjoy writing again, but I was good at it.

I'm not sure where the thought came from but one day I knew that I wanted to study writing, so, when it was time to make plans for University I enrolled at Bolton University on the Creative Writing degree.

I don’t like to say that I have influences because I try not to make my work like anyone else’s, but of course it is quite difficult to do that. I admire the work of J D Salinger, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Ezra Pound, Mina Loy. I would say that, for fiction, I enjoy writing monologues and being able to become my characters for a moment. I write ‘flash fiction’ or ‘short-shorts’ and find this word length easy, whereas longer pieces still fizzle out on me. I am very interested in ‘the human condition’. I like to express emotion through my work, both fiction and poetry, and try to pinpoint specific moments in a characters life. I love how words sound when they are linked together. I try to stay away from rhyme, simply because I am bad at it.

After keeping my work close to my chest for a long time I recently read to an audience. The feeling was incredible, I am definitely hooked. I do have another job, working in the food industry, to support myself while I am attempting to branch out into the literary world. I would love to do anything that had me writing for a living. I graduated from Bolton University with a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing and I can see the progression in my work; I can understand where I was going wrong now. I know I still have a lot to learn, but I am, officially, a writer now.