I believe that reading and writing are the keys to creativity.

When I was little, my mom would always read to my brother and I every night. It started out with picture books but soon moved on to chapter books. She was a great reader and always read with such feeling that it felt like I was actually there in the story.

While she read, my brother and I would look over her shoulder and read along with her. By the time we started school, we pretty much knew how to read.

Mom kept reading to us for many years. The only reason we had to stop it was because the homework load was getting too heavy.

But the damage was already done. I was hooked on reading. And with all the reading I did, my imagination got greater and greater. Now I can dream up entire worlds and characters, each with different thoughts, feelings, and personalities.

Because of my immense imagination, I was able to translate my ideas into my writing.

The first time I truly realized how good of a writer I could be was in third grade. It was the start of the poetry unit, and my writing teacher, Mrs. Dawn Jackson, told the class to make a list of what poetry means to us and where we can find poetry.

Instead of making a list on poetry, I wrote a poem on poetry. After I had read it to the class, Mrs. Jackson congratulated me on such a good job and told me I was a very good writer.

That was the beginning of my journey to become an author.

For me, reading and writing have always been a part of my life. It’s probably why I’m so creative. I’ve seen and written all sorts of things. And with each new idea, my imagination gets bigger and bigger. Even if one of my ideas goes completely wrong, I can take elements from that idea and turn it into a new, better idea that could turn into a winner.

I never would’ve been able to come this far in life if Mom had not installed how amazing reading can be.

Reading takes me to different worlds without me having to leave my chair. And writing allows me to create my own worlds and the characters that live in them.

Writing for me also allows me to translate my thoughts and feelings about certain topics into my stories. It’s a way for me to express my feelings about things that I would normally be unable to talk about to others.

I am currently working on a book that I intend to publish someday. I am on pretty much the third or fourth draft of the idea. This is partly because I’ve realized some things in the story don’t make much sense. So I’ve removed those things, and added in some new details.

At the start, it was just an idea. But from that idea came a whole slew of new ideas that makes the plot better than ever.

All of this is possible because of the creativeness inside of me. And for creativity to shine, reading and writing need to come first.