What motivated you to write this piece?

Many of the poems in "My Soul to Take" were inspired by writing prompts given to me by Ms. Adams, my creative writing teacher. I've heard that people think writing prompts are somehow inauthentic or basic, but I disagree. There are so many ways you can take a prompt, and no two works derived from a prompt will be the same. I think writing prompts are a great way to get those creative juices flowing.

Do you write sporadically or regularly?

I like to write fairly regularly. Being on the newspaper staff, I write multiple articles a month, but creative writing is a whole other ballgame. It's hard to balance school and fun sometimes, but I always make it a point to sit down and write something creatively once a week.

What was the most difficult part of your writing process for this work?

When writing poetry, I find that I automatically gravitate to end rhymes. That means the words came naturally for my three rhyming poems, "March-tober," "A Midsummer's Night Dream in Four Stanzas," and "The Virus of 2020" (which was in my poet laureate collection). However, when it came to the other 4 poems in the "My Soul to Take" collection, it was difficult not to rhyme. Poet Laureate also requires 5 different styles of poetry, so I had to branch out and write poems I normally wouldn't have.

What is your ideal writing environment?

My ideal writing environment is honestly nothing special. As long as I'm sitting down and have a keyboard in front of me, I'll be able to write. I curated a Spotify playlist that helps me focus and put my thoughts onto paper, so as long as I'm not bothering anyone I'll normally play that.