Everyone has some sort of passion, whether it’s art, music, writing or something similar. Senior Payton Pitzner has decided that she wants to go into creative writing.

Writing, like any creative job, is a risky business to be in. Most writers end up quitting their day jobs to focus on writing and, even once they’ve been published, they don’t make a lot of money. Writing is, in addition, not the easiest thing to learn. Writing is actually very difficult and requires patience and hard work.

This, however, doesn’t discourage Payton. She said that she would love to take writing classes that will help her improve her writing. She plans on going to Sierra College before going to a four year school.

Payton typically writes fiction and said that she has over 200 stories written so far. Her struggle, however, is that it’s hard to teach oneself how to write properly.

“The problem is that, if I figure out how to phrase something, the teacher most of the time thinks that it’s wrong and you can’t fight a teacher because that’s the way society is. Because I disagree with any teacher, I have to self-teach myself because the best teacher is myself. You learn more about yourself and how you think and how to share your thoughts, but you will not learn if you learn the same thing this other guy learned. If you learn what he learned, then the only thing you’re doing is copying someone else,” Payton said.

In addition to writing, Payton enjoys drawing. She typically draws her original characters, as it helps her get a feel as to what her characters look like for her story. Being able to have a visual on the characters can help with the writing process, letting the author really see what’s going on in their stories.

No matter what you want to do, there will always be things you will struggle with. But, if people stay determined like Payton, they can contribute something great someday.