Why I Write and What Is My Process

I know this may sound like a cliché to writers, but I never chose to write. Writing chose me. I started telling stories not long after I could talk, and, by the time I was three, my parents starting writing down the stories I would dictate.

They were simple stories, and usually about cute animals or dinosaurs, but they had plots. Back then, I didn’t think of myself as a writer. I just knew there were stories going through my head and I would tell them. Eventually, I started writing the stories down myself. They kept getting longer and longer. When I was in second grade, I wrote a long story called White Beauty. It’s not something that I would ever, ever think of publishing, but it was good practice, and it gave me more confidence in myself.

I’ve never really had a schedule for writing; the words just come, and I have to get them down on paper. As a sixth grader, I turned in a vampire chapter book for my English Halloween assignment. It got read to the class and they were completely caught up in it. It made me feel great that I wrote something other people liked. From there I brought my stories to school and passed them out to a growing number of students and teachers who requested them.

When I was an eighth grader, both the Burbank Leader and Los Angeles Times stepped in and wrote articles about me. Since then I’ve become a professional freelance writer. I’m no longer in school, and it pays the bills.

I’ve lost count of how many articles I’ve published, though I know it’s in the hundreds, and I’ve also done freelance work writing the English adaptation for Japanese graphic novels. But none of this has changed my love for fiction and storytelling. I still write fiction regularly and am actively pursuing a career in that, networking and trying to meet as many people as I can in the publishing industry.

The piece I’m attempting to sell first is a YA novel that’s something along the lines of “mythology meets high school.” There’s nothing out there that’s been as personally rewarding to me as my writing, and I’m glad it’s such a big part of my life.



*This was previously published on writer Anjuelle Floyd's site, http://www.anjuellefloyd.com/.  The invitation was for me to describe why I wrote and my writing process.

Butterflies As Souls: An Ancient Legend of Metamorphosis

A creature as lovely as the butterfly is bound to be linked with beautiful stories.  One of the most celebrated comes to us from the ancient Mediterranean, where the word psyche means soul. The soul was often shown as a butterfly flying away from the body; likewise, the goddess Psyche has sometimes been shown in art, both ancient and more recently, with butterfly wings.

The story of the goddess Psyche was told about two thousand years ago by the Roman Apuleius in his book Metamorphoses.  Althought most of the book has a satirical edge, this story has a deep and serious meaning to it.

Many elements of the story are interchangeable with our well-known fairy tales.  Psyche starts out as the youngest daughter of a king, and she is so beautiful that the love goddess Venus is full of envy.  Venus's son, Cupid, is supposed to punish Psyche for this, but falls in love with her instead.  What happens next includes plotting sisters and Venus's acting like a wicked stepmother.

Psyche can't join Cupid as his true wife unless she becomes a goddess.  To do this, she takes on difficult tasks, including a journey to the Land of the Dead.  After these nearly impossible tasks, Psyche's persistence and love for Cupid pay off.  She is granted her goddesshood.

Her story symbolizes both the butterfly and the soul in how she must better herself.  Like a butterfly, she sheds her former skin.  As butterflies were once mere caterpillars, Psyche was once a mere human.  She rises above in the skies like a butterfly who has just gotten its wings.  The soul was associated with both Psyche and butterflies, not only because it would pass on someday, but because people aimed to better their souls and make them more beautiful.

In the end, Psyche's life turns out lovely.  Jupiter, king of the gods, allows her to join her beloved Cupid, and Venus overcomes her envy and welcomes her new daughter-in-law.  Although a butterfly's life is short, Psyche's life now lasts forever.  The story of her life will continue forever as well, with people reading it just as they did in Roman times.  The gorgeousness of the butterfly and its fascinating way of living makes way for art, stories, and, of course, legends.  Naturally a legend of Psyche -- and the butterfly -- would belong in a book called Metamorphoses, as we see the metamorphosis in our natural world.

written by Danica Davidson
Previously published in the print nature journal Whisper in the Woods