I started writing when I was very young. My grandmother is a writer. I would always see her typing when I was little. When I was about eight years old, she gave me my own typewriter. Whenever I wasn’t in school, I would sit there typing my stories. I told my grandmother recently that’s why I’m a writer.
I see the world in an observational way. I’m constantly looking for the telling detail about someone that shows something special about them. One of my heroes, Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, said that he would often find himself almost tracing, imagining how he would draw someone that he was looking at, thinking, “How would I turn this into a character?” I think I see the world somewhat similarly. I am always thinking, “How would I write about this person? How would I write about this moment? How would I capture it?” I think that’s one of the reasons I enjoy a festival like Tucson Meet Yourself so much–you meet so many different people that you would probably never come into contact with otherwise.
-Justyn