Debra Klevens

Freshman Sydney Kinzy reads her published story. “When I write, I always write something deep from inside me which is embedded in each and every character and conflict, and that’s what I’m sharing. I’m sharing life’s problems and how people deal with them. I’m sharing the truths of the world I see around me. Really, that’s what writing is all about for me,” Kinzy said.

Imagine balancing school, sports, social life and writing multiple novels and short stories, all as a freshman in high school. Freshman Sydney Kinzy started her writing career in fourth grade.

“I really needed an outlet of some sorts. I used to get really stressed out with school and friends, but writing has given me some way to pull the worries out of my head and force them upon the characters. Also, I’ve always been really imaginative and have a lot of daydreams and ideas, so it’s good to be able to create stories with my creativity,” Kinzy said.

The majority of the novels that Kinzy wrote are either realistic fiction or fantasy. Kinzy’s storylines range from assassin organizations to quests to escape dungeons. Kinzy links what she is writing about to struggles that are currently going on in her life.

“I get inspired everywhere I go. Sometimes something someone says gives me an idea for a story so I’ll type up my idea into my phone or onto a piece of scrap paper. On Tumblr, I see a lot of cool pictures that give me ideas so I’ll tag them with ‘ideas’ so I can always go back to them if I’m not sure what I want to write about next. I love traveling and hiking, so those give me lots of ideas for settings. Some of the conflicts of my stories originate as I’m walking through my daily life wondering, ‘What’s the worst thing that could happen to me right now?’” Kinzy said.

Kinzy’s first novel that she started in fourth grade was never finished; she did not complete a whole draft of a novel until sixth grade. After moving on from that novel, Kinzy started the novel she is currently on, which is over 10,000 words and 51 pages.

“It’s really hard to pick a favorite piece since my stories are so different from each other, but I really like the story I’m working on currently with assassins. You want to like the main characters for fighting for what they believe in, but it might be wrong. I put a lot of character development into the story which leads to  strong plots, so I’m really proud of it so far,” Kinzy said.

Kinzy got her first piece published in a competition called Granny Annie. She submitted her short story in February of her eighth grade year then got an email that Spring letting her know that she had won. Her story was about her family history, so she interviewed her grandpa about his childhood in Pakistan. She took the angle that sometimes in life you can’t figure out everything and it is left a mystery. Her prize entailed holding her own book reading and signing in Forest Park, and speaking on the National Public Radio (NPR) station of St. Louis.

“My family and friends have always been a really big motivation for me. A lot of writers get inspired by music for characters and sometimes that happens to me, but for the most part, music inspires me to keep persevering through all the plot-work and editing and drafts I have to do,” Kinzy said.

Right now Kinzy is working on some short stories for the Reflections Magazine as well as other shorts stories, and her novel.

“The best part of writing has to be sharing your story. The short story is hopefully one step towards publishing an entire book of my own. Because when you share a story, you aren’t just sharing the voyage of you or your characters you are sharing something beyond that,” Kinzy said. “When I write, I always write something deep from inside me which is embedded in each and every character and conflict, and that’s what I’m sharing. I’m sharing life’s problems and how people deal with them. I’m sharing the truths of the world I see around me. Really, that’s what writing is all about.”