Senior Daniella Perunsky, a writer with a preference for dystopian and fantasy genres, has been writing since she was in eighth grade.

Daniella was inspired to write during COVID-19 after discovering indie authors on Instagram who were her age. Daniella appreciated their work and realized that she could also pursue writing.

Daniella recalled one of her first writings, a dystopian piece, about a futuristic Earth. The story is about a group of individuals who have supernatural abilities as a result of being struck with chemicals.

When planning out her writings, Daniella creates an outline of how she wants her work organized. She then gets a general plan of what ideas she wants to incorporate.

Although Daniella has not been in any writing competitions, she is involved in school programs and hopes to get more involved in college.

As an active member of the Creative Writing Club, Daniella converses with other writers and exchanges advice.

“To me, it’s [Creative Writing Club] great for sharing ideas with other people,” Daniella said. “It actually helps inspire me a little bit.”

While the club inspires her, Daniella feels that the AP Seminar curriculum improved her writing abilities, especially with essay writing and research papers.

Although Daniella believes it is easy to be discouraged from writing, she encourages other writers to keep practicing.

“Don’t be afraid to share your writing with other people and get advice from them,” Daniella said.