I've had a bunch of really important influences that have altered my writing. The top three are my educational background, the exacting standards of my freshman English teacher who pushed me to write as much as I could every single day, and a simple passion to just be better than I was before. The biggest influence that has made me the writer I am now is my passion to be better than I was before. It drives me towards strategies that work better for me, and forces me to improve. A huge part of this passion is the fact that because I am such a reader, I soak up all the information I have, and suddenly my muses are kicking my passion into overdrive and I am writing better and better.

When I see techniques that other writers use, my passion kicks in, asking me how I can do that, something similar, or something "better." Ultimately, though, there is no concrete way of knowing that I am a better writer. There is a way to compare and see which is more tolerable, more enjoyable, even, but there is no concrete way of knowing. However, my passion still drives me to use more techniques, create more inventive plots, and journal as often as I possibly can, so that, through practice, I begin to grasp more and more ways of understanding the English language and using it to my best literary advantage.