We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Taylor Elizabeth. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Taylor below.

Alright, Taylor thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

It was sort of always with me. I have no idea where I got the idea, but I remember being in first or second grade, and the entire class did this sort of shared project in which we drew ourselves in our dream jobs on that giant brown construction paper roll, and then they taped it up to the wall. I remember looking down at mine when I finished, and I had drawn myself with a beret on my head, a paintbrush in my hand and an easel beside me. I wanted to be an artist as long as I can remember. Somewhere that changed, while I was still young. I would draw these portraits of imaginary people and I would find the person closest to me and begin explaining to them the imaginary person’s entire life story and the current struggle they are facing. Soon enough it was clear to me that what I was truly drawn to was storytelling. I still practice art when the mood strikes me, and I’d like to continue to grow in that area as well, but my passion is writing. The free verse poetry came much later, and I really feel like I can express myself to the bone within that medium. I plan to practice that for the rest of my life, but my dream is to finish my many novels and release them into the world as soon as possible.

Taylor, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve always loved reading, specifically I’ve always been drawn to the beauty of (what I believe to be) perfected syntax, which I like to think I’ve always had an eye for. I had an organic inclination towards storytelling — meaning, no one really pushed me towards it or showed me the magic within. I had a single mom and a lot of siblings. Definitely the typical “latch-key” kids. I watched a lot of television in those days, and much of it beyond my years, but I think even in those young years I knew I was witnessing something beyond TV, as pretentious as that sounds. I wanted to see the living compartments hidden inside the show. I wanted to know why some things were popular and some weren’t, and what that was telling me about the world outside my little life. When I began to read, I found that medium much more explicit in its reflection for the world at the time of its conception, which I really enjoyed.

What I’m most proud of, or what I want people to know about me… I don’t know. I just want someone to read my work and maybe feel the intimacy there. Maybe just feel a little more understood by someone.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I suppose it would be my insistence that I am not a poet, I’m a storyteller. I have no books published but I refer to myself mostly as a narrative writer. I do enjoy writing some pieces as micro-stories, but that isn’t what I mean when I call myself a writer. I have many stories to tell, and I am going to tell them, but what can I say? I suppose it isn’t my time yet. I have a lot going on in my life, so I’m finding it difficult to turn all of my outlines and scenes into completed works, but I do believe my time is coming. As for now I hope people enjoy my small works.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I would like for people to stop demanding things of creatives. I don’t believe that writers or artists or musicians need to all believe the same things, or agree with the general view of society at large. Creatives are specifically that: creatives. They think and believe differently than people at large. We have to let them. And if you disagree with them, hear them out. Entertain the idea they propose, for the sake of art, if nothing else.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/properlysteeped
• Other: taylorelizabetharts@gmail.com