If you ask Destyni Marie Williams what her interests are, the answer will surely involve writing. As a passionate copy editor on her yearbook staff at Edmond Santa Fe High School, she assumes most of the responsibility in her position editing the various stories that go into her high school’s yearbook.
At the ripe age of 16 she has already declared a double major in professional writing and broadcast, with a minor in psychology or business. Driven is an understatement for Williams.
In the long run, the goal for Williams is to become a New York Times Best Seller and have her work made into a movie.From writing Fan Fiction about boy bands to now becoming a well rounded writer, Williams strives to pull inspiration from her everyday life into her work.
With great ambition, Williams involves herself into immersive camps and clubs such as OIDJ, DECA and Camp NaNoWriMo to enhance her writing skills. By experiencing writing in all aspects, she is sure to reach her destiny.
Destiny answered a few more questions about her passion for writing.
Q) So you mentioned you wanted to be a PW major. What inspired that?
A) Professional writing is just like… there is a lot of elements I like. Like screenwriting. Particularly fiction because I’m kind of throwing around the idea of being a fiction writer. Which started maybe when I was about 12 in like 7th grade writing FanFiction with my best friend.
Q) What was your first FanFiction about?
A) It was a One Direction FanFiction about two girls in college that went to NYU who stumbled across an ad in a Teen Vogue magazine that was advertising a competition to go to a One Direction concert and hang out with them for a day.
Q) Besides FanFiction what other genre do you focus on?
A) As I’ve matured as a writer I’ve moved away from FanFiction. I write young and new adult which allowed me to grow as a writer that way I’m not defined by pre-existing people.
Q) What would you say your writing style is?
A) You know when I first learned how to write my tone, like my teacher writes in a very formal way so that’s how my writing comes across. I tend to be a dramatic writer I have a hard time writing something purely based on comedy. That’s one of the things I enjoyed about writing with my best friend her writing was very humorous and mine was more dramatic so that made it a good balance.
Q) Have you ever published any of your writings?
A) Yeah we published our writings on Wattpad but we used a pseudonym so you couldn’t google my name and it wouldn’t pop up.
Q) What is Wattpad?
A) It’s basically an app and website that authors go to to publish their work about FanFiction but not just FanFiction they have like original fiction nonfiction and some people just post like funny things its just like a great writing community to learn how to write and you know you get good feedback people comment and vote on your stories there is even a thing called the Watty awards that you can win.
Q) So how would you say writing has helped you mature as person in your writing?
A) It’s made me a lot more observant about people so when writing about my character’s body language and you know how they respond to things I usually look to other people like are you explosive when you get mad or are you the silent type. That’s one thing my psychology course that I took my sophomore year of high school also helped me with.
Q) So do you usually pull from your everyday classes at school to help better your writing?
A) Yes, and no. I try not to write about people I know because it kind of like gets into that FanFiction thing like I are already know how you act. But I do pull at different personality traits like odd habits from people I know and my friends.
