Kiara James has always been a writer, just not always on paper.
“I guess I’ve kind of always been making up stories and fan fiction in my head,” James said, “It functions as a constant hobby.”
Even during school, her mind drifts, pulled into the worlds she creates. But like many young creatives, turning those ideas into something tangible is a different challenge entirely.
“I really struggle balancing my life in general, especially with procrastination,” James said, “So I often struggle to get a lot done, let alone writing.”
For her, writing isn’t something that fits neatly into a schedule, instead, it comes in bursts. Sudden waves of inspiration where she’ll rush to add to a draft or finally put her thoughts into words, but the stories never leave, they just wait.
“I’ve doubted my writing quite a bit,” James said, “My draft-to-publish ratio is high on the former’s end. I think my desire to put my stories out in the world is what keeps me going.”
While friends and family don’t directly shape her stories, they appear through subtle ways: in experiences she draws from and projects onto her characters. Her mom once even acted as a “beta reader”, helping with grammar and spelling. And like many modern writers, Kiara exists both offline and online.
On Tumblr, she shares alternate universe (AU) concepts and explores ideas within her fandoms, while also linking to longer works on Archive of Our Own (AO3). However, this forces her to navigate the tension between writing for herself and writing for an audience. But feedback from readers has boosted her confidence, motivating her to write more, even if it adds pressure to meet expectations.
“Knowing there’s people who share interests with me helps me branch out,” James said, “But sometimes I also feel pressured to make sure what I write is creative and interesting. I like to think that I think about myself more, but publishing that work pushes me to finish. A public work might have more people finding it meaningful, but it doesn’t necessarily make private work less meaningful.”
When inspiration runs dry, she returns to the stories that first inspired her, rereading or rewatching them until something sparks again. It’s a quiet, patient process, one that mirrors her overall approach to writing, but she’s also quick to challenge misconceptions around fanfiction. In the future, she hopes to expand beyond fanfiction into original works, even imagining creating her own “Fanganronpa”-style story, (a project based on the Danganronpa fandom). But no matter where her writing takes her, one thing remains constant.
“A lot of people assume fanfiction is automatically lower quality,” James said, “But there are fanfics of published novel quality or better. If someone reads my writing years from now, I’d want them to understand my love for the characters and stories I write.”
It’s that love that defines Kiara James as a writer. And if she could give advice to her younger self, it wouldn’t be about writing better or faster.
“Writing is not going to be perfect,” James said, “Or even very good at first.”
And for Kiara that isn’t failure, just the beginning.
