Junior Sammy D’Alexander truly loves writing, even if school has over-assigned essays. And not the kind of writing that is hidden away in a diary, concealed from the prying eyes of the world. Sammy is striving to get her work published and placed in the hands of the public.

To accomplish this goal, Sammy utilized the free time from the COVID-19 shutdown to further her writing and use it as a way to cope.

“I found that this time, [the shutdown] has been really valuable for [my] writing and self-searching,” Sammy said. “When you are spending as much time inside as we are, you are going to be stuck in your head, and you have to have some sort of outlet for your thoughts. My outlet is my writing.”

Sammy’s love for writing is nothing new; she has been writing since she was a little girl. Throughout her entire life, she remembers writing for her friends and loved ones.

But, as Sammy has grown up, so has her writing. The novel she is currently working on, one she is keeping close to her chest, is tapping more into the horror side of things.

For a long time, Sammy has described her own writing as “poetic songwriting.” But, during the shutdown, her writing has evolved into what she now describes as “definitely more [in the] horror [genre], leaning more to the dark side of things.”

“[It] just gets into weird territory,” Sammy said. “The subject matter is usually like social or philosophical commentary, and [my] story is trying to be a metaphor for it.”

Although Sammy has had some of her work published in the past, it has unfortunately not the most pleasant of processes. With her self-proclaimed radical ideas, she found her stories being rejected by publishers. 

From this experience, Sammy said she realized that much of the writing industry was dominated by people who only wrote what they thought would be popular and knew would be read.

“The way that I want to break into [the writing field] is by producing inherently controversial subject matter,” Sammy said.

With wanting to write about religion and politics, Sammy feels as though the writing industry is filled with too much of the same kind of writing; she wants to make a name for herself by breaking this pattern of conformity by standing out with her subject matter. By challenging beliefs and going farther than what a lot of people consider to be acceptable, she hopes to grab the attention of a more deep-thinking audience and provoke deep thoughts from her readers.

“I think that I have thoughts that are worth hearing,” Sammy stated. “If nobody else is going to put it on paper, [then] I will. I’ll write on the subject that you are told not to write about.”

Sammy does this by exploring topics like death and existentialism in her writing, and she hopes to reach people that may be frustrated by what she calls “the bluntness of society.”

Ultimately, her goal is to become an accomplished writer, one that has gained recognition and a name for herself because of her boundary-pushing topic coverage. She wants her writing to be known and her words to be heard.

“Whether they like it or not,” Sammy said, “I want to gain people’s attention with my writing and become known for it.”