I was never a big fantasy guy aside from Tolkien and Pratchett. I have made minor contributions to Tolken academia regarding some low hanging fruit that somehow got missed. I got into Pratchett as an adult and am just getting back in now. But i've always been a sci fi dork and was reading star wars novels and Asimov when Harry Potter got big. I had tried a decent amount of fantasy by that time, enough to start to realize it maybe wasn't my favorite type of book and for sure enough to realize how boring and derivative Harry Potter was. There was nothing interesting at all being done with this fantasy. They go to school and the chosen one turns out to be a hero by the end of the year and he's the best at everything all the time.

My English teachers loved me. Im 3rd grade we all had to do a half hour of free form writing every couple of days. Most people did half assed journal entries. I wrote an absolutely bonkers stream of consciousness serial novel over the course of the year! surrounding the adventures of Frank Miser, private eye later turned secret agent. I dont remember much but I know for my Christmas story assignment he was sent to the north pole to bust up an elf strike. My dad was on strike at the time and helped me with terminology and explained a lot of labor issues to me. I did write it myself but he gave it a go over and helped make my second draft more informed. Full writer's room situation. My parents rock. My dad and I can fucking riff. My parents still accidentally call me Louie cause when I was a toddler my dad felt like this walking around, me as a toddler being the short boss gangster:

And misrembered the boss's name mixing it up with a Flintstones episode where there was also a mob boss named 88 Fingers Louie and the nickname Louie just kinda stuck. This kinda stuff in my reallt early childhood has made me a hilarious adult and also really boosted my literacy cause by us making fun of early childhood books together before I could read, I learned to analyze text before I could interpret it.