Stories you read when you're the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes you'll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit.
It's not worth doing something unless someone, somewhere, would much rather you weren't doing it.
I think the most important thing is to have a good story and to tell it well.
The past is always tense, the future perfect.