Kaye Curren was a guest blogger here a few weeks ago. This morning, I read a post she wrote for another blog. She detailed her writing journey. You can read it here. I started thinking about how I began my writing journey and then about the way rest of the writers I know and those whom I have not met got started writing.
I think we all began our writing journey in different ways. Many have the desire to write long before trying it. They had a delay for various reasons. I had always wanted to write but let Life get in the way. I was in my mid-fifties before Life smacked me and I chose to take a correspondence course on writing for children as a solution. Ever heard that old adage Out of all bad things comes some good? For me, that was certainly true. From this side of the fence, I know that the miserable situation I found myself in was the catalyst for my finally becoming a writer. I'm eternally grateful.
My oldest granddaughter, Alexis, wanted to be a writer from childhood on. I credit a primary grade teacher she had who taught her students to journal on a daily basis. I have a feeling that was what sparked Alexis's love for writing. She was a copy editor, then writer for her college newspaper. Now, she is in grad school but still writes when she can. She will be an English teacher when she finishes graduate school and she will teach middle school English with an emphasis on creative writing. I'm so glad she pursued her writing far sooner than I did.
Some of you began writing when only a teen. Others waited until they had experienced a lot of other things in life before becoming a writer. Remember this--even if you haven't published but write, you are a writer. Some feel that publication allows you to say I am a writer. Anyone who writes can proudly say I am a writer. If you've never said it out loud, stand before a mirror and say it to your image several times. Then, try saying it to someone else. Take quiet pride in saying it.
A longtime friend, teacher and artist, always asked me if I'd written my book yet. In his mind, I wasn't a writer until I had written and published a book. That's so wrong. There are so many other types of writing besides writing a book.
How many of you have written an essay or short memoir piece about how you got started as a writer? Wouldn't an anthology filled with stories of how people began writing be a great inspiration to new writers?
Some of us begin writing at an early age while others waited until fifty or more. I wrote an article many years ago about people who began writing after age fifty. They were all people I knew personally. What impressed me was that, despite a myriad number of reasons for waiting so long, they all overcame whatever had held them back and could finally call themselves a writer.
We all walked different paths to become writers. The best part of the journey is that we persevered and can call ourselves writer.
