Monday, April 3, 2017

How Did I Get From There To Here?

It occurred to me that I write my blog twice a week and I am very excited that the blog site that I use allows me to see how many reads I get daily. It also tells me that people from many different countries read on my blog page and that my readership continues to grow. 

What I have not done is to write from a place called "there" to my current destination of "here," in other words, the journey of me becoming a creative writer. You can breathe a sigh of relief. No way would I take you back into my whole life story. There would be quite a bit of hysterical laughing going on, as well as big yawns from what some would say,  "Boring!"

Let me just summarize a bit for you. I had a fairly typical childhood, graduated from college with a Masters in Educational Administration and Supervision plus a few marriages 'there and here.' Which now brings my life up to a very happy marriage of fifteen years with a charming Brit. We have two sons and two daughters between us who came together as brothers and sisters beautifully. As we all know, you can't just make that happen. They either like one another or not. We are delighted about that.

With that little background about me, I will add that I finally retired early from the field of education. You must understand though, that one does not just proclaim out of the blue that he or she is going to be a writer. Being a writer and loving to write is part of a writer's heart and soul. It is something that I have always loved doing. In fact, I have journals dating way back. Since I never give my age, we won't get into just how far back, but I will share that when I was a child, one of my favorite gifts for Christmas or my December birthday was a brand new diary. I could write whatever I wanted to write. Diary/Journal or whatever it is that you want to call it, most definitely it is a form of creative writing. Never did I need a prompt as I have always written from my point of view as to what I observed or was feeling. 

If you have read any of my previous blogs, you will note that they are on a variety of topics. With Steve and I becoming the owners of a beautiful black Goldendoodle puppy, he has been the topic a few times lately. Other topics can be things such as what I witness first hand on a grocery store trip or out in public. People watching is a must for creative writers. Life is full of novelties, just open your eyes to what is going on around you. 

While still working full time in the school system, I wrote a journal daily there about each day. Never did I have a meeting without my journal to document what was said. It became my notes which I relied heavily on as my 'get out of jail free card' when parents, teachers, students or even administrators above my level wanted to remember the meeting in a different manner than what really happened. It did come to my mind that if I put these notes together, I would have a best seller about the daily life in a public school. Most people would not even believe things that take place daily.

At one stage I decided that I could write a very sweet children's book. I finished the actual book in no time. What I did next was to send it off to publishers with my cover letter. I researched all of the who, what, when and where of children's publishers and managed to get rejection letter one after the other. All form written, of course, and I was prepared for that. 

One day a different letter came to me. This company was interested in publishing my book about Ollie the Octopus IF I was willing to make one little change. This company now catered their books to children who had gay parents and they wanted me to change Ollie and his newly found friend as gay. I would have been fine with writing a new book catering to this lifestyle. I have no problem at all with it. Ollie, though had become my imaginary friend and all of his traits and his life in the ocean without any one wanting to be his friend had become etched on my heart. He pulled at my heart string when he gathered the courage to finally meet up with Olivia. They were meant for each other and I had to have a happy ever after ending with the two of them swimming happily together hand in hand in hand in hand in hand in hand in hand and in hand. When a writer becomes that tangled up in the lives of imaginary characters, someone can't expect them to rewrite the story to fit their needs, even if it meant being published. 

While the drama of Ollie and Olivia going on, something else was happening in my life. I had bought a house with my Mother, my daughter had graduated from college and the three of us were living together. Three generations of strong-willed single females living in the same house. Think about what could happen in that situation. When I went to work and conveyed some of the stories, true real life stories, I had friends in stitches laughing. Some were telling me that this is the story to write about. 

With my journal writing, of course most everything that was happening was already documented, at least the things that I thought were noteworthy. As I started to put things together, I saw a novel. My imagination went wild. Plenty of writers are able to write while they continue with their day jobs, however, I was not one of them. My hours were way too long and I definitely did not function without sleep. So just taking notes in my journals helped keep me grounded, on target and ready for take off when the time came.

The blogging idea came from my marketing adviser. How lucky can one be in that I am married to an expert in the marketing and branding field. He is a rather good writer himself and has his own plans after his retirement on writing and consulting. For me, he has helped me and continues to help me find my writing voice. The one that reaches out to readers who enjoy books in my genre. 

As you can see, getting from there to here was not specifically planned out. Some things just have to happen and you have to let them happen. Embrace the unknown and let life surprise you. For me, it is to have the big picture drawn out and let the little details rain down like hearts, with me catching them and placing them where they belong to help make that surprise happen.

No comments:

Post a Comment