The Making of a Writer

The other day I was talking about writing to a friend of mine who lives in Montana. He told me that he recently met a woman, an attorney, who is writing a series of books under a pen name. Interesting concept. Even though she has a day job, she has another life, she is making herself into a writer. As an attorney, no one may even know that she pens stories by night. Good for her. That is a story within itself.

I may have had the training and experience as a journalist and editor, but I am now making myself into a fiction writer. It has always been a dream, and it is coming true. I feel that I am in a make-believe world because I am doing exactly what I have always dreamt of doing -- writing fiction for me, not writing what a boss or a company wants. This is mine and who I am. And believe me, it is delicious. I know how this woman feels because I have been there, but in my day there was not this thing called internet or self publishing, so when I wrote, the stories sometimes got accepted into literary journals, but most of them were put in a file drawer. I love technology.

This is how I start. A blank sheet of lined paper and a pen. Not an unlined sheet of paper, not a pencil. It has to be a piece of lined paper and a pen.

Of course, I have lots of ideas about a story, and I start writing. The scene may come in the middle or end, but mostly I start from the beginning. I also write in my head before I put the words to paper. This is especially useful as I get into the story and need to develop the scene. In my social life, I may be talking to someone, but little do they know that I am really going over the scene in my head. I fall to sleep thinking about a scene, and wake up with the scene. Sometimes, not often though, I will wake up in the middle of the night knowing how to proceed with the scene (I am a very good sleeper so this does not happen often).

I am getting ready to start another story. I have been living with the idea for a bit now, and will begin writing in another month or so. (I need to get the short story book publishing under way before I really get into another story, but I can start with ideas, outline, and research.)

I love research. Love, love, love it. I learn so much, and sometimes it is hard to sift through what I want to include and what should not be included. Right now I am researching careers that are close or similar to an engineer. It should be fun to see what I end up with. Hmmm. Who knows, the career may not even resemble an engineer, but that is what I am starting with.

My stories take a life of their own. I am writing away, the majority of the research has been completed, and all of a sudden the story takes a turn that I never expected. Then, there may be more research, more writing, more scenes that are played out in my head. My life. I love my life.

Before I started this transformation, this Chapter 14 of my Journey, I saw a towel that had a saying on it -- "live the life you've imagined". I bought it and have kept it close to my heart since. And when I look at it, I say, I am, I am. I hope you do, too.







Until Monday...have a great weekend...