Why I Became a Writer
I give my mother all the credit in the world when it comes to fostering my love of reading and my insatiable appetite for a good story is what set me on the path of writing my own. We moved a lot when I was young and books were more constant companions than people. When I was six I was given a huge metal office desk that resided in our den and my very own typewriter. I'd spend hours making up stories and typing them out. It was love at first write!
As I grew, I had several ideas of what my future career would be—paleontologist, wildlife veterinarian, I even fancied I was going to become an actress at one point. However one thing that never changed was my love of the written word. I’ve always been a tad introverted (okay—very) and found it much easier to express myself and my feelings through writing than by any other method. Whether this was a blessing or a curse is in the eye of the beholder because the flip side was my utter lack of social graces. (Yes people: I was the wallflower.)
When I was in fifth grade I stumbled upon a book that would change my life forever. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh is about a girl who carries a notebook with her EVERYWHERE to write down observations on what she saw. That book left an indelible impression. This notion was so innovative to me that I actually emulated the character and began carrying my own notebook, writing down my every thought.
Penning my thoughts kept my imagination constantly flowing and it wasn’t long before I was writing short stories that were much improved from their counterparts of yesteryear, with great encouragement from my English teachers. Sparks of inspiration for my first novel came when I was fourteen and soon became an all-consuming flame. Ideas for other books and short stories came to me faster than I could keep up with. I was addicted to writing and proudly admit it for there are much worse things a teenager could become addicted to.
My novel was put on long-term hiatus when the briefcase containing my handwritten beginnings of a manuscript was stolen. It was the only copy and I despaired at attempting to recreate everything I’d written. Utterly depressed, I put the pen down regarding fiction and suffered a miserable bout of writer's block but I continued writing in my notebook.
The creative juices began flowing once more when I entered college thanks to the extremely thought-provoking rhetoric and teachings of my theater professor, Sandra M. Boynton. By graduation I’d gained new perspective. I picked up writing my novel with zeal, sighed in content when it was completed then began attacking it with edits as I learned more and more about the publishing industry.
The moral of this story is how one book really can change somebody’s life forever. My journey began with my love of reading and may have ended there if not for one book that catapulted me into the habit of keeping a pencil constantly in hand. A book cannot inspire if it never exists. My personal aspirations for my writing may be somewhere past Jupiter but if I achieve nothing else, I hope for one thing: to inspire kids to keep reading by giving them engaging worlds peopled with characters they just don't want to leave.
I look around in this day and age where so many of our youth rely on calculators and spell-check to think for them and I find this dumbing-down of the collective mind appalling. While my work is intended to be enjoyed by anyone of any age, it's the younger generation I keep in mind. I doubt my vocabulary, grammar, spelling and knowledge in general would be what they are today if I never developed a love for reading. I found myself in search of larger more complex books at a younger age and wish to pass that gift along. I want to keep our youth reading so that they too may be inspired and the way to keep them reading is to supply a constant stream of thoroughly engrossing material for them to mentally devour. Those books that they, like myself, just can’t put down until they’ve finished and once they’re done they look up and say, “I want some more!”
A truly good story really CAN change everything. THAT, my friends, is why I am a writer.
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