Born to write
Sunday morning, raw, impromptu writing Golden hour writing before work and adulting
Have I always been a writer? Yes! I wrote before I could put words on paper. I wrote in my head by imagination and created stories by pretend play with my siblings and friends
Part of my first “novel” I wrote when I was 6. The Mouse and the Fan
I've been physically writing soon after I could put words together on paper. My first “novel” was when I was 6 years old. My writing consisted of mostly novels. I'd get lost in fantasy while writing when I was a shy, anxious child in elementary school. Writing was always there for me. It was a way I could express myself when I felt no one really saw me, especially certain teachers…
Report cards
One of many negative comments from an elementary school report card that I recently found. There are more, and that will be another post. I was a poster child for ADHD, but that wasn't noticed in the 70s and 80s when I was in school. So many of us didn't get the supports we needed back then. I'm thankful that has changed.
Here is a short story I wrote for 9th English class. Handwritten (no computers available then). My editing skills weren't the best, but my teacher appreciated the other aspects of my story like plot, story development and character development. I recieved an A++ on that assignment!! Thank you for believing in me Mr. Wood Thank you for using my writing as a positive example for my class and also for future classes in years to come. In a small way my writing lived on.
I hid my writing as a teen because it wasn't “cool”
By the time I was a teen, I barely wrote because writing wasn't “cool” or so I thought. I was more interested in social life, and I hid that part of myself.
I've continued to write in journals though the years. I even wrote a novel that was part fiction and part autobiographical. I saved it on a floppy disk, because that would save it forever, right?? I'm still working on transferring that, so far I haven't had much luck
One of 3 filing cabinets that house many of my handwritten creative writings and journals
Some of the writing in my adult years. I was the winner of an essay contest about vacation memories. My siblings and I are pictures at the top of article
I'm thankful for Substack. I have a platform and a home for my writing. I am honored that people are reading my writing and commenting. I have a little over 80 subscribers now in the 2 months I've been here. I'm trying not to compare myself to other writers, as that is take away the joy I have and the why for myself becoming a writer.
I've become distracted by the pull writing because it's something I need to do. I have a business to run now, so it's time for work and back to reality.
People are surprised when I tell them I have upcoming novel (launching in Aug 2024)—heck, I’m surprised. I didn’t study writing in college. I didn’t follow a career path that involved writing (although I do a LOT of writing for work). But I did journal throughout my teens. I have the boxes of journals to prove it. And now I want to go get them and read what I wrote. (The hardest ones will be the ones I wrote while studying abroad in France… I actually wrote them in French, which my brain no longer comprehends😂). Thanks for reminding me that I’ve been a writer my entire life too!
Thank you, Jane, you are definitely a writer. As I stated in one of my latest notes, writer is not an occupation, not something you do, it is who you are, the way you were meant/gifted to express yourself, as would a musician with music or a painter with colors: https://substack.com/@geraldineclaudel/note/c-56503654
You may not be a professional writer - yet - but you are a writer because a writer is simply someone who writes. It's amazing how human beings tend to scare themselves with simple words, or depreciate themselves as a matter of fact. Am I a talented writer? It's not for me to say, but I am a writer because it is the activity that brings the most joy in my life and definitely the best way for me to express clearly and honestly my true self.
Own it, Jane. You are a writer!