It was October, 2007 and after experiencing the difficulties of being a SAHM to twins with pretty much no support system around, I felt like I was starting to lose my mind. My girls were a year and a half and I had dedicated my everything to them (I had to, they were babies) and to my husband who was working his butt off to support us since I had stopped working as a teacher to raise our girls. I was trying to be supermom and superwife and I stopped taking care of me and felt guilty at the mere thought of doing anything for myself (including getting myself to the doctors when I wasn't feeling well). I missed me. I missed my adult world and the freedom of being able to just pick up and go. I became rather depressed. It was during this time that I had read about the Twilight series and like so many others, I got sucked into SM's world. I was not an avid reader (the reason for that will come in another post), and so I found a new love and interest in reading again.
I finally got myself to the doctor who told me that I HAD to either put my girls in day care for a few hours a week or get a babysitter so that I could have some Me Time. So, I got a babysitter, joined a gym and then thought to myself, "Okay, now what?" I had no money to go shopping and most of my friends were working and lived about an hour away. I did end up joining a local twin mommies group which made a HUGE difference in my life, but that wasn't ME time.
Then one day, I was sitting at the table and an idea for a story came to me. After reading SM's series, I felt like, "Hey, I can totally write my own story." I got a notebook and started plotting out the idea for my story, but as I started researching and writing it, it turned into something entirely different and five months later, I had a 160K word novel that is now my trunked work.
So, writing for me is only a few years old and I'm learning heaps about the process and art of writing on a daily basis. However, and most importantly, writing has become a healthy venue and means of escape for me where I can lose myself in my imaginary world with my made up characters and take a break from the real world. I'm not saying I don't love my life or my family. They are the meaning behind each breath I take, but I do realize that it's important to find balance in life and let's face it...life can be really challenging at times. It is through writing that I have that balance in my life and I feel like a happier and more complete person because of it.
So, how did you get into writing? I would love to hear all about it :-)
Yay, you're blogging! Beautiful layout. I love it. :) So actually I have a story somewhat similar to yours about getting into writing. Well, ok, I should probably say my revival into writing. You know how much I love to procrastinate, right. Well, when I was supposed to be writing my thesis defense back in 2003, I started to write Bettina. I wrote a lot (200k words) and it was really bad. I also started writing another story at the same time and it was equally bad. Both of these books are temporarily trunked because I know that they have to be completely redone, but the premise behind each is pretty solid so I WILL be redoing each of them. And just as an aside to you Mel, the MC of this second book makes a cameo appearance in NW - surprise huh, kind you figure out who it is? Anywho, after these two attempts I put off writing for a long time until about 2 years ago when I read the Twilight series, and then like you I thought to myself, hey I can do this. SoIi went back to one of my trunked novels and redid parts of it, then joined AW, saw all the things I was doing wrong and now I'm well on my way to querying. So, it's kind of funny that our paths were sort of similar. Anyway, if you haven't put your blog on the AW blogroll, I'm going to do it for you, so go do it. NOW!!
ReplyDeleteYea, Angie!!! You're my first friend hahahaha!!! :-)
ReplyDeleteSo hard to believe that Bettina was ever "bad" but I guess you know how it was. That's how I feel about my trunked novel. I have learned sooooo much since then and when I re-write that first novel, I truly believe it will be kick ass. But that's pretty far away. thanks for posting and being such a great friend and I think SM inspired a LOT of people to want to write. If anything, that was a great thing to come out of her success. IMO.
Funny enough, I felt the same way both of you did. I have always been a reader (like waaaaaaay a reader). Sometimes over the summer in high school, I'd read like 30 books. Consequently, I've always wanted to write one of my own. But I never could come up with a good idea. I'd come up with small scenes that weren't really related, or characters reacting to situations in certain ways, but no full story. Reading Harry Potter and Twilight made me want to write something even more. Then one night when I was rocking my son to sleep, which I love to do because it gives me time to think, I had an epiphany. At first it was just a visual of a particular scene (which is now my prologue). From there, it has evolved into an entire series (three books, hopefully). My dream is to get published, even if it's a mid-size group. I just want to have a book out there. Now, if I got an offer from something bigger, I wouldn't turn it down :).
ReplyDeleteSo cool Shari that your idea came while rocking your baby. That totally...rocks. hahaha sorry for the cheese :-) But seriously, It's funny that we sort of got into this after kids. I had done a tiny bit of journaling and writing when I was younger, but never thought anything of it. A couple of weeks ago, my dad found a short play I had written in the eleventh grade for my English class (I got an A on it, or maybe it was an A minus). Hmmm maybe I'll post it sometime. It's not that long, but it was fun to read. In any event, I never saw writing the way I do, which I know stems from the fact that I was NOT an avid reader. As I said before, that post will come another day. Anyway, thanks for commenting and sharing your story. :-)
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