It's Mrs. Dean Moriarty

she's back, she's back, do a happy dance

Welcome back! I'd wondered what had happened to you, why you'd left; I'd wanted to ask you about your first avatar on here, of a typewriter. Do you really type on a typewriter when you write your novels? I'd read a few novelists say that they are old-fashioned and write on a typewriter, napkins, etc.

hey hey and welcome back. All the best for your mother.

This is great news. Three quarters of getting better is hope.

The only pencils/pens I've ever collected would be art and charcoals for drawing since the artist and the writer part of me seemed to have emerged about the same time when I was four.



I wrote my first poem--on the back of a piece of my Mom's piano sheet music LOL --when I was four. I've known all my life that I was meant to be a writer and artist. But the writer part of that equation is not simply a career, but who I am, as in human, woman, writer.

Most of my English, grammar and lit teachers throughout school recognized this and allowed me to forgo the usual curriculum and instead write and turn in a short story every week. My speech and drama teachers were the same, except in those classes, it would be a play or some similar presentation.

My 8th grade English teacher was a journalist and published author, and I'll never forget what she told me when I interviewed her for my very first article at 14. "Don't ever go to college for writing. You have a natural gift you were born with. Those folks will try to teach you how to write THEIR way. Don't let anyone do that to you."

I've always followed her advice and neither of my degrees are in Journalism or Writing.

I do, however, spend a great deal of time honing my craft by reading books on style, technique, keeping blogs, and a private journal on my computer. These are ways to sharpen my writing without changing my unique style/voice.

Sol Stein has excellent books on the craft. His works in particular allowed me to become fearless in my storytelling. Typical Male, for example, opens with an extremely brutal rape told through the perpetrator's POV. It's only 4-5 pages long in submission manuscript format, 2-3 pages on the printed book page, but it foreshadows everything that will happen in the book and why every character does what they do. Even 10 years ago, I wouldn't have had the mettle to open a book like that. Since the first 5 pages are what sell a book, I know with TM that it was the right way to go. The novel is filled with so many shocks, twists, and turns, I knew the opening had to be an explosive one.

As to personality traits of writers, we all tend to have many of the same quicks, thought processes and problems. I am very much a loner, but am extremely extroverted/life of the party/flirtatious/center of attention as well. I've always blamed that on being a Gemini. LOL When I work, I have to be alone with the writing. I LIVE everything I write, over and over again until I'm satisfied with the outcome--and I'm never truly satisfied, which is another common writer foible...over-thinking the work. I have suffered from crippling writer's blocks over the years and it is like slowly dying from asphyxiation since I identify so heavily with myself as WRITER. And, unlike what my ex-husband thinks, I cannot turn the writing on and off like a facet. It's either there, or it isn't. When it isn't, I'm a weepy, miserable individual.

I do carry around a notebook because I'm prone to getting a lot of ideas when I'm away from my office and computer. I learned a long time ago: WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN. That's become especially important since my back injury and developing fibromyalgia. Fibro fog is a very real problem, as are the medications they give me to cope with the pain. Over the years, I've filled dozens of spiral notebooks with notes for various manuscripts. I also keep copies of everything in my private journal here on the computer. I have 7 manuscripts in various stages of development. I just installed a new writing program, so soon I'm going to migrate all that into that program so that my work isn't a study in chaos theory. LOL

And, as you said, no junk mail envelope is safe in my house. LOL I also have about a billion post-it notes with little tidbits scribbled on them; the make and model of guns, a Dutch jurist who did groundbreaking work in criminal law, little sarcastic comments my main male character will think or say, ad infinitum.

So, short story to long, I would say that if you're a writer you already know it in your heart. It's like sexual orientation, gender, race, etc. You are or you are not. No gray area in between.

I think you definitely have an artistic spirit/nature, but maybe aren't a writer. Maybe you are called to be an actress! That would be cool. Hard work and hard to break into the industry, but rewarding. You should check it out and see how it feels to you. Does your town have community theater? That would be a great place to start!

Thanks, Fylimar! Especially for the lovely flower!