I’m not sure when I realized I wanted to be a writer; I just
know that I was in my late 20’s. Up until then all I’d written was the
occasional poem as a way to express things I had no other way to express. I’d
also kept a journal off and on throughout my life as a way to “empty my mind”
onto the page.
I started writing poetry at a young age because of a notice
for a poetry contest in our local paper, The
Highline Times. I wrote two poems, but didn’t enter either one. To be honest,
I was afraid to enter. I didn’t know anything about poetry except that it was
short verse and rhymed. I’ve since learned that not all poetry rhymes. I did
get to read the winning entry and was glad I hadn’t entered. There was no doubt
in my mind about why a poem about a string of pearls won. That did, however inspire
in me a desire to write, even if I never thought about publication.
One day I read some of my poetry to a friend of mine and she
said, “Oh my gosh, Wynter. You should be published.”
My jaw hit the ground. I’d never considered being published
before. To me, writing was simply a way to express myself. Several months later
at a get together with this same friend and another mutual friend, they told me
I should write a romance novel because of the way I talked. Again, my jaw hit
the ground, but an idea was born that day. I wanted to be a writer.
So, I started working on a story. It’s not finished yet
because I got to a point where I didn’t know where it was going. It didn’t help
that I had ideas coming out of me like sweat on a hot day. I also know now that
I was doing a type of writing called “pantsing.” It means to write by “the seat
of your pants.” No outlines whatsoever. I hated writing outlines in school
because they always felt like a way to put me in a strait jacket with my
writing, so I would write up the outline after
I wrote the paper (if my teachers knew, they never told me). I know now that
writing a school paper without an outline is no big deal. To try to write a
full length novel on the other hand, I really need to outline the chapters. Even
if I don’t absolutely follow the outline, it will give me a sense of direction
for the story.
I started this blog because I read in a writing magazine
that for authors to be published these days, they need an online presence
beyond their social pages, such as Facebook. I’m not published yet, but when
the day comes that someone is interested in publishing something I’ve written,
this blog will help to serve as a way to learn about my writing style.
When I first started writing this blog, I also thought it
would be easy to come up with 1,000 words a week. I mean columnists do it all
the time, so how hard can it be? Besides, I had a ton of things to say about
different subjects, such as customer service (https://wfwoodbury.blogspot.com/2015/08/customer-service-in-dry-cleaning-part-i.html)
(https://wfwoodbury.blogspot.com/2015/08/dry-cleaning-customer-service-part-ii.html)
or ridiculous advertising (https://wfwoodbury.blogspot.com/2015/07/stupid-silly-and-disturbing-advertising.html)
among other things. When I finished all the blogs I had ideas for when I
started, I had to come up with more ideas. That’s when it got tough. That’s
also when I began to realize that columnists who did it probably had more
experience at writing than I do.
If you’ve been following my blog or reading it in recent
weeks, you’ve seen me share my life story. That was prompted by a group I’m in
on Facebook that’s for ladies only. We’d been discussing how we’d been
hurt/abused by people in our lives that should have been caring for us,
instead. I said something about maybe someday sharing my story in the group
about what I’ve been through and people asked. I received permission from the
Administrators to do so, which made writing my blog easier for several weeks as
I’d already written my story as a book. All I had to do was go in and edit
about 1,000 words each week.
When I was finished sharing my
life story, I figured I could work on other writing projects three days a week
then write a blog in two days a week. Then for the past couple of weeks I had
two days to write a new blog. The first one was pretty easy idea wise as I’d
made notes about blog ideas while posting my life story. The second one, to
some extent felt like I’d recycled an old topic, but with a new twist. (https://wfwoodbury.blogspot.com/2015/06/)
I also felt like I could have done better for myself and for you my reader with
both blogs.
That’s when I realized that writing a weekly blog may be
more than I can handle. That I’m probably better off writing a monthly blog.
This would give me more time to come up with a subject and in some cases, do
the research necessary. There are topics I’ve wanted to cover, but they require
time and research I don’t have if I’m writing a weekly blog and trying to work
on other writing projects. I still plan to utilize two days a week for my blog
to insure that I can do the research needed for some of my bigger ideas that I've had for quite some time, but haven't really had time to do the digging necessary to do them justice.
So, from now on, I’ll be posting on the first Saturday of
each month around 10:00 a.m. I thank you for reading my words and hope you
enjoy the ones I write from now on.
