The Day I Decided To Become a Writer
By James Scott Bell | November 29, 2013 |
photo by Orangeadnan
Today’s returning guest is James Scott Bell. James is not only a bestselling thriller novelist, he’s written three truly helpful craft books, including the #1 bestselling book Plot & Structure. He also authors the Mallory Caine zombie legal thriller series under the pen name K. Bennett. The first book in the series, Pay Me in Flesh, is about a stylish lawyer-zombie who suddenly finds herself on someone else’s food chain, and who hopes to stay un-dead until she can win back her soul.
You can learn more about James and his books by following him on Twitter (@jamesscottbell) and visiting his website.
The Day I Decided To Become a Writer
Raymond Carver sat at the end of the table, his eyes a bit red and his breath redolent of bourbon, surrounded by ten college students who wanted desperately to become writers. One by one, they would read their work and get feedback from the other students and Carver himself.
Your humble correspondent was one of those students, and soon became discouraged. I could not write like Carver, or even some of the “star” students. What did they have that I did not? At the end of the class I was starting to believe what certain people said: Writers are born, not made. You can’t learn to be a great writer. You certainly can’t by reading books on writing!
For the next decade or so, I thought I was one of those not born to write. I did other things. I acted. I waited tables. I fell in love with an actress, got married, and decided to bring in an actual income and went to law school.
I started practicing law. My lovely wife and I welcomed a son and a daughter into the world. Life was good.
Then one afternoon, with Cindy’s mom watching the kids, we slipped out for a double feature. The movie I wanted to see was Wall Street. It was paired with a film I didn’t know that much about, except that Cher was supposed to be quite good in it. That movie was Moonstruck.
Well, Wall Street is a superb movie. Charlie Sheen (the early years Charlie Sheen) was excellent, and Michael Douglas scored an Oscar as the odious Gordon Gekko.
A short break, some more popcorn and then . . . Moonstruck began. From the opening credits—to the song That’s Amore sung by Dean Martin—the movie began to weave a magical spell. We are immediately drawn to Loretta Castorini (Cher) a widow in her late thirties, a romantic with a strong realistic streak. Meaning she will settle for marriage to a likable but not very exciting man, Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello).
Loretta is funny and strong (she has to coach Johnny on how to propose to her). She gets that from her mother, Rose (Olympia Dukakis), also funny and full of old world wisdom.
Rose:
- Do you love him, Loretta?
Loretta:
- No.
Rose:
- Good. Cause when you love ’em they drive you crazy, ’cause they know they can. But you like him?
Loretta:
- Oh yeah. He’s a sweet man.
But of course what Loretta longs for, and believes she’ll never find, is real, full-blooded love.
All well and good. But then a scene took place that just blew me away and made me realize I was watching something truly special. It’s when Loretta goes to see Johnny’s brother, Ronny (Nicolas Cage) for the first time, down where he bakes bread. She tries to invite him to the wedding, knowing there is “bad blood” between the brothers. As she attempts to talk calmly to Ronny, he goes from one operatic riff to another on the tragedy that is his life.
Ronny:
- You’re gonna marry my brother Johnny?
Loretta:
- Yes. Do you wanna go somewhere and . . .
Ronny:
- I have no life.
Loretta:
- Excuse me?
Ronny:
- I have no life. My brother Johnny took my life from me.
He goes on like this as Loretta attempts to talk like an adult. Then he suddenly yells to the counter girl:
Ronny:
- Over by the wall. Bring me the big knife.
Chrissy:
- No, Ronny!
Ronny:
- Bring me the big knife! I’m gonna cut my throat!
Loretta:
- Maybe I should come back another time.
The scene gets even better, as Ronny reveals the wound of his life, the reason he is in a symbolic hell (the ovens). Cage has never been better than in this moment and in this movie. When he finally wanders off to accept his living death, Loretta follows him. Her strength manifests itself once again. She goes up to Ronny’s apartment to cook for him, have some whisky and to try to talk sense.
And then all sense leaves them both as, indeed, it will all the main characters, for la luna is full tonight, and moonstruck is what they all become.
Moonstruck, penned by the award-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley, is an exemplar of superior writing. Each character, no matter how minor, is unique. The dialogue zings, fresh and surprising. At the end, it all comes around to the theme of enduring familial love.
A la famiglia! Salute!
When we walked out I said to myself (and maybe to Cindy), “I want to write something like that. I have to go for it. Even if I never get a screenplay made or a book published, I have to try, because I want to make people feel the way I feel right now.”
So on that day I decided I would try to learn how to write. And if I failed, at least it would not be for lack of effort.
My law school habits kicked in. I studied the craft of writing as if I were preparing to master Constitutional Law. I made notes of what I learned. I value the notes I made for myself back in the early 90s, some on napkins and scraps of paper (I still have those in a big envelope). I kept a journal of what I was learning and how it worked for me.
I started writing screenplays (in LA, it’s practically a city ordinance that you must be working on a screenplay) and kept reading craft books, until one day I had a literal epiphany. Light bulbs popped. Story craft made sense. And from that moment on I started to sell. I landed an excellent Hollywood agent, optioned scripts, took meetings. But Hollywood, as Pauline Kael once observed, “is the only town where you can die of encouragement.” Or where a great idea you pitched gets turned into a movie a few years later . . . without your name attached.
In frustration I turned to fiction. The visual style of screenplays and the understanding of structure helped me enormously. Soon I had a novel published, then got a five-book contract. And I haven’t looked back.
I’ve worked hard at this writing game. I still do. But I wonder where I’d be if Cindy and I hadn’t gone out on a much needed date lo those many years ago, and been knocked out by Moonstruck.
So what about you? Can you locate the moment you decided to become a writer? Or can you think of a book or movie that moved you so much you said, “I have to try to do something like this…”?
JAMES SCOTT BELL writes thrillers and books on the craft of fiction. A winner of the International Thriller Writers Award, he previously served as fiction columnist for Writer’s Digest magazine. He lives and writes in Los Angeles. Learn more about him on his website, and follow him on Twitter.
Thanks for sharing your epiphany. We’ve all had one, some at 7 yrs of age, others, like me, at 72. But, for sure, there is a beginning to everything. Although I was attracted to the idea of writing — seriously meaningful writing — in high school, I knew I was not ready and wouldn’t be until I had something to write about. At 72, my beloved muse/wifemate, Barbara, said, ‘You know enough. Write!’ And, I did.
Moonstruck is one of my favorite movies of all time! I love the play back and forth where Loretta calls Ronnie a wolf. Having an Italian family made the characters that much more real for me.
I have a sister in Hollywood and she’s been at it for over a decade with some success, but her experience has been exactly like the quote you shared: “it is the only town where you can die of encouragement”. I may take my turn at a screenplay one day, but for now, I’m all novel writing.
Thanks for sharing your story!
I can remember the feeling, the circumstances, and could dig out the actual date if I needed to. Approx. 1995.
I had always planned to write – when I retired from full-time work as a physicist.
But Life had other plans, and disability ‘retired’ me far before I was ready. So instead I ended up homeschooling the kids – and keeping notebooks.
For some reason, before discarding them, I always read the community college courses bulletin – especially the non-credit courses for non-students. The title was perfect: ‘Writing the Mystery.’ The description claimed the course – 8. 3-hour evening sessions – would provide a toolkit, everything you need to know about plotting and writing a mystery novel.
I desperately needed to do something adult – so, leaving the spousal unit in charge of the kids, I went back to school.
Mary Elizabeth told us we were grownups, and were not obliged to do homework, etc., but that if we did, we would end the course with all the basics, a plot, a set of characters, and a draft of the first chapter, and that she would comment on our work and help us improve it.
A year or so after that I had my first mystery finished. It got good rejections, requests for ‘your next work.’
The work in progress is far more ambitious, and is not a mystery, but I still remember that evening class as my starting point – fondly.
“…I have to try, because I want to make people feel the way I feel right now.”
That’s exactly how I felt. Mine simmered for a lot of years. Like Alex, I first identified that I wanted to write something meaningful in school. But I didn’t take myself seriously enough then. The work that inspired my epiphany was The Lord of the Rings. Me and a couple hundred other geeks, right? I soon realized that there were hundreds of volumes of derivative Tolkienesque drivel out there. I didn’t want mine to be among them.
But the thing kept haunting me. I was even drawn to work in a pizza joint just out of high school called Bilbo’s Pizza-in-a-Pan. It was the 70s, and the place had a counter-culture vibe—lots of alfalfa sprouts and the first whole-wheat crust I’d ever encountered. The names of their 30 sandwiches were all from LOTR (my favorite was the Old Fatty Lumpkin). There were murals painted on all the walls. Parents and kids alike would come in and point at the characters and exchange trivia. The books had obviously had a similar effect on a lot of others. There was magic there. In the back of my mind, I still wanted to figure it out–to capture it. But I still knew I didn’t have the formula (or maybe I was still afraid to try).
Then came the movies. I reread the trilogy after going to see Fellowship of the Ring. I began to realize that the magic was not so much in the world-building, or the mythical races, or the two complete forms of Elvish that Tolkien created. All of that goes a long way toward making it the genius that people are still willing to name a whole menu of sandwiches after. But the magic was in the characters–their willingness to sacrifice, for each other and for the greater good. I realized I didn’t need to write new languages or create new races. I just needed to figure out characters.
A lot of other stuff magically happened in my life while this new epiphany crystalized for me. And a lot of other reading helped inform my new take. But realizing that the magic resides in the characters was a relief. I know I’m no Tolkien, and that’s a relief, too. My realization gave me permission to try.
Thanks for a great post!
“I see…said the vampire thoughtfully, and slowly he walked across the room to the window.”- Interview With the Vampire
I remember reading those opening words, feeling the chill of anticipation for a glorious, fascinating and dreadful story to come… I think I was 13. I knew I was so totally going to write stories like this, too.
I’m the second child of three in my family. When I was around four or five, I was always trying to emulate my sister; mostly out of jealousy, partially out of fondness. She took up writing. I decided I wanted to write, too, and soon I wrote more than she did. All I would think about was my writing. I devoured books and painstakingly learned to type.
It stuck. I can honestly say the best thing that ever happened to me was being jealous of my sister.
Ah, Moonstruck – the movie that taught me so much about writing dialog! Cher had some amazing lines, from her hopelessly blunt “Snap out of it!” to her plaintive “Ma, I love him awful.” GREAT stuff, and this a great topic.
My own plunge into writing was inspired not by another piece of writing, but by the act of another writer. In the late 90’s, good friend of mine got laid off from his job with a telecom company when the tech bubble burst. His reaction surprised me. Instead of being upset, he was both pragmatic and ambitious. He told me he’d gotten a good severance package, and was intending to live off that money while he took some time off to write the novel he’d always wanted to write.
That was the real light bulb moment for me, making me ask myself:
“I wonder if I could do that?”
And the rest is history. Thanks for bringing up such a powerful and inspiring topic!
My moment came after reading a passage in ‘Tender is the Night’ and being transported to the shores of a lake in another land, and into another person’s soul. I remember saying then and there that I wanted to know how to do that. I’ll admit I figured you had to be a little nuts to pull it off, but I know better now. You have to learn the craft. Thanks for a wonderful post!
Wonderful, inspiring post. My “revelation” was only last year… I’d been a non-fiction editor for years but wanted to move into editing novels (which I have since done.) I started studying the craft and a friend said to me, “If you really want to understand the challenges a novel writer faces, you ought to try writing one yourself.”
Hmmm, I thought, having never had a story idea in my life or even written a short story. I sat down that day and got started, pantsing my way through my first novel.
I’m now halfway through my second novel and on the hunt for an agent for the first one…
Jim, You know very well the day I decided to become a writer–at least, a writer of fiction–because you were there.
I’d come to a writers conference hoping to learn enough to share my thoughts after the death of my first wife, and after massive disappointment from my first class, the woman with whose love had blessed me suggested I go to class with her. I did, and a guy named James Scott Bell so inspired me that I not only wrote that non-fiction book, published as The Tender Scar, but started writing fiction.
You preached persistence, and I persisted for four years, four novels that garnered forty rejections, until I had a fiction contract. More followed.
Thanks, Jim–on behalf of myself and many, many others whom you’ve helped along that road.
Thanks, Doc Mabry….and everyone. It’s great hearing all these stories!
For me it was when my friend died of cancer and another friend was diagnosed. I thought, what am I waiting for? I’d been writing my whole life, but hadn’t pursued my publishing dreams in many years. I began that day and within three years I signed a four book deal with HarperCollins. No one is going to discover the manuscripts we keep in our heads of hard drives. We will die as readers if we don’t live as writers!
It’s so nice to hear other people have tried to quit writing and been called back. I quit writing in the 90’s when one of my screenplay concepts got stolen and sold as a treatment. I went through the whole sour grapes scenario and swore off writing, got my teaching credential, and started teaching high school chemistry. Thirteen years later, one of my students and I were “what if-ing” about parallel universes and came up with a great story idea. I would have disregarded it altogether except this student pestered me endlessly about writing it. So, it began again, and I’m happy he gave that passion for writing back to me.
Mr. Bell, as always, you generate encouragement like the sun generates heat. I think many of us suffer the same complex: we don’t realize we’re different while we’re young. It was sometime during my 30s when I understood there was something about me not quite right. I saw the world differently. I thought differently, and that translated to what I wrote. Like you, I’ll watch a movie and just get blown away by a single line that seems to slip by everyone else (recently, while watching Gravity with my wife, Clooney says “I may live or die, either way it’s been a helluva ride.” I almost yelled, “That’s it! That’s the theme stated!” My wife, bless her soul, suffers through these things.) After ten years of on-again off-again writing, things seem to be clicking now. I’m really learning, not just reading the how-to manuals. Thanks to you and awesome websites like this, writers can now learn the craft without ever leaving their recliners. Thanks for a great post and another huge dose of “yes we can.”
I had written the usual book reports and term papers in school, usually to good reviews from my teachers and other students. My tenth-grade English teacher wrote in my yearbook: “If within my reading lifetime, I don’t ‘see you in print,’ I’ll be disappointed. “At the encouragement of my twelfth-grade English teacher, I wrote a short story for some contest she wanted me to enter, but we never heard back from them (pointed comment suppressed here). The next clue I might be a writer came when I wrote my first paper on some research I was doing at Oak Ridge National Lab. Everything that went out the door there had to edited, to ensure it met the lab’s high standards (we had a reputation to protect). I was embarrassed by the heavy edits I received. It was clear I couldn’t put two words together without violating four rules of grammar. That’s when I became obsessed with writing well (my library today is filled with books on style, grammar, punctuation and word usage). My technical writing at Oak Ridge and later at Lockheed required very little editing after that first paper. But the first I knew that I wanted to write novels came when I read The Hunt For Red October by Robert Ludlum. Here was a guy who was an insurance salesman? Who got everything he knew about technology and the military by sitting in bars talking to servicemen? And he’s making a living writing stories about this stuff? And he can’t even write that well? That’s when I knew I was going to write thrillers. I just didn’t know it was going to take so long to learn the craft.
Wow. Two typos and a Robert Ludlum when I meant to say Tom Clancy. Goes to show even the most obsessed writer still needs a good editor (-:
I was looking through the various comments to your entertaining moment of truth. The 72-year old gentleman struck a chord with me. I believe this last month has been a revelation to me. I entered NaNoMoWri. I have never written a story in my life, but I have wonderful experiences that a writer would have to research a lot to get the same thing that in reality I experienced.
I’ve toyed these last eight years with the idea that I wanted to write a book, but I knew I wasn’t ready. Life got in the way for about 24 years and during that time I didn’t have any time to enjoy reading a book. I cannot imagine how I was able to survive without reading. Ten years ago I was in a point in my life that I was free from outside work and the pressure of a career. So I read any book that I could get my hands on. Luckily, we had moved into the age of technology and the internet. I downloaded digital books from a library here in southern California, (where I previous resided). I was reading them in Tripoli, Lebanon. Some books I would read three or four times. Especially the ones that I enjoyed reading and enjoyed their voice.
So this month of writing, at 65k words presently has been an eye opener on many fronts. I would call it my moment of truth. I want to be a writer. The journey is so worth the effort. And the wonderful world of characters and settings provide almost all the satisfaction one needs. However, any writer would also like to see people read a story and relate to it on some level.
Thanks for your nice post.
I’m ever do glad you did, Jim, because you’ve taught me more than anyone else!
More great stories, and kind words. Thanks again to the great WU community.
One Sunday years ago Janet Daily who at that time was the leading light of romances was interviewed in the paper. She was writing a book a month and I quickly figured out that she had made nearly two million dollars since she started(actually not nearly that much), and I said that’s for me! On Monday I bought a ream of typing paper, went to the library and checked out a dozen books to learn the structure, sat down at the typewriter and began.
Thank you for such an inspiring article, Mr. Bell. I follow your blog and TKZ as well. i appreciate all the wonderful writing tips. You can count me as another who started writing in college but quit to get a “real job.” At least that was my excuse. This was back in the 80’s and early 90’s. I was still considered an older student, but I loved the college experience. I didn’t get to finish, but while there, I learned a lot about writing short stories, but nothing about the lack of courage to actually submit one. I didn’t write again for over 30 years. I found myself with a computer and lots of time on my hands due to an early retirement. My roommate told me to get to writing. She said ever since she’s known me, I have talked about it. No more excuses. Do it! So, I started reading and studying. I am starting over. Now, there is the self-publishing option that wasn’t available back then. I was still reading, not writing. Finally, I had an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. A group that I belong to asked for interested parties to be included in a holiday anthology. I said I’d do it. I wrote a short story and will be published for the first time ever, this weekend! :) My Goodreads profile was upgraded to an author page. So, I am on my way. Writing a novel is much more difficult than a short story. I am still reading on that. I have two of your books, Plot and Structure and Conflict and Suspense. I look forward to reading both. I really need help with structure, so I will start there. I have known that I wanted to write mysteries since opening the first Agatha Christie book. I loved to read the old Nancy Drew growing up, but I never considered writing until the Christie books. I had that same feeling, I wanted my reader to say, “Wow, how did she do that? I never even suspected him or her, but all the clues we right there!” I hope to get there someday. Thanks again for your help.
Thank you for that wonderful story … and now I’m thinking, I must watch Moonstruck with my husband again :) I especially loved how methodically you studied, kept notes.
I wanted to be just like AJ Cronin when I read his autobiography: Adventures in Two Worlds. I was 12 at the time. Science and medicine loomed at the forefront. Years later, as a postdoc at Purdue, I picked up Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. Mistry’s book unlocked so many things for me, I had to write. Anne gave me permission to write like poo. So I began writing in a half-used biochem notebook.
When my first child arrived, I quit working to stay home. Oh, I wrote, but not systematically. While pregnant with my second, I took a writing class and I studied like I was going to get my PhD. Loved the class (still have all my notes), loved writing, loved having some structure. It’s been a dozen years now and I love my writing and family life. Along the way, I discovered your writing books, so you have played a big part in educating me. Gratias!
I love what you said to your wife after you saw Moonstruck. I too have to keep trying …. I want to write to help people to feel inspired. Thanks for sharing your story…very encouraging:) I’ve just finished my 1st Historical Suspense, working with a professional editor I indie-published it… But was so discouraged when I didn’t sell very many. I stopped working on book #2 in the 3 book series for a few months now… But your post inspired me … I’m going to try again. Thank you for all your help to so many writers:)
Thank you for sharing your author journey with me. I’ve always written but a couple of years ago I had a ‘I have to write’ moments too. And one of the craft books I read was yours. It was extremely helpful. And now day after day I getting closer to my dream.
Thank you for sharing your author journey with me. I’ve always written but a couple of years ago I had a ‘I have to write’ moments too. And one of the craft books I read was yours. It was extremely helpful. And now, day after day, I’m getting closer to my dream.
My mother wrote articles for a newspaper when I was a little girl. This was before word processors or computers, and I loved hearing the tap-tap-tapping of her typewriter keys. I was always so excited to see her words in the newspaper and I knew I wanted to be a writer, too.
I didn’t pursue it, though, until several years ago when a television series affected me in so many ways and on so many different levels that it became my greatest desire to write something that would do for others what that show did for me. I am working on that now!
By the way, I recently read your book on Conflict and Suspense and it is so good! The best I’ve ever read. I keep it with me at all times!
I love stories with quirky characters and happy endings – thanks for sharing yours, James!
The day I decided to be a writer was the day I discovered the ‘delete’ key on my computer.
See, I had an idea, two years before I sat down that day. But who was I to write a novel? Authors were WAY smarter than I. I’d just embarrass myself…
So there I sat, until that day when I noticed that key, and it hit me.
Delete = Erase.
I could write the book, get the damned thing out of my head, then hit delete, and I would never be exposed to people’s derision of my drivel.
That was 15 years ago. This was my debut year, and that book was released in August. I’ve sold 7 total so far.
If you don’t quit, it will happen. I’m proof.
Inspiring! Two great movies about reaching for the stars!
Like every other child, I loved make-believe and stories. I simply never quit. By age six, I was improvising theater shows with hardboiled eggs as actors on a cardboard box stage. (My family applauded in the right places.) Growing up, I was encouraged to tell stories (and lies). I had to be pried out of books. My mom worked at small town newspapers and I got to tag along, playing with type and layout. She got me an old Underwood for Christmas when I was ten. I was a staff writer at ages 15 and 16 at a local underground newspaper. I thought I was cool beans and knew it all.
At 17, I discovered I had a teeny, tiny bit more to learn. I took my first creative writing class in college. The teacher was kind and encouraging, but insisted that I learn the tools of my trade: spelling, punctuation, grammar, and typing (small details I had missed in my early career; I chucked my pride and took remedial spelling). He introduced me to world literature: Tolstoy, Flaubert, Sartre, Shaw, Lessing, with the idea that they were models for writers. He gave me vocabulary like “omniscience” and “onomatopoeia.” (Bless you, Leroy Wright, my first true writing teacher.)
Fast forward forty-some years. I’ve made a living with these skills. Years ago I left a marriage in part because my husband insisted that I quit “that stupid writing crap.” (No contest.) I have my requisite novels in a drawer, and more on the desk in front of me. I’ve gotten through many a heartbreak and hard time by thinking “this is all material” and writing it up as a story. I now help others with their creative ambitions. When I die, my dears, bury me in a cardboard box decorated like a stage.
P.S.: The Raymond Carver vignette is priceless. I’ve been in those workshops!
the day I decided to be a writer… I’m not sure if there was definite moment that fits that specifically… but the day when I wrote my first short story… December 8, 1999, after having a vivid dream the night before… that led to a series of fanfiction, which led to more fanfiction, which led me to high school when I started taking inspiration with everyday life, TV and movies 8-)
My moment was less of a 2 X 4 to the head that yours sounds like. I was about 7 years old. I just finished reading Carrie (that should tell you a lot right there, a seven-year old reading Carrie) when I thought,
I can do that. I can do better than that.
Well, that hasn’t happened. I mean, I’ve done it, and I’ve been published, but I haven’t done it better than Stephen King.
Yet.
:-)
It happened twice.
I read hundreds of novels before lighting struck. I was in 7th grade, and had just finished Kurt Vonnegut’s Sirens of Titan. I published my first sci-fi yarn at age 19, but then life got in the way– divorces, high stress jobs kids going of the skids, you name it.
Then, in 2003, I had the good fortune of getting throne off the hamster wheel. I crashed my motorcycle,got run over by an oncoming truck and was set on fire. Six months passed before I had enough skin regrown on my finger tips to type, but I started tying and I haven’t stopped.
Like you, Jim, I read piles of craft books, studied intensely, took your class and others, and worked while working as a stringer for practical experience. I’ve written two novels and 40 short stories since 2003, none published yet. Twice struck I will not stop, ever.
“Twice struck I will not stop, ever.”
Bravo.
Thank you for reminding me of a truly special movie. The use of music was amazing. It was the first time I’d heard Puccini. OMG.
Sublime.
I decided to become a writer when I was a really ignorant teenager. After hating the ending of a book I’d read, (no I’m not going to say which one) I thought: I can do better. (Such arrogance. Shudder.)
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When I was in Jr. High and wrote constantly, a well-meaning adult told me not to bother. I hadn’t lived enough life to have anything interesting to day. Unfortunately, I believed it. I still wrote, every day, for decades. Fast forward to 2007 and a near-fatal illness. During my recovery (and gratitude for surviving it), I read a wonderful book called Creating a Life Worth Living. I always knew I was meant to write. Nearly losing the chance made me grab it by the tail. I’ve never looked back and have five completed novels to date and one in draft. Hoping to have one out in the spring. :)
correction: interesting to SAY, not day.
I just read this post today and I realize my response is untimely, but I felt compelled to tell you how much your words resonated! I have had a love of books and writing as long as I can remember, and I chose to always take the “safe” bet. But writing kept knocking – and about two years ago I gave in and started writing. I have a blog with a small following, and haven’t even attempted to get published (I know I still have a lot of growing to do) but I write every day. I write blogs and poems and short stories, and one day, when I’m ready, I WILL be published. So thanks for putting yourself out there and providing a little inspiration – it’s great to know that the goal can be reached, however long it takes.