I started writing the open for my book today so I thought I might share a two part essay I wrote for another blog. I hope you enjoy it.
I Heart Writing!
Most people know writing can be very therapeutic. It is a great way to vent, to be creative and to examine yourself and the world around you. For me this has always been the best way for me to express myself. I can make sense of the jumble of thoughts in my head, articulate my dreams and fantasies, and share some of the useless information and random facts that takes up so much space in my head. I can honestly say it has saved me.
I learned to read and write when I was four. I started out writing short stories and plays. I learned cursive before I started the first grade. I remember my mother arguing with my first grade teacher about this. My mother told her I had learned to write in cursive over the summer. The teacher then questioned my actual comprehension and implied that was merely drawing the letters I had seen on the cover of my writing tablet. My mother became upset, took my tablet, wrote three simple sentences and had me read them to the teacher. My first grade teacher was never very fond of me.
Due to the anxiety that awkward situation I hated to read and write in class. I would go home and write. I filled up mountains of writing tablets at home but did poorly writing in school. I wrote about everything from my little brother to a rewrite of the bible. I was raised Catholic and was certain, at six years old, I was going to hell. I had snuck one too many cookies, hit my brother, and lied to my dad. I was surely damned. I decided to change the things in the bible that could be applied to my indiscretions and then my soul would surely be saved. This resulted in my first trip to the principal’s office (but not the last.)
Unlike my first grade teacher my second grade teacher loved that I could articulate so well on paper although I was anxious and shy in school. I wrote day and night. In fifth grade, my first year in public school, teachers started submitting my work in local and regional writing competitions and I started winning. I actually continued to win writing competitions through my junior year in high school. I started my first “novel” when I was in the ninth grade with my best friend Briana. We finished our epic about high school and romance in the tenth grade. (I have no idea happened to that manuscript?) I started college level writing courses the summer after my ninth grade year. I continued to write. I resided predominately in my imagination and not very grounded in the real world.
At seventeen I was pulled back into reality where I was forced to live for the next three years. I regard this period as one of the most eventful and the unhappiest of my life. At twenty-one I started to write again. I didn’t write a lot but I was writing and there was a noticeable change in my voice and mindset. At the age of twenty-four I attempted to write my first screenplay at the urging of another close friend. I began reading everything I could about production, the creative process and the film business. For the first time I was certain what I wanted. I spent the next five years reading and writing every waking hour of the day. I was exhausted but very happy.
My Big Break . . .
