Beginnings Blogfest

L.G. Keltner is coming up on her one year blogging anniversary and, to celebrate, she's hosting a blogfest (wooohooo!!!) centering around...well...beginnings. How did 'such and such' get their start...things like that.

In my case, I'd like to talk about how I got started writing.

Waaaay back, when I was just a kid, I used to draw. A lot. Now, these weren't necessarily good drawings...mainly superheroes and stuff...but I really loved doing it. The walls of my room used to be covered with my own "originals".

 I also liked to read. A lot. In fact, family legend has it that I taught myself to read before I entered Kindergarten by watching Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. My mom loves to tell the tale of how my teacher asked her what sort of 'program' she was using with me and she just laughed saying they had "bought me some books".

Both of those things, I think, sparked my imagination and set me on the path of wanting to create. Whether it be in the form of images or words, I've always liked 'telling tales'.

In high school, I took a creative writing course that most took as an 'easy credit'. I took the class seriously, much to the joy of the teacher, and was encouraged by his comments and critiques. I easily sailed through the class and kept writing in my spare time. Again, not much of note and I don't really remember any of the stories...but I was writing.

When I graduated high school, my graduation presents were

• A suit (for job interviews)
• An electric typewriter, with correction capabilities...no more white out...yay!! (for typing up resumes)

As you can probably tell, my parents were very "Go out into the 'real' world and get a good job!" oriented.

I wore the suit a few times, but really used the typewriter. To tell stories.

I used to have an old shirt gift box that served as my 'filing cabinet' for all my tales, but was thrown out in one of my many moves.

In college I randomly took an "Intro to Magazine Writing" course, the professor having been an editor at the Cincinnati Enquirer. I remember one night (it was a night course...get your mind out of the gutter), she stopped me as I was turning in a quiz.

"Hey, just curious, what's your major?"

"I'm not sure yet....I haven't decided."

"Have you ever thought of journalism? You have a unique writing style."

"Umm...no, I haven't...but I'll give it some thought."

After some thought, I figured it might be something I'd like to pursue, so I declared my major in Journalism. I minored in eating lunch in the cafe'.....they had some goooood food on campus.

Though I never graduated college, I always enjoyed the courses and found the whole process of writing/Journalism very interesting. After a while, though, I became a bit jaded with Journalism, dropped out of college and went to work in 'the real world'.

I'd still write every now and again, when something would spark my imagination, but never really thought of doing much with it until the past few years. Again, it's like something clicked and I wanted to find my voice and put it out there.

Out in the 'real world'.

So that's the exciting tale of how I got started putting words on paper and hoping they'd at least make sense, if not entertain.

Thanks L.G. for hosting this great blogfest idea :)