Writing: Real job or Imaginary?

Saying you always wanted to be a writer seems like it’s synonomous with actually being a writer.  I can probably count on one hand how many people I know who are writers who kinda fell into it, instead of it being a passion from an early age.

For me, I honestly don’t know when I had that magical that’s-what-I want-to-be-when-I grow-up moment, but it was pretty young.  I always enjoyed the times in school where we were allowed to make up stories and write them down.  I even think my parents still have the books, plays, and poems. But it wasn’t until sixth grade, when my teacher loved a story I’d written for an assignment so much that she entered it into a contest and it won that I even thought about it being a profession.

I’ll always remember this teacher, unfortunately I can’t remember her name, because not only did she take the time to send that short story off to that contest, but then she took time after school to help me write better.  She encouraged me in a way no teacher—or person--had before or since. 

She even helped me write a letter to Jonathan Brandis asking if he’d let me do an autogiography on him!  Of course, I never got a reply back, but the fact that as silly as that was, she didn’t laugh and researched on her own time, what to write and who to contact to see if some silly little starry eyed redheaded 6^th grader could become his biographer is something I’ll never forget and I’ll always be grateful for.

But my parents were insistent that I focused on getting a “real” job. That is was okay to write as a hobby, but being a writer wasn’t something you did for a job.   And so, that’s what I did. I changed my choice of “real” jobs several hundred times (I wanted to be a teacher, a doctor, a marine biologist, etc.   I think I even wanted to be a cowboy astronaut ballerina at some point in there.  LOL.  Sadly there is no call for cowboy astronaut ballerinas.), but while I secretly dreamed of being a writer, I was a good girl and focused my studies on becoming a marine biologist.

I never did become a marine biologist and ended u doing a handful of different jobs, but I never felt like it was the “right one.”  It wasn’t until a little over two years ago—when I was worried to death over my youngest’s illness--that I realized life was too short for could’ve, should’ve would’ves and regrets.  So, I spent every free minute writing (which wasn’t much considering I have a special needs kid—she has Systemic JRA)  and I found what had been missing.  Writing felt right, like no other “real job” had.

And I’ve decided that if it isn’t a “real job” than I don’t want a real one.  Imaginary works just fine for me, especially since I write fiction.  :P

 

 

 

J.A. Souders is the author of RENEGADE a YA dystopian that takes place in an underwater utopian society, coming Fall 2012 from Tor Teen.  For more information visit her blog or website.

She also secretly regrets never pursuing a degree in cowboy astronaut ballerina-ing. 

Will you grow up to be a writer?

I knew I wanted to be a writer from at least fifth or sixth grade on, but sometimes it seemed inevitable that I should take that path. My parents had two daughters. They named my older sister Charlotte and then unwittingly (they claim) proceeded to dub me Emily. 

Do you know what people of a certain age say when they meet two sweet little girls named Charlotte and Emily? Every single time, they ask: "Are you going to grow up to be writers?" 

I didn't get the joke for the longest time, and it was even more confusing when I explained our name-pairing was an accident, so finally I learned to simply smile and give a shy, "Maybe." Then one day I discovered an old elegant hardbound set on my parents' bookshelf of JANE EYRE and WUTHERING HEIGHTS by these two girls, Charlotte and Emily Bronte. I ran to my parents like, "Did you know these two girls with OUR names wrote some books?" I think the reaction I got was similar to the day I asked my dad if he'd heard of a band called The Beatles. 

I was probably around nine years old when this went down. I sat and tried to read JANE EYRE, probably because the pictures on the cover were of little school girls and not some gross kissy-face couple under a tree. I distinctly remember that all the school girls had their eyes closed, but ONE girl's eyes were open. This haunted me for years, and I never did read past the time Jane suffered at Lowood School. 

Years later, in college, I read WUTHERING HEIGHTS in an English Lit class. Thankfully, I had a professor with a deep understanding of this book, and it came alive for me. I finally finished reading JANE EYRE soon afterward and loved it even more. Sibling rivalry still boiled in my blood though, and I was annoyed that EMILY hadn't written the book I loved more. Why did Charlotte have to write it? 

My sister and I eventually learned to like each other (for the most part). But I doubt I actually became a writer because of my parents' choice in names (if I had been a boy, I was going to be Ross...yeah). But you know, if you want a kid to consider writing, it doesn't hurt to have people asking at every turn, "Are you going to grow up to be writers?" 

I'm still trying to get Charlotte to give it a go. ;) 

Emily Hainsworth is the author of THROUGH TO YOU, (Fall 2012 Balzer+Bray / HarperCollins), a sci-fi novel about a seventeen-year-old boy grieving for his dead girlfriend until he discovers she's still alive in a parallel reality--one where he's the one who died. For more information, visit her website.

How I Ended up a "Writer"

When I was a kid, my goal never was to become a writer. I liked to write stories and especially draw accompanying pictures in elementary school, but I didn't ever say writer when someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.

I wanted to be a surgeon, even though the sight of blood made me faint. I wanted to be a veterinarian at a zoo, even though, again, there was that whole blood problem, not to mention all the schooling. I wanted to be a flight attendant so I could travel the world for free. I even wanted to be a singer, never mind that I was tone deaf.

But I came from an abusive home. The environment creates a certain need for escapism. As a kid I was constantly daydreaming and envisioning my life as something different than it was. I watched movies and read books and imagined myself in that world as the heroine of my own adventure.

I also created a persona for who I was outside my house. Which means, I lied a lot. Like a lot. Before I even knew how awful it was. And my lies were elaborate with intricate details and safeguards. I told my kindergarten teacher my cat had eight kittens. (My family had a dog who was spayed). I described each kitten in major detail, gave each of them names, drew pictures of them for weeks, and when a parent of a fellow student asked if they could buy one of the kittens from my family, I told them we'd already promised them to people in our family.

Then of course, I grew up and got caught in a few lies and suffered the punishments, and realized that maybe wasn't the best way to go about life.

And I had an English teacher who saved me. Her name was Mrs. Hall, and she loved books with a ferocity that couldn't be anything but contagious. Every time she spoke, in class, in the hallway, to me or to someone else, I was captivated by how passionate she was. I wanted to be just like her.

So I read everything she recommended. I showed up at her classroom every day after school, even when she wasn't my teacher anymore. We discussed hundreds of books--the characters, the worlds, the language, the authors. Everything. 

She asked to read my stories, so I wrote them down. 

And she listened.

That encouragement drove me through high school, and writing itself became a staple in my life, something I did every time I had a free moment whether it was on my computer, in a notebook, on the back of a receipt or on a napkin. 

I tried to write the Great American Novel for a while, and then I read Elizabeth Haydon's Symphony of Ages series. The characters and world became so alive and so inspiring that I realized I had it all wrong. Most of the stories I loved most (excluding Gatsby) were all fantasy or science fiction.

So I changed my focus, and I embraced the inner science fiction/fantasy geek inside me and somewhere along the line, I wrote Unraveling. Then Brooks Sherman and Janet Reid and a lot of other people helped make things happen.

***

Liz Norris briefly taught high school English and history before trading the southern California beaches and sunshine for Manhattan's recent snowpocalyptic winter. She harbors dangerous addictions to guacamole, red velvet cupcakes, sushi, and Argo Tea, fortunately not all together. Her first novel, UNRAVELING (Balzer+Bray April 2012), is the story of one girl’s fight to save her family, her world, and the one boy she never saw coming.

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2 Keys Habits to Becoming A Writer

In my early twenties, a friend gave me the book ‘Becoming a Writer’ by Dorothea Brande. I’d always known I wanted to write. I’d always written scripts and plays and poetry. For me writing was my ticket to a parallel universe that I had far more control over and where anything could happen. But it wasn’t until I read Brande’s book that I really felt like I’d started on the path to Becoming A Writer, and established two writing habits that have helped me achieve my writing goals and that I still implement today.

Writing Habit number One:

There’s a passage early on in the book where Brande talks about moving Toward Effortless Writing; she says, ‘The best way to do this is to rise half an hour, or a full hour, earlier than you customarily rise. Just as soon as you can – and without talking, without reading the morning’s paper, without picking up the book you laid aside the night before – begin to write.’

At the time, I often wrote late in the evening, or on days off work when I felt inspired. I wasn’t at all used to writing like this. I’d turn up at the kitchen table bleary-eyed (sometimes I had to get up at 5.30am to fit in half an hour before leaving for work) and wrote an awful lot of rubbish – dreams, snippets of conversations, everything that was wrong with my life, half-cooked ideas, the beginnings of novels, anything that popped into my head. But after a while it grew easier and more productive, and pretty soon I fell in love with writing first thing every morning. Early morning became and has remained my favourite time to write. Much of my debut novel ‘The Glimpse’ was written between 5.30 and 7.30am before my very young kids took over my day.

The second big step in Brande’s ‘Becoming a Writer’ is to teach yourself to write at any given moment of the day. She calls it Writing on Schedule:

‘After you have dressed, sit down for a moment by yourself and go over the day before you…. Sketch out for yourself enough of a program to know when you will have a few moments to yourself…. Decide for yourself that you will take that time for writing; for you are going to write in it…

Now this is very important, and can hardly be emphasized too strongly: you have decided to write at four o’clock and at four o’clock write you must!'

This exercise was incredibly beneficial and I'd recommend it to any who needs to write in small snatches because of their job or kids. I actually kept doing these exercises on and off for a couple of years and eventually found that not only had I acquired the invaluable skill of being able to sit down and jump back into my story at any time of the day, (dictated many years later by nap time), but also the ability to keep progressing with a story, even when I didn't feel inspired or in the mood.

Now I have a daily writing schedule which includes morning writing seven days a week. From time to time I sit down and really struggle to get into whatever I’m working on. On these mornings I go off and do something else. It averages out to about 1 day a week off and six mornings writing.

Claire Merle is the debut author of 'The Glimpse', a heart- pounding dystopian thriller where 'Romeo & Juliet' meets 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's nest.'

Click here: goodreads to add The Glimpse to your goodreads wishlist.