Who was one of your first encouragers on your writing journey?
10 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Encouragement”
My first critique group, the Pregnant Pigs in Orlando, FL.
I was just having fun, but they insisted I take my writing further.
In addition to my wife and son, the instructor of my adult ed class on novel writing and the critiques group I found in South Carolina where I spent 7 weeks a few years ago, especially a published thriller author.
I’m going way back–Mrs. Seese in grade school. I will always remember her for being an encourager in my writing.
Sister Grace Edmund and Sister St. Bernard (Really, that was her name. We called her “Woof.”) I’m incredibly grateful to those two women, who encouraged me to go to college and get a degree in journalism when I was in high school. Where I grew up, girls were supposed to marry young and be good wives and mothers. The good sisters realized I was not Mom material, and I am forever grateful to them.
Miss Darlene Parker, my third grade teacher. She encouraged me to write stories and treated me with respect as if I had something worthwhile to say–a completely new and foreign concept to a shy, tongue-tied eight-year-old.
After my novel was published, I tracked her down to thank her for her early influence. She’s in her eighties, retired from 50+ years of teaching including a decade in juvenile detention facilities, working with what she affectionately called her “jailbirds.” She kindly but firmly corrected me when I used the word “kids,” referring to children. “Kids,” she said, “are baby goats.”
Elaeanor Sullivan at Woman’s World, bless her heart. Submission guidelines stated no more than 2500 words. I sent 4500 and she not only read it but bought the story and encouraged me to keep writing.
I’m going out of the norm. The one who encouraged me, we kinda encouraged each other, was my middle school best friend. She wrote too, and so we would share work. No adult in grade school paid much attention to my ability to write, and I only was allowed to take a writing degree in university because I absolutely was not interested in anything else (well, not anything “useful.” I was interested in theatre, but that was an absolute no-no since elementary school.)
Funnily enough, it was my dramatic writing professor in university who first became my champion.
My sister, Andrea Peak, and my fanfiction sisters. Andrea read my first story I wrote for an online forum and declared it worthy, and then when I posted, I was blessed with instant feedback and an invitation to join a group who were writing toward publication in Christian romance!
My Grade Twelve English teacher, Greg Swiatek, was my first encourager. In the last semester of that year, if we had above a certain mark we were allowed to design our own project and skip the class. I wrote three short stories. When I received them back, I was thrilled to see his message. “You’re the best writer I’ve seen this year. Don’t stop writing.” So, I didn’t, but it still took me until retirement to get my first book finished.
My father was the first to encourage me to write. I complained about some reading we were assigned in high school and told him exactly what I didn’t like about it. He just looked at me and said, “If you think you can do better, then quit complaining and do it! ”
That got me started on personal essay. It took another thirty years before I made the jump to novels.
Who was one of your first encouragers on your writing journey? 
My first critique group, the Pregnant Pigs in Orlando, FL.
I was just having fun, but they insisted I take my writing further.
In addition to my wife and son, the instructor of my adult ed class on novel writing and the critiques group I found in South Carolina where I spent 7 weeks a few years ago, especially a published thriller author.
I’m going way back–Mrs. Seese in grade school. I will always remember her for being an encourager in my writing.
Sister Grace Edmund and Sister St. Bernard (Really, that was her name. We called her “Woof.”) I’m incredibly grateful to those two women, who encouraged me to go to college and get a degree in journalism when I was in high school. Where I grew up, girls were supposed to marry young and be good wives and mothers. The good sisters realized I was not Mom material, and I am forever grateful to them.
Miss Darlene Parker, my third grade teacher. She encouraged me to write stories and treated me with respect as if I had something worthwhile to say–a completely new and foreign concept to a shy, tongue-tied eight-year-old.
After my novel was published, I tracked her down to thank her for her early influence. She’s in her eighties, retired from 50+ years of teaching including a decade in juvenile detention facilities, working with what she affectionately called her “jailbirds.” She kindly but firmly corrected me when I used the word “kids,” referring to children. “Kids,” she said, “are baby goats.”
Elaeanor Sullivan at Woman’s World, bless her heart. Submission guidelines stated no more than 2500 words. I sent 4500 and she not only read it but bought the story and encouraged me to keep writing.
I’m going out of the norm. The one who encouraged me, we kinda encouraged each other, was my middle school best friend. She wrote too, and so we would share work. No adult in grade school paid much attention to my ability to write, and I only was allowed to take a writing degree in university because I absolutely was not interested in anything else (well, not anything “useful.” I was interested in theatre, but that was an absolute no-no since elementary school.)
Funnily enough, it was my dramatic writing professor in university who first became my champion.
My sister, Andrea Peak, and my fanfiction sisters. Andrea read my first story I wrote for an online forum and declared it worthy, and then when I posted, I was blessed with instant feedback and an invitation to join a group who were writing toward publication in Christian romance!
My Grade Twelve English teacher, Greg Swiatek, was my first encourager. In the last semester of that year, if we had above a certain mark we were allowed to design our own project and skip the class. I wrote three short stories. When I received them back, I was thrilled to see his message. “You’re the best writer I’ve seen this year. Don’t stop writing.” So, I didn’t, but it still took me until retirement to get my first book finished.
My father was the first to encourage me to write. I complained about some reading we were assigned in high school and told him exactly what I didn’t like about it. He just looked at me and said, “If you think you can do better, then quit complaining and do it! ”
That got me started on personal essay. It took another thirty years before I made the jump to novels.