What Got You Into This Writing Gig?

Posted on by

I wasn’t one of those kids who wrote stories in the fourth grade that entertained her classmates. I was too busy reading The Black Stallion and Heidi. No, I began my writing journey at the age of 35, and probably wouldn’t have then, except for one thing. This man came to live in my head.

What had happened was…I couldn’t sleep. Night after night I stared at the ceiling, counting sheep. Then one night, a man suddenly appeared in my vision. He stood at a window with smoke billowing in the background. For a minute, he didn’t say anything, then he turned to me and said, “My life wasn’t supposed to turn out like this.”

Fom then on, when I couldn’t sleep, I told myself stories about what happened to derail his life. Well, he went away and these other people came to live in my head, and they wouldn’t leave until I wrote down their stories on a Hermes portable typewriter. I even thought the first story I wrote was good enough to be published and sent it off to Woman’s World Magazine along with an SASE (Self-addressed Stamp Envelope for those of you too young to remember what the acronym stands for).

The writer’s guidelines specified 2500 words for their Mini-mystery, so of course I sent 4,500 words. The editor, Nancy McCarthy, bless her heart, loved the story and cut it to the required 2,500 words. Don’t.Do.That. Ever! Read the guidelines and send what the publisher asks for. I got lucky. By rights, she should have popped those typed words into the SASE and sent it back to me. But she didn’t, and that gave me enough confidence to keep going. Thirty-plus years later in 2014, my first novel was released–I never said writing was for the faint of heart. But next September my 20th book will release.

Okay, that’s my story of how I started writing. What’s yours, TKZers?

13 thoughts on “What Got You Into This Writing Gig?”

  1. That is so cool! I would love to have your confidence. It’s a gift, for sure.

    For as long as I can remember, I have had stories in my head. These people are real (to me) and often surprise me with what they’re doing. I didn’t realize that not everyone had this until my sister asked me where I got my ideas. I said, “You know, the stories in your head.” She said, “Becky, I don’t have stories in my head.” It made me wonder what non-writers think about, because I can’t imagine not having my “friends” all the time.

  2. I grew up loving stories – reading them and writing them. I didn’t write my one novel until 2005. I was homeschooling my kids at the time and read a book called “The Writer’s Jungle.” It said the best way to teach your kids to write was to write something yourself. It also mentioned the book “No Plot. No Problem.” That started my wild ride through NaNoWriMo, and I ended up with 53,000 words in 17 days. Over the course of the next two years, I wrote and re-wrote like crazy and finally had a “romantasy” for me and my kids to read. I’ve been writing for myself ever since.

  3. What got you into this writing gig?
    —
    I always knew I would write. It was the natural progression to the omnivorous and voracious reading I did, much of it in the crime and mystery genres.

    So when the kids were old enough that their father could handle three for a while, I took an evening adult course at my local community college called, “Writing the Mystery”, taught by Mary Elizabeth Allen, who promised those of us who cared to do the homework that we’d end the six weeks with a story sketched out, a cast of characters, and a first chapter. And that she’d read our writing and comment in class.

    Then I sat down, and used my whole life to that point to write a story about a young Mexican-American immigrant who had joined the military and become an MP, got an engineering degree, married a gringo working on his physics PhD, and got herself a job as a Security Officer at his university while waiting for him to finish.

    And then there was a death at the physics department connected to a large experimental machine, and we were off! ‘Confined Energy Kills’ meet your new author!

    I finished the first book in a planned series, submitted everywhere to some interest but mostly, ‘Send us your next thing,’ and was getting progressively more frustrated when a bunch of ideas coalesced in June of 2000 into what is now Pride’s Children, my mainstream trilogy, and the rest is history. I’m working on the final volume, the reviews have been few but stellar, and one of these days I’ll be able to pour my energy into the marketing side.

    I guess I was meant to be a writer, because I haven’t stopped yet.

  4. Wow! Two TKZs today…what fun!

    I wrote a play in 2013, which was well-received. Discovered I like making stuff up (without getting in trouble for it) and, well, now you know the rest of the story!

    • I don’t think there were supposed to be 2, Deb, but there you go. lol I think I got my time mixed up…I’m glad you enjoyed it…and glad you found a way to make up stuff without getting into trouble.

  5. Love it, Pat! Thirty-five years ago, I wrote a children’s story to make a point to my boyfriend. The Eagles song Desperado sums up the point I was making. When he came home late that night, he read the story, woke me, and said, “Am I Vinny the squirrel?” Point made! That’s when I learned the power of stories. We went on to write a dozen more children stories together.

Comments are closed.