On Writing & Publishing

Once, I interviewed a woman for a newspaper article I’d been assigned. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that I tried to interview her. Within the first few moments she began to question me about writing. How did I start writing? What did I suggest to someone who wants to write? How do you get the courage to submit a manuscript to a market? How do you live with rejection?

I eventually told her what a tough interview she was that day. She has also become one of my dearest friends and we have plans to attend a writing conference together. One thing that I learned from her is that those new to the writing world are eager to absorb whatever information they can from those who write and are published.

Here I share some thoughts with you. I strongly urge you to also visit the websites listed on my Writing-Related Links page.

• My writing journey.
• What’s on my writer’s bookshelf. (Please ignore the dust.)
• Five tips for the novice.
  
  

My Journey

If you’re seriously interested in writing, you’ve probably read a number of inspirational or "how-to" books. What can I tell you about writing that you haven’t already read?

The answer to that is simple. I can share my story. In many ways it’s similar to my journey into ordained ministry. I tried to ignore that for a long time, too. Then one day I just couldn’t run anymore. It caught me, big time.

In high school, I wrote poetry and some short stories. I don’t know if I had a teenage angst thing going on. Probably. Didn’t most of us pass through that stage? I think kids still do. It’s called hormones.

In 1974, two of my poems were published in my high school literary magazine, the Phoenix. I still remember the first few lines of a poem entitled "I Used to Wonder:"

"I used to often wonder, just how the world began.
And what great unseen being created beast and man."

Actually, I’m amazed that I remember something I wrote 32 years ago when I can’t remember appointments without my calendar, or where I placed the car keys if they aren’t in my purse. My writing and my spiritual journey merged while I sat on our concrete back porch, stargazing and jotting down my thoughts. I still do that.

Unfortunately, I stopped writing anything but research papers by the time I got to college. Maybe, it’s because as a history major I had so many term papers to write. It’s more likely that I passed through a period when I was uncomfortable exposing myself on paper. That’s what writing is. Letting your emotions, your thoughts, your visions, and your dreams flow out of your fingers through the keyboard onto a computer screen or through a pencil onto paper. There you stare at the naked you. It can be pretty frightening. I guess I felt safer writing research papers. You can hide behind assignment and structure. For a while, anyhow.

So for years, I wrote only correspondence, PR materials for my churches, or oral manuscripts for sermons I was to preach. Then in 1987, a creative power transformed my life. With the crashing of ocean waves playing on a tape recorder, I gave birth to my first daughter. My second daughter was born in 1990 while I concentrated on that same cassette tape. I began to realize that there was a creative force within me, fighting to get out, much like the birth of my daughters. And just as I could not stop their births once labor started, neither could I stop the drive to create, the drive to write.

I began to write about my daughters, my beloved spouse, and our pilgrimage into the world of parenting. I wrote "Dads will be dads," to recognize Tom’s unique approach to parenting. It was published in Baby Talk Magazine and eventually Chicken Soup for the Expectant Mother’s Soul.

My bio says that writing is like chocolate except that you don’t consume it, it consumes you. Some say, "Write what you know." I often write what I want to know. And, I’m a very curious person! I plan on being curious for a long time to come. So stay tuned. I’ve only just begun.

More On Writing & Publishing

• Five tips for the novice.
• What’s on my writer’s bookshelf. (Please ignore the dust.)
• Writers Market Info