Romance Weekly

If you just hopped over from the amazing A.S. Fenichel… welcome.

This week, another challenge from the very talented Lyra Parish:

When did you realize you would be a writer? Is it something you always knew or did it come about some other way?

We are what we are. Sometimes, it takes a little time to figure it out, with the world so much in the way.

I started working when I was sixteen. I went to school, too, then college. I got my degree in English Literature and Psychology. And I loved the theatre. So it was there. That seed. The need for reading and drama. But, I had to make a living. Like Walter Mitty, I dreamed of being successful in a string of other pursuits, but … I had to make a living.

I would dabble in writing whenever possible, but it took me years to realize I could work a ‘day job’ and still write.  Yes, it was tiring, but when I first put words to paper, it was also an epiphany. Because I finally realized that we can always make time for the important things in life.

I remember times I was composing stories in my head while I was working, scribbling notes on bits of paper so I wouldn’t forget thoughts. I still do that. Finally, though, I was able to quit my ‘day job’. I have so much more time to write now, but there is also laundry and shopping and cooking and errands. And when I find the day slipping away, I look at the placard Kristin Higgins gave out at RWA last year:

“Go away, honey, I’m writing.”

There should be interruptions for nothing less than arterial bleeding or the zombie apocalypse. Okay, fevers over 103 degrees. Because I am a writer first. That is who I am. I will take care of everything else, I promise, as soon as I finish another few words (make that 1000 or so).

Let’s hop over and see what started the incredible Brenda Margriet on her journey.

http://www.brendamargriet.com/blog