Give Me a Pen!

Mama Kat Prompt: Describe something that comes easy to you.

I adore writing.  I am the weirdo who got stoked when the teacher assigned an essay, who wrote fiction in the middle of math class, who even now scours the thesaurus for just the right word.  The written word compels me and excites me.  Through writing I feel I can communicate more than I ever could in oral words.  Words come out too fast for me; writing I can take slowly, savoring every moment, carefully choosing each word and phrase.

I definitely recognize that my love of writing owes its existence to my love of books.  I went to a class this summer on teaching reading and writing.  The speaker revealed that the number one predictor of good writing is an independent reading life.  People who read a lot just plain write better because they learn what good writing looks like.  I read voraciously.  I can't manage as many books now as I did when I was a kid, but I still read all the time.

Even though writing came easily, I have to say that encouragement pushed me the extra mile.  My parents always read my stories and praised them.  My third grade teacher had me read my stories to my class and participate in a writer's workshop.  Teachers wrote comments on my essays and stories, encouraging me to keep writing.  So even today, I love to write.  I write and write and write.  My mind explodes with both nonfiction and fiction, contemplating, thinking and bringing to life the thoughts of my soul.

I'm currently working on a book that is now at around 200 typed pages.  It's a fantasy novel for youth.  It explores themes of love and loyalty and learning who you are.  I hope to finish it soon.  Will I publish it?  I'm not sure.  I'm petrified to try and be rejected.  Even if I never publish it, just the act of writing it as brought pleasure to me, making me think and work out ideas in my mind.  Some of my students have read it and all of them like it.  That in itself has made me happy.

So, here are some writing facts about me, including some of my writing online if you care to take a gander:

Favorite Writing Quote: “Holding the Bible in my hands, I knew that I was hoping to turn all my writing towards my Maker, to write for the sake of the Creator, and not for this small servant who struggles with words in order to serve the Word.” -Madeleine L'Engle

Favorite Writers: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Madeleine L'Engle (nonfiction), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), Eric Metaxas, John Donne

Blogs: This one :-D,  My Theologian's Hat (Ruminations on Biblical theology), 365 Psalms (Hebrew Poetry)

Fanfiction: The nerd in me loves to write about characters I have fallen in love with; see here.

Number of Original Stories I have Written: Hundreds.  Though in my current computer file I probably have around fifty.

Best Writing Advice:  This actually came to me from Madeleine L'Engle.  She never considers anything she writes and doesn't finish a waste.  Every bit of writing, even if it doesn't go anywhere, is practice and makes you better.  (One of the reasons I love fanfiction--it's fun and easy practice).

P.S. I titled this entry "Give me a Pen!"  The pen was my primary tool most of my life until the computer became so prevalent.  However, the middle finger of my right hand has a rather large, solid bump on the side from all the time I spent writing with a pen.  I'm actually quite proud of my writer's bump!