Write What You Know

wishart17 Blogging, , , , , ,

In today’s challenge, you’ll reflect on your origin story and tell us how and why you became a writer.

storyIn high school, 11th grade, I had to write a fiction story. It was a college prep class so we wrote a lot that year; essays, poems, stories. It was before I’d learned to type and there was no laptop to make the work go more quickly. Paper and pen, neat cursive writing, the story took up at least eight or ten pages.

As is often the case, the instruction was to “write what you know”. I don’t recall the exact content, but I recall using my family–a fictionalized account of some tragedy or other. As I wrote, the words came easily, my hand could not move my pencil as fast as the thoughts came together in my head. I wrote until there were no words left to put on the pages.

The teacher’s comments on my style and feeling impressed me enough that I thought, “I could be a writer”. The “A” that graced the front page when the teacher returned the assignment was icing on the cake. I kept that story well beyond high school graduation. I brought it to college with me and worked on refining it. I couldn’t tell you where it is now.

The feeling that I could write, that what I have to say could matter for someone else, has not waned since that “A” grade, although it’s taken a while to find its way back to the surface of my thinking. It’s probably why I started blogging on an “off day”; I didn’t wait for the first of the month or the New Year’s Day. The feeling became overwhelming on a random Sunday afternoon.

He’s long-since retired, I’m sure, so today’s thank you goes out to that English teacher from 11th grade who saw something in my writing and planted the seed that’s finally blossomed in this blog.

Writerly Reflections:

  1. Writing Challenge: Writerly Reflections | The WordPress C(h)ronicle

  2. Writing Challenge: Why Do I Write? | Miss Diaries

  3. Writing Challenge: Writerly Reflections | Awl and Scribe

  4. This is Why I Write | Musings | WANGSGARD

  5. Writerly Life | melissuhhsmiles

  6. Writerly Reflections | emilycharlotteould

  7. Keep On Writing, Everyone | Never Stationary

  8. Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflection | Blessings through raindrops…

  9. Never at a Loss for Words | The Ravenously Disappearing Woman

  10. Why I Write | Fish Of Gold

  11. Negativity Insults My Intelligence | Bumblepuppies

  12. Writing Challenge: Writerly Reflections | samallen230

  13. The Beginning | snapshotsofawanderingheart

  14. A Challenge Followed by a Challenge | Kami’s Beautiful Morning

  15. Origin Story: Why I Write | Lead us from the Unreal to the Real

  16. Why I Write | Lead us from the Unreal to the Real

  17. Dreaming About My Dream Job | Musings | WANGSGARD

  18. Where it All Began | Passionate Dreaming

  19. My Lifeline | Artfully Aspiring

  20. Ichabod Crane in a 1960s straight legged suite | The Seminary of Praying Mantis

16 thoughts on “Write What You Know”

  5. I found you at the weekly challenge and was drawn to your blog-theme. A year of being thankful. And as a former high school teacher (home with the kids now) I love that you took this chance to thank someone who taught you something important about yourself. Wonderful.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment