When You’re Not Writing…

I imagine writers have other responsibilities outside of perfecting their craft.

It’s a constant tug-and-war game—writing and…life. I try not to feel guilty about being one person, lacking the ability to multiply like gremlins so that I can get more accomplished; though my virtual planner these days looks like some wacky kind of road map. I’ve been busy—all over the place. Will summer break ever come? Oh right, that phenomenon ended after undergrad. To add to this, I’ve just bought a car and a house. And for anyone who’s been through the home buying process, you understand my exhaustion.

As artists, it’s so easy to get lost in our craft. Actually, most of us prefer that space—I know I do. I feel most myself when I’m creating something. I know this comes from my father. He’s a rapper. Growing up, we had a studio in the basement and he spent most of his time there. A little checked-out from the world, but when he returned he’d bring a new song with him.

Now, I completely get that obsessive passion about art. But I’m learning the importance of being present—in the moment. It’s hard to do when I’d prefer to be alone with my characters or plotting a new story. With the help of those I love, I’m learning to do both — achieve my writing goals and enjoy the special moments life offers.

When I’m not writing or reading, these are some of the things that can fill my days.

1) I’m spending time with students—lots of them.

2) Being a mom and volunteering at school.

3) I like taking friends out for yummy desserts. This is Hotcakes Restaurant in

Charlottesville, Virginia and they have wonderful sweets.

4) I take time to feel nostalgic. This is my high school. In 10th grade I had my Napoleon

Dynamite moment and danced in a talent show.

The audience cheered because they were so surprised this shy girl could break dance.

Now, I’d probably break something if I tried to spin on my head.

5) I try to witness as many sunsets as possible. I love the sky. This is from my backyard.

6)And lastly, in light of Fathers’ Day, my hubby got Father Of The Year. We attended a

special banquet where he was honored. So proud of him!

When you’re not writing, what are you up to? 🙂

 

One of the World’s Finest

Few can captivate a crowd of eighth graders with a speech.  Or have the gift to talk and somehow make each word ring with meaning.  In middle school I met a woman who did this effortlessly. I was attending a lecture at the University of Virginia, and I hardly understood the awesomeness of this guest speaker. Honestly, in eighth grade anything that will get you out of class and homework will do and is happily welcomed. So, I couldn’t wait to plop my bottom down in one of those uncomfortable wooden lecture chairs and listen to crickets if that was the presentation.

As soon as this woman opened her mouth to speak, the audience went silent.  I can’t remember all the topics she touched on but I remember the way I felt as she shared them: inspired, moved, curious, (like she was telling bits of a secret).

Afterward I went up to her to introduce myself. She was calm not frazzled like you’d think someone would be with a crowd of kids coming at them. She had a gentle confidence that was easy and approachable.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did,

but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~Maya Angelou

She made me feel important and proud. Which is a big deal for an insecure twelve-year-old girl. 🙂

And after that day, I made sure to follow-up on her work. Listen to her interviews. Quote her wisdom. She became an influential person in my life without even knowing it. As a writer I think we all hope for that kind of impact on people. Today, it’s important to celebrate her life, all that she accomplished. I’m grateful to have met one of the world’s finest human beings.

And Dr. Angelou you’re right. I’ll never forget the way you made me feel. You will be missed. Her words will live on in all the hearts she touched. Here’s one of my favorite quotes from her:

“Be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud.” M.A.

 

Photo credit: victorianinnouray.com

 

Get In The Club–No, This Kind Of Club

I lived in Dallas—shout-out to all my Texas writers! I miss Texas.

My writing life flourished there because my support team kept me focused and motivated. I even attended a weekly critique group. I’m still building that writerly support where I live now. It takes time. I’ve only been in DC for a little over a year.

But I’ve found a group, one that helps my writing more than they know.

How I joined was a bit of a coincidence, a friend of a friend sort of invitation. Honestly I didn’t know what to expect. Sure, I read books like most people watch TV, keeping up with several novels at a time, but sitting around talking about them in a casual sense…um, well… I was the blank slate when it came to this sort of thing.

I’m talking about joining a book club. A writer in a book club—how perfect?!

Each time we meet and dissect discuss a book, I get an education. Mostly on how the novel failed miserably or why it’s loved. I mean unable-to-put-novel-down kind of love.

For a writer it’s all pretty enlightening. Especially since their perspective is fresh, unbiased, simple-honest. None of them are writers—just readers. Hungry readers.

And I love hungry readers.

Their advice is so helpful as I apply it to my writing. So here it is: Book Club Happiness and Helpful Tips for Writers.

1. Question. Readers like books that keep them turning the pages. Sounds like a no-brainer, but this is the true art. How does one write to keep them reading? I noted all the books that we finished quickly. Each book had a big, intriguing question. The author would write around this topic, not really answering the question until way later. And the question has to be compelling enough that you cannot leave the story alone until it’s answered.

2. Friends. Books are enjoyed best with friends. Obviously books have become just, if not, more social than the authors that wrote them. I can’t count the number of books I’ve read because they had a following. I only read the Hunger Games because all of my campus students were going completely nuts about it. I just wanted to see what had them so excited.Often times it’s the reader’s curiosity and wanting to belong, that makes them pick up a book. In this book club, word-of-mouth is the number one way we select books. Usually it’s a visit to Goodreads, selecting what’s popular (I’m the exception, I always select books by indie authors that none of them have heard of). So, new authors have to find the right group to build their audience. There’s an audience for every book, but finding them–that’s the real work.

3. Escapism. I’m not sure if it’s the constant drama in the (bad) news, but we are constantly looking for an escape. Something to keep our mind off the world. Our world at times. So it’s not a surprise that we get excited about summer blockbusters, television shows, and book releases. All present opportunities to escape. Even if it’s just for a few hours, from our to-do-list, homework, or life’s problems, these breaks are so necessary. Readers want to get lost in your novel, to completely forget that they were cooking dinner or waiting for the bus. This goes along with knowing your audience and what’s an ‘escape’ for them. Personally, I’ve known too many friends crushed by cancer that reading, The Fault In Our Stars, is a no-go. I have no doubt it’s amazing but it wouldn’t be much of an escape for me. Thank you—but no thanks, John Green. 😉

If you’re working on a novel or enjoying writing, I highly recommend joining a book club. Remember, everything we do as writers is useful research–yep, even a Book Club. Happy Friday!! 🙂

 

Gif Credit: http://cheezburger.com/5206018048

The Most Important Work of A Writer

I volunteer at my son’s elementary school.  Eighty-five percent of his classmates are learning English, along with this rigorous Kindergarten curriculum. And yes, it is actually a hard workload for a five-year-old: book reports, addition and substation, spelling tests.

I’m not sure about you, but my first schooling experience pretty much consisted of naps, magical story-times, and snacks.

Helping these kids with English, led me to think deeper about my writing. I wondered if my writing would translate—the way I intended it—in other languages.  Although hundreds of books are translated, thinking about my novel in a different language never crossed my mind. I imagine an author would need a ton of guidance to make sure the translation is as close to the original as possible.

As writers, we can tend to spend an exhausting amount of time looking for the perfect word to capture a scene or emotion. But how important is this to the story? Especially if it has potential to reach worldwide status.  I’m sure the writing style changes a bit during the translation process. But there is one thing that never changes.

Many writers ask, “What’s more important, the writing or the story?” I ran across a statement on Tumblr that gets us closer to the answer. A student sat in a presentation given by  Brian Doyle and here’s what they posted:

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting an amazing author, and an even better man named Brian Doyle. There are a few authors named Brian Doyle, but this one is the author from New York who wrote “Mink River” and “The Plover.” He talked about his own life and how he writes and what his process is, and it was all very standard for an author visiting a group of college students, but then he said something that really caught my attention. He said this:

“I don’t call myself a writer or an author. I call myself a story catcher. I don’t come up with stories, I live them and I take them and I keep them in my pocket until I need to tell them. I do this because stories are important. They are what we all live for. Stories are all anyone can know about anyone else. And so I challenge you to find the story that matters. Because behind everything there is a deeper story. When 9/11 happened everyone wrote about the brave firemen who rushed back into the buildings even though there was no chance that they could save everyone. Everyone wanted to write the story about the terror and the fear and the loss of an icon. But behind all the fire and tire and white ash is a more important story. Everyone tells the big story. No one tells the story about the family that sets four places at the dinner table, and has to put one plate back. I challenge you to find the important story. Find the story that really matters.”

The Story wins! 

It’s been proven for centuries that stories are all we have, they confess the human experience. From The Great Gatsby, The Kite Runner,  Alice in Wonderland, all translated in several languages. But why? Because these stories captured a generation and continue to do so today.

I don’t know any teenagers reading original Shakespearian language for fun, but most enjoy stories from that era. We love them—like Disney, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, MacBeth, are here to stay.

So, the most important work of a writer is this: write in a way to help readers listen to the real story. It’s the story–even over time—that doesn’t change, but can change the world. And in the end, that’s all that matters.

 

Sources:

blog.writeathome.com 

http://modern-major-cannibal.tumblr.com/tagged/Brian-Doyle

letswritetogether.wikispaces.com

Guilty–WIPpet

This month I’ve started editing the sequel to my debut novel, The Hall Speaks #fallsemester. It hasn’t been horrible, but I wish I could say that I’ve been working on it everyday and making great progress. Last week was full of student chaos–all fun, but nonetheless exhausting.  So, spending time with my characters got put hold a few days. I have one more major event that I’m planning and after that, I’m hoping the semester will slow down to a manageable pace.  🙂

Onto my WIPpet for today, March 19, 2014. My brain is loaded so I’m doing easy math, just adding it all together.

3+19+2=24 sentences or so, and 2+1+4= blog post 7

I thought it would be helpful to share exactly I write about since my premise is fairly unusual.  In short, my books are about Residence Life culture, specifically resident assistants (RAs).  They have this unique experience of living at their job with co-workers (other RAs), customers (residents), and the boss (Hall Director). As you can image, this set-up makes everything interesting. Especially on the relationship front. Boundaries are crossed, lines are blurred to a nonexistent level.  But who can blame them? It’s hard living with anyone without things getting personal at some point.

And this topic brings us to RAs Carly and Ethan that share a past, but still  must work together. And I’d like to add my choice of actors to play these rolls this week.  I usually don’t imagine the face of actors when I write, but what the heck! I wanted to add something fun to this weeks WIP excerpt. 🙂

In this scene they are in winter RA training. Carly is looking to finally get some answers from Ethan.

********

#Carly

Carly watched as Janine walked towards them, wearing a colorful mess of clothes, smiling.

Janine held her arms out to the group as if waiting for a hug. “And to most of your residents that’s exactly what your transfer students will be like–strangers. Not starting the year with ya’ll is a real set-back socially, so it’s your job to Do It Like Grandma Does!”

The corner of Carly’s lip lifted, irritated. Ok I can totally zone out now… She peeked at Ethan next to her. Better idea.

She reached in her bag and grabbed a notebook; she figured it would look less suspicious, like they were taking notes on the presentation. She scribbled on the paper. Her handwriting hadn‘t been great since the accident but it was legible. She pushed the note under his elbow.

Ethan looked down, reading it.

Why didn’t you visit me? I know we didn’t end on the best terms – we had our ups and downs but I thought we were still friends. We’re cool, right? 

He sat there for a minute shifting uncomfortably in his seat, then picked up the pen and wrote:

I was working, sorry. And yeah, we’re cool.

Carly looked at Ethan as his eyes stayed on Janine. He was hiding something. She could smell guilt better than police dogs sniffing for street drugs. Having cheated on her boyfriend with Ethan last semester, she suffered from the guilt-disease for weeks. Whatever was going on with Ethan overflowed from his eyes, apparently affecting his vision. Since they’d gotten back from break, he hadn’t look at her–not really. None of it made sense.

Then her chest tightened as she gripped the sides of her new transportation. She groaned inwardly, hoping Ethan wasn’t getting all weird because she was in a wheelchair now. But that couldn’t be it, Carly decided. Ethan was lame sometimes, but not petty.

********

Always, thanks for reading! If you’d like to take part in WIPpet just go here.  Be sure to check out other WIPpets, I’ll be doing my rounds tomorrow. And thank you K. L. Schwengel for hosting! Happy reading and let’s all keep writing!

Photo credit: http://data.whicdn.com/images, http://doctorwho.fm/wp-content/blogs

How To Lose A Reader In 10 Pages

Let’s not lose them before we hook’em

Before I decided to self-publish, like any other writer-wanna-be I researched literary agents. On average, most preferred an outstanding query letter and the first 5 to 10 pages of your polished, glowing like the last lightning bug, manuscript. Those pages better cause the agent to miss their stop on the subway and compel them to contact at least five publishing houses because they are reading the next big thing. This may be a tab bit of an exaggeration but it sure seemed that way years ago when I was dating around the agent scene (I wasn’t into it much, only contacted two agents). The point is, that I kept running across this 5-10 pages requirement. Based only on a few pages–not even a full chapter, agents decided if a project was right for them.

For a new author this pressure is intimidating as all get-out—harder than trying out for American Idol. Most of the time they let the contestant finish their song. Writers do not get that luxury, many agents stop reading in the first paragraph if they spot problems.

I attended a writers’ conference that held a Gong Show for manuscripts. The host would read a manuscript and agents gonged when they lost interest. Out of 40 manuscripts only 1 made it through an entire page. I understand why they take this approach because the average reader wants to fall for a story immediately.

I get it, reading a novel takes commitment, time–it’s like starting a relationship. I jotted down feedback from this conference on what not to do, because in many ways agents represent the reader. And in real relationship fashion I’m going to share writing tips that also apply to dating.

Kate says it all

1. Explicit Intro: On average, talking about sex when first meeting someone isn’t a good idea—definitely off-putting. Opening a novel with an explicit sex scene is a big no-no as well. Now, with Erotica, the rules may be different but I image the reader isn’t thrown into a steamy bedroom scene in the first line.
2. Showing Off: Ok, raise your hands if you like dating a show-off? Huh, I don’t see any hands. Unless you’re writing for writers or masters of the English language, the reader just wants a good story. To be entertained. Why use a twenty-dollar word when a five-dollar one will work?
3. TMI (too much information):  Sharing all your business on the first date is an easy way to lose the interest of a potential partner. Where’s the mystery? What’s there to wonder about? It’s nice having to work a little when getting to know someone. Same applies to writing. Information dumping in the beginning doesn’t create that I-can’t-wait-to-see-what-happens response. Actually, it does the opposite–a real snooze-fest!
4. Lack of Authenticity: No one can be you better than you. It’s really awkward being on a date when the person isn’t being themselves. Be true to the character and story by writing realistically. And it’s totally fine to do it your own way.
5. Pacing: There’s a natural flow to good conversation just like there’s a natural flow to good storytelling. A good balance between summary and scene makes for enjoyable reading!  
6. Hot-Mess: Showing up for a first date dirty and looking a hot-mess, will not go over well–unless it’s a rock climbing date. Being prepared and put together helps people to take you seriously. With a novel, having a ton of grammatical or spelling mishaps in the first few pages is unacceptable. 

As a writer it’s important to know what makes readers lose interest in the first 10 pages, and not do them. And there’s many more but six is plenty. To be honest, readers can lose interest with a perfect manuscript just because they have options.

America, at least, is full of the OEEB (Overly Entertained and Easily Bored). Scrolling through Netflix, trying to find the best, most suitable entertainment for my mood, can take more time than just watching a Walking Dead episode. My Kindle is a small library—and that’s the norm for young adults. But I still think it’s important to watch and read new stuff, even stuff I don’t think I’ll like.

I can’t tell you how many books, televisions shows, movies, that in the beginning turned me off. I had good reasons too: slow-paced books, cheesy movies, irritating characters. Then, after a while, I got hooked. At some point, I forgave the flaws and felt captivated by the story, the characters changing, or the moral dilemma.

Growing up I wouldn’t touch a fantasy novel, they just seemed weird to me. Because of a neighbor who shoved a fantasy novel in my hand I began to read my first fantasy/sci-fi series. The first chapter—I wasn’t feeling it. After the third chapter or so, I couldn’t put the book down.

These are just a few books/shows/movies that won me over.

• Harry Potter series
• Supernatural
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• Walking Dead
• Friday Night Lights
• Les Miserable
• Inception

So, this is my plea to the Reader. Novels aren’t perfect because imperfect people write them.  So, if the pacing seems off or it has fancy words or it’s a genre not of your liking, basically if it doesn’t’t hook you in the first 10 pages, keep reading. Most people are not a fan of insta-love, it’s always better when the characters grow and fall in love over time.

I take the same approach reading now. I don’t have to love a novel right away. I give it time to grow on me because I might just fall in love during the process. And finding things I love is always worth the journey it took to find it.

Finding a book I  love–True Fandom!

Photo/Gif Credit: www.huffingtonpost.com, bysandradi.wordpress.com, giphy.com

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!

Intruder-WIPpet

March came with another snow storm. I’d like to think being stuck inside would lend itself to me getting more writing done, but I have children. So, I typically spend those snowy days trying to keep my little boys from breaking things. They’re use to being in daycare–I’m use to them being in daycare. However, I do love the special, unexpected time with my high-energy boys. Just yesterday we watched Pinocchio–Disney never gets old, and they loved it!

I’ve designated this month to editing the sequel to The Hall Speaks. I’m so looking forward to spending time with my characters (my number one fans). There’s a runner’s high but there’s also a writer’s high. I get into a zone, the endorphins are flowing, and nothing can distract me from their story. After writing, I actually feel more energized, confident and genuinely happy.  My posts may get sporadic as I rewrite and edit, just saying. 🙂

On a side note, I’m loving social media. I’ve been able to meet some of the nicest, most interesting people ever. Recently I ran across a post on Tumblr for Res-Life: The Musical. It’s nice finding others interested in promoting Residence Life.  They’ve raised close to 4,000 for this short film which they’ll be working on for the next few months. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on their progress.

Now onto my WIPpet! As some of you know, RA Sage gets caught in a horrible situation. Things get personal as he deals with the repercussions of  doing his job. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, so it’s just a small section. Sage isn’t the kind of guy to shrink back, so he takes protecting himself to a whole different level.

March 5, 2014, so I came up with 14 multiplied by 3=page 42 and 5+3=8 sentences or so.  Enjoy!

Intruder

#Sage

Sage grabbed his book bag off the floor, unzipped it frantically, searching for his gun. His finger tips grazed the cold, hard plastic; carefully he gripped it in both hands, marveling at the black semi-automatic. He stood up, feeling the air move quicker through his lungs. In a fury he swung around, holding the gun out like he was about to shoot a target at close range. He felt as if the gun was just an extension of his body, as he turned to face his mirror. He blinked the wetness from his eyes as reality sunk deep into his stomach. They’d been in his house, unnoticed.

*******

Always, thanks for reading! If you’d like to take part in WIPpet just go here.  Be sure to check out other WIPpets, I’ll be doing my rounds tomorrow. And thank you K. L. Schwengel for hosting! Happy reading and let’s all keep writing!

Here’s a photo from an incredibly successful passive RA program with a great message.

RA program Mirrorless Monday.

I’m off to campus for the night. 🙂

Photo Credit: http://whatwecallreslife.tumblr.com

A Story to Tell

I’ve busy lately, and trying not drown in the mid-semester burnout ocean. I know,  I’m not even taking classes. However, I have two little boys so that counts as 24 credit hours at least.  And I work with students and there’s a ton going on with campus life this month and next.

The campus years are such a special time for students. As I’ve mentioned before major life decisions happen in college. During this time, one of the biggest things that students need is validation, knowing that their contributions matter and more importantly that they matter.  Without constant support it’s easy for them to indulge in self-deprecating thoughts.  And who can blame them?  Every day we are all faced with, and fighting the feelings of being less than—not enough.  I enjoy reminding young adults that they are enough, that they matter, and that their contributions are valuable.

One of the ways that has helped students see their value, (or at least the ones I’ve worked with) is by creative writing. A literary agent twitted, “Everyone has a story to tell but not everyone has the innate ability to write it.” Well, I think everyone has a story to tell and has the ability to write it the right way.

With all my business, I was able to catch a movie, Saving Mr. Banks, with a friend.  It’s the story behind the well-loved Disney classic, Mary Poppins. It’s an incredible, must see movie, for sure. Personally, I was surprised that each character in Mary Poppins represented someone in the authors’ family or something from her past. And let me say, these connections were very deep and at times sad, but beautiful. It confirmed the power of stories and how our lives and experiences tend to shape a story.  At one point in the film, Walt Disney says, “We all have our sad story. Imagine the past–how it should have been, and write it.” (not the exact quote, hopefully I didn’t butcher it too much) Because of this, I’m convinced that we all need to write more! Even the I’m-too-overwhelmed-by-classes college student should write. There’s nothing like writing what’s in our heart and seeing the proof that we are valuable as the words spill out. Because our experiences, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs matter.

photo credit : http://allthecoloursofmylife.tumblr.com/

I’m no Beyoncé…

Photo: entertainmentwise.com

Isn’t it amazing how this lovely lady can drop an album without advertising for it at all and sell millions?! Well, any indie author knows it doesn’t quite work like that for us. So, here’s my update on being indie, using a pen name and marketing.

Deciding to use a pen name was just as difficult as deciding to go indie. Both are tremendously risky. Here’s some of the problems I’ve come across so far.

Problem 1: I’m a newbie so building a platform is hard.  

No one would every guess that I minored in marketing. I’m so bad at it—really. I don’t like selling stuff, something about it feels insincere to me (It’s not. I’m just weird about consumerism. I can’t even sit through commercials because I don’t want to be persuaded into buying something). I like being on social media sites to connect with others, but when it comes to marketing my book, I’m timid. I just don’t want to come across as annoying. And this is me projecting my anti-consumerism, because I often find mass-advertising annoying. Honestly, my husband has done more to market my book than I have at this point. I’ve contacted 20 friends who I thought would like my book. Some of the responses from my friends were funny. They were excited but many of them didn’t even know I’d written a novel– proof that my marketing skills need help. 🙂

What I’m going to do:

On to building a platform, still working on this, but I’m starting with ResLife. I’ve gotten the most positive feedback there because I think many RAs can relate to my story. Then on to book bloggers!

Problem 2: I don’t have any other works so I didn’t have a following for my writing.

Ok, I may have been a little ambitious, a novel being my first attempt at creative writing. So I hadn’t been blogging and gaining followers daily like other writers. But putting out a novel under a pen name that’s only existed for about five months hardly creates credibility. Reading a book by an unknown person is a risk that many readers are not willing to take.

How this happened:

I literally just had an idea and started writing—mostly for myself (It saved me from my post-pardon depression insomnia madness). And then, with two little babies, any free time I had was dedicated to working on my novel.

Problem 3: And this is major– readers don’t know what I look like.

I knew this would be a huge downside of my decision. People connect with pictures, especially pictures of other people. I’m guilty. I see a cool, friendly looking photo of a blogger and next thing I know I’m checking out their page. Marketing myself and while keeping my identity hush-hush…is difficult.

Why I did this:

My legal name already has an online presence and I wanted my writing endeavors to have a separate identity. Mostly because I’m not trying to sell myself as an author but I’m trying to sell a story, highlight the ResLife culture, and expose the truth. Also, I mentor college students and I want them to feel as comfortable as possible talking to me about their life. A lot of times they tell me extremely personal stuff—the kind of things they don’t want anyone to know about. So for me, it just felt safer to use a pen name. That way, no one would assume I’m writing about the students I work with. And if I choose to discuss a topic they bring up, they’d be protected.

On the upside, using a pen name is freeing, it hasn’t interfered with my job or personal life.  This pen name is a brand but I’m not. I can write in a different genre without losing my readers in this one. Harry Potter fans kind  of prove  that readers these days are more loyal to characters they love verse the author. Also, being anonymous creates a little mystery. I like that sometimes. With so many people online these days, the anon can sometimes stand out. There’s an anonymous literary agent on twitter and it’s created such a buzz. This anon even has other agents wondering about their identity.

So whether you choose to hide your identity or not these are just some of the things I’ve experienced. 🙂

The Non-Writer writes

I have this issue when it comes to writing. My brain is different. As a kid, I was removed from class and placed with an academic therapist because I couldn’t read. The letters clumped together just didn’t make sense. I’d get confused seeing my classmates breeze through reading assignments because I couldn’t. I hated reading, especially out loud. Reading is simple, but as a kid, I made it sound impossible. Eventually, my teacher stopped calling on me to read, and I didn’t mind one bit!  I loved school for the social aspect, but when it came to the work, I struggled.

My reading comprehension was poor so it took forever for me to complete anything. English—I don’t have fond memories of that class. All the red marks on my paper convinced me that I irritated my teacher. Her frustration was all over my paper.  I felt dumb because I just couldn’t get my thoughts in order. And all the grammar rules intimidated me because I couldn’t experience them. How does one experience a comma or semicolon? It was information that I couldn’t connect to anything so I’d forget.

Later,  I learned I was dyslexic and it was a huge relief. Now my childhood totally makes sense—everything, my difficulties reading, my horrible spelling, misusing words, and my inability to figure out new words. Really, the list could go on. Having a dyslexic brain is cool most of the time. I can credit my creativity and love of seeing things differently to it, on the flip side, having this challenge really sucks as a writer. I feel like it’s having Asperger’s in the literary world. People with Asperger’s syndrome have difficulties picking up on social cues. I have difficulties with communication–I can’t pick up on the no-brainers of language sometimes. On my about page I mentioned that I would nearly hyperventilate when I had to write a paper in college. Now it’s easy to image why.

They only thing that has increased my literacy are good stories. Like I said, I hated reading until about eighth grade. Then I saw Anne of Green Gables, discovered a character I really loved, and decided to read the books. After that, I was hooked on reading because I naturally like people. And I learned that I could spend time with all kinds of folks by just reading a book.

Now to writing, it was the love of characters that started me on this journey. Simply, if it weren’t for people I wouldn’t write.  As a student affairs practitioner at Virginia Tech, I worked with some incredible students. I knew there’d be only one way for me to tell their story. So three years ago, I bought a laptop and started writing it. And it’s about that time I share.:)

Even though we can feel alone with our limitations, we are never alone.

So encouraging! Here are celebrities with dyslexia that inspire me.