I AM A WRITER!!!!!

Day 1 of 15 Habits of Great Writers is to make a declaration. I AM A WRITER. I always have been, as long as I can remember. I was always coming up with little poems for Mother's and Father's day, birthdays, just because days. I wrote short stories for school journals, and a little blurb thing on the funny page of the Chronicle. But mostly, I just wrote because I loved the feel of putting words together in a beautiful way, the feel of saying something poetic and profound that I knew my shy lips would never utter, but my pen could.

But I let someone discourage me. Someone I thought very highly of, and I spent many years doing nothing with my art. But I AM A WRITER, and the need to write was so innate within me. Even during these years I worked on Sunday School curriculum, but other than that I resigned myself to be a 'reader' not a writer.

As I confessed before, in Confessions of a Closet Vampire, I read the Twilight series. When I was done, I said, "I can do that." So I did. I created my immortals, my characters, my world. My author/friend, Bryan Davis suggested I get connected to the literary community by attending a writer's conference. So I did that too. Now, I'm going to my third conference. I've learned so much from them and the various outlets online and from books. I'm working my way through an agent query list, and between conferences and slush piles I've garnered four partial and one full manuscript requests. (So far no offers, but I remain hopeful.)

So now, I'm making my declaration...I AM A WRITER...to the community at large. Because people in general are who intimidate me. And it doesn't matter what those people think, or if I ever really get published...it doesn't change the inherit fact...I AM A WRITER!