Comments on: Thankful Thursday: What IS a Writing Path (Part 1)

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:58:20 +0000

I LOVE that–”found it wasn’t the end of the world.” More like the beginning, really, once you get past the fear, right? I think, from what I’ve heard you say, that you have found a wonderful group–they sound incredibly supportive AND constructive. And I’m betting they feel the same way about you.

Yes, those forks in the path ahead of us have so much fog around them, still, don’t they?

By: Vivian

Vivian — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:55:05 +0000

Wonderful post, Becky. Happy Blogiversary!

As for writing paths…here’s the short version:
Wrote but too afraid to let people read it.
Started blogging
Found critique group
Found it wasn’t the end of the world when critique group offered feedback.
Discovering how much I enjoy the revision process.
The rest is still to be discovered….

Good luck, Becky!

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:30:36 +0000

I forgot about adding the groups, Susan. Thanks for the reminder. And you are So on it!

By: Susan Taylor Brown

Susan Taylor Brown — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:25:37 +0000

My path is a long one.

Always wanted to write but was told it wasn’t a real job to give it up.

Took writing classes, at last, when my kids were toddlers.

Fell into writing for newspapers after I was interviewed by a local paper about something I had done.

Joined California Writers Club and started volunteering.

Got my first and second critique groups by being a part of that group.

Got my first agent because of that group.

Got into writing for Parenting Publications of America because of that group.

Got dared to write a children’s by someone in my critique group.

Sold books and articles and short stories while taking more classes, joining more professional organizations, and reading like crazy.

I have been up and down the path a few times in different iterations.

Most days I’m just happy to be on it in any way at all.

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:21:20 +0000

Yay for you–for getting out of your own way! We all have to carve out our own turf, and sometimes it can even be fun to share! Good luck.

By: Karen Llewellyn

Karen Llewellyn — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:05:03 +0000

I stumbled into writing. I’d been trying to give it wide berth because my sister wanted to be a writer and I didn’t want to step on her turf. Then I got a job in radio. I wrote spots (commercials)–sometimes 20 or more a day. Some were “two for one sales” and others I was lucky enough to be able to write what I called “30 sec sitcoms.” And I always wrote a wacky female character so I could voice them, too. That’s the drama queen in me. That job taught me that I have no time to wait for the muse. The muse comes when I start working. Butt in chair time equals the blessing of the muse.

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:24:37 +0000

I love that serious pursuit. That’s where I feel like I’m at. It’s a happy place, but tricky!

By: Linda Covella

Linda Covella — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:47:51 +0000

Congrats on the blogaversary!
My path has been a knobby circle–starting quite young with writing and art, going to business and technology, and coming back to my creative side, although never leaving it completely, always a part of my day after school, after work, on the weekends, always some art or writing project to keep me happy! Now–serious pursuit!!

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:42:44 +0000

October 22, 2009 at 6:41 pm e
“This is where my heart kicked in.” That just sounds so right. Thanks, Sharon.

By: Sharon Lippincott

Sharon Lippincott — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:30:21 +0000

My path: a grad school mentor urged to me to write when I was a returnee to school in my thirties. I had not discovered or even thought about it prior to that. I wrote pitiful short stories. Then turned to community publications. Eventually began studying the craft and evolved to business writing to follow the shift in my career path. That led to a successfully published book sixteen years ago about successful meeting strategies. After heaps and piles of training manuals and such material, I retired and began life writing.

This is my “real” path. This is where my heart kicked in. After teaching lifestory writing for a few years (I learn best when I’m teaching something), my handouts evolved into a published book.

Today I write constantly. Obsessively. Sometimes for the public, much of the time for me. Journaling is perhaps the “realest” writing form there is.

I don’t lay out my path, I follow the path ahead, wherever it leads.