Writing projects in school didn't facilitate anything great from me, but my English classes exposed me to some great authors and some still favorite novels. I picked up 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' at a bookstore recently. I opened it and read the first two pages. I put it down and thought, "Why can't I write like that?" The author, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, brilliantly transports the reader to the middle of the French Revolution. The reader immediately relates to both the peasants, who have been so mistreated for generations, and the gentry, who have enjoyed a posh lifestyle but now must face "Madame la Guillotine" unless they can somehow hide. But there is no place to hide and there is no escaping the judgments of the revolutionaries. I can't wait to finish reading it, again.
Maybe it was all the reading that created an active imagination or perhaps it's a gift from God. At any rate, I have been creating my own stories in my head since at least the second grade. I have been the director of some of these stories with my sisters and our Barbies or our Matchbox cars or even my mom's fancy nightgowns; but, until about ten years ago, I have never attempted to write any of them down.
In beginning this journey, I discovered that it takes a lot more time and effort to "direct" a book on paper than it does on the movie screen in my head. There are a lot of things I have learned and even more things that I have yet to learn. So, to motivate myself to continue learning this craft - and maybe one day finish the two books I have started - I decided to blog about the things I have learned on my journey in writing.
My thought for this post: It takes practice to be a good reader - and a lot of practice to be a good writer.
