Three Years Later

I can't imagine that three years have passed since I last wrote a post for this blog. But I have been doing a different kind of writing in the last year and a half: creative writing.

I embarked on finishing the novel I began in Cheri Earl's Honors creative writing class that I audited about four years ago. What started out as an exercise to help make the family histories/biographies I'm writing more interesting, turned into a complete historical novel. It took me a while because I stopped and started, researched---and researched some more. Ironically, the biographies are still in the process of being written, but the novel is finished thanks to my joining the Utah Valley Writers, doing the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) contest in which I finished over 50,000 words to complete the novel, and finally joining a couple of critique groups. The critique groups are encouraging and spurred me on to actually finish the novel . . . and start another one!

My experience in doing creative writing: exhilarating, frustrating, insecure-making, and, most of all, fulfilling. Gardening, reading, sewing and other hobbies, even watching favorite shows on TV, have taken a backseat to writing. (But my all consuming passion is my family; I drop writing for them!)

I now have more time to write. People ask me if I'm bored since I retired: not at all! I couldn't have done this while I was working and bringing up children; some people can do this, but not in my situation. And anyway, I didn't think I had a talent for this; academic and business writing was enough. But now writing is becoming a huge part of my day and week. What is also enjoyable is meeting budding and published writers at UVW and at conferences. I am so impressed at how many young people are writing . . . and writing good stuff!

So what turned out to be an interesting exercise has taken over my life! Now I need to just exercise my body with the same focus! But I need to do more than exercise my fingers as I sit glued to the computer screen writing!