A Brand New Toy

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end”

~From the song “Closing Time” by Semisonic

Well I guess this is my new beginning, although I can’t put my finger on exactly what just ended so this could begin, but that’s perfectly fine.  I’m positive other things have ended before and I didn’t know it and I’m sure there have been things that have started and I didn’t know why, so why should this be any different.  I’ll say this right up front; I do not claim to be the world’s greatest writer!  I’ve only been introduced to this whole world of blogging for about a week or so now.  Am I nervous, you bet.  I don’t know what I am doing for sure yet, but as a quick learner I am sure I will catch on in no time!  After all the best thing I could have done to learn is to take the first step which I have obviously done!

I have liked writing since I was in grade school, first grade to be precise.  I wrote a story for the Young Authors competition in our district.  Garwood the Honking Goose was my first attempt at writing a story and it garnered me a first place blue ribbon at the awards ceremony.  I was very excited that I got to go on stage and accept my ribbon from my principal.  From that point on and throughout grade school I tried to repeat my success but had no luck, still I liked writing, but as Junior High called I put it to the wayside.

High school was another story.  I found myself in the computer lab during study hall to write along with any other free time I could find at school.  I wrote stories about my job at the grocery store, I wrote jobs about my theater club, things I knew about at the time.  Of course writing mystery and suspense types of stories were my favorite because I like the element of surprise and not knowing exactly what was going to happen next.  The few people I let read my stories were very intrigued with the way I wrote, which made me happy!  I love positive feedback; I also liked critiques from teachers because that helped make me a better writer.

After high school I continued to write, even revamping some stories and combining some so they were longer and more interesting.  I wrote one about working at the treatment plant and shared it with the people I worked with.  They thought I was a little warped but I didn’t mind, I liked writing.  My ultimate goal was to write a full fledged novel.  I went as far as buying a binder, and filling it with paper.  I had even brainstormed ideas for the story, which was going to be about the treatment plant.  I had my character roster and everything!  Of course over time I had less and less enthusiasm about it, eventually I stopped writing altogether because I had less time for it and even less inspiration to do it. 

Over the next several years I would get ideas and write them down, whether it was the beginning of a story, the “epilogue” to a story, or even an excerpt from the middle, but still nothing came of it, they are just ideas that have now been mostly lost.  About a month ago I decided that I wanted to write again, I had no inspirations for a new story but had an idea on how to fix that!  I pulled out my old stories, at least the ones I could find, and started re-typing them and revising them as I went along.  So far I have finished two and have one more to go and I am hoping that at the end of it I might have enough inspiration to write a brand new one!

Of course I am still thrilled with the whole idea of blogging; it reminds me of a creative writing class I took.  Every day the instructor would write a quote on the board and we’d have to write about it.  I liked how it made me think and how different everyone’s opinions would be.  So I don’t know if this new blogging toy’s luster will eventually fade but I don’t think it will for a really long time!  I like this new beginning and hope that I can be successful at it!  Sometimes you just have to jump in with both feet and do your best!