Jan 2023 30-day Writing Challenge Day 31

The Time I Discovered I Loved Writing

Doing what I love, loving what I do

Now I am going to quote myself from another post — Meet Vidya Sury published at Everything Fun last month.

It answers this prompt.

When did you start writing?

Quite likely at the age of 2. My mom was studying for her exams. She kept me busy by letting me unleash my creativity with a box of chalk on our beautiful red-oxide floors. Yes, with my tiny carbon footprint, I literally had the floor. I would draw and scribble, pretending I could write. At four, I was sketching comics. When my uncle returned from work, I would draw him a cup of coffee and snacks. I was quick to clear the table with a wet rag and get dinner ready in a trice. At six, I wrote poetry (at least my version of it) and stories from my rather vivid imagination. My mom always encouraged me to write about everything — my feelings, my thoughts, about trips we took, train journeys, etc. I also kept a journal. And continue to enjoy writing. Today, I am lucky to have found my vocation as a writer. Talk about enjoying what I do and never having to work a day in my life!

I am also lucky that writer’s block is afraid of me — because I have too much to say and worry I have too little time to say it.

What genre(s) do you write across?

I pride myself on being able to write about anything, thanks to growing up in a family with a fabulous and enviable library. I was encouraged to read. Classics, westerns and Wodehouse were my favorites. Then, of course, mystery/psychological thrillers/medical-legal crime fiction. I also enjoy autobiographies. I am ever grateful to my mom and my uncle for plying me with books.

Since I read everything I could lay my hands on and worshiped the written word, I tried my hand at writing across various genres both in the female voice and a male voice — I have written non-fiction, fiction (short stories and slightly longish stories, but have not attempted an entire novel), romance, and poetry.

Why, when I launched my freelance writing career after retiring from the corporate world at 33, I even ghost-wrote books for my clients on various subjects. Oh yes, topics as eclectic as “Dating Advice for Men”, “Organic Gardening”, “Cash Flow” (finance), “Paintball”, and several internet marketing topics, self-help, travel, and so on.

Back in 2003, a friend forwarded me a story, which I heavily criticized. He dared me to do better. I did. Erotica. Went on to write eight more. Still receiving fan mail :-P

That being said, I prefer to write non-fiction and am currently working on a series related to the various aspects of diabetes, women’s health, mindfulness, and meditation.

Let me add

Proof that I love writing? I started Keeley Schroder’s 30-day writing challenge (actually it is 31 days) quite enthusiastically. Then on 14 Jan, life happened. I thought maybe I must ditch it because I wasn’t at my computer — mostly outdoors. I mean, who is going to hold a gun to my head if I drifted away?

But no. I could not accept walking away halfway from something I had started.

Once the life-situation kind of settled, I fell sick. And colds/coughs/fluish stuff takes a while to go away. I mean, I was not sick enough to stay in bed, but I wasn’t well enough to be up and about either.

And so, in that state, I wrote feverishly, catching up on the days I had missed. It wasn’t that hard because I had created a file with the prompts and kept adding stuff when I had the time. So all I had to do was build upon it and make it publishable.

And here I am!

At the finish line.

Thank you to my cohort Adrienne Beaumont, Robert G. Longpré — [he/him] — Canadian métis, Katie Michaelson, Brett Jenae Tomlin, Autistic Widower (“AJ”), Bernie Pullen, NancyO, redkitewrites, Karen Schwartz, The Sturg — for the encouraging comments.

Thank you for the mention in your posts. I am privileged to have made some new connections.

Thanks to Keeley Schroder for a fantastic experience. I love writing challenges and this one was no exception, even if the prompts were more uncomfortable than the usual.

Here are the prompts if you’d like to add some grist to your writing mill.