Hello, My Name Is…
I hate doing the whole “online introduction” thing. I don’t know why, but I always feel like I’m sitting in a big circle with a couple hundred other people, doing the whole “Hello, my name is…” routine. But, here goes nothing.
Hello, my name is Christine Graves and I am a writer. I started writing online in the mid 90s doing a column in one of the first e-zines for writers and went from there. I had a couple sites of my own, as well as being a copywriter and ghost writer for many other bloggers around the world. I had my own bi-weekly newsletter called The Prompt Writer that actually grew into quite the publication.
I was doing rather well for myself until late 2011. I had to walk away from it all. In January 2012, I started my entire life over…from scratch. I ended up working 3 real world jobs, was trying to support myself and my pregnant daughter, and put my entire writing career on the back burner. I just didn’t feel like I had it in me anymore.
I spent 7 months just trying to find my place in the world when life threw another curve ball at me. I ran into my very first boyfriend from Jr. High School. Okay, so we were both now in our 40s, but I still got all twitter-pated when I saw him. Come to find out, he was in the same boat as I was and things just got better from there. A little over year later, we got married.
Skip ahead 6 ½ years and I found myself wanting to write again. I’d tried and failed throughout all that time. Everything I’d write felt forced. But here about 3 months ago, some voices in my head wouldn’t quit bugging me, so I sat down and put them to paper. Yes, I actually wrote the whole scenario out…long hand. I couldn’t quit. It wasn’t a long piece, only about 600–800 words, but it was real. Actual characters, a real plot, a beginning-middle-and end. I felt as though I’d finally come up for air.
I sat down and started looking for writing sites again. Wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking for, but I knew I’d know it when I saw it. And I did. It was called Medium.com. I haven’t written as much or felt so satisfied in a very long time. I felt like I was back in the game.
I don’t know where my writing will lead me, but I do know I’m enjoying myself again. I feel like I can once again look at the world and honestly say, “I am a writer”.
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