We all have those snippets of time that either reinforce the desire to write or wipe it away.  I tend to think the people who really really want to be writers are too stubborn to give up no matter who says what.  If you think about it, no matter who says what, it’s just an opinion.  You can live by it, you can let it live, or you can live it down.  Those are the choices, and what becomes of your writing will be determined by how much stock you put in those opinions.  This isn’t to say that all negative comments about a person’s writing are unfair.  But negative comments do help you grow if you put them in their proper places.

I’ve been thinking about the moments that have defined my writing career.  Contrary to what you might think, not all of them actually involved writing.  They just impacted the writing that came after it.

Now about those defining moments.

Moment 1:  This happened when I first figured out that my obsession with words isn’t typical.  After all, how many four-year-olds are so excited to learn that pan really only has three letters and they can actually spell it?

Moment 2:  My first real computer.  Okay, so it was a TRS-80.  I could type stories on it and it was free!

Moment 3:  I wrote my first novel in ninth grade.  Okay, it was a terrible novel.  It will never see the light of day, and if my husband doesn’t bury it with me, I will haunt him unmercifully.  On second thought, he might want to bury it separately or burn it.  I don’t want it stuck with me forever.

Moment 4:  When the first boy I ever loved died.  I was fifteen, and I’ve never forgotten his funeral.  Two of my novels that I wrote years later  have dedications to him.

Moment 5:  When my children were born.  I think everything in my life totally changed.

Moment 6:  When my sixteen-year-old became obsessed with my Sojourner Series.  She refused to let the printed copies go until I gave her a book copy.  This is major!  Teenagers are difficult to please, and offspring are impossible.  Still not sure how that happened.

Moment 7:  When my parents died.  Again, I think everything changed.  It forced me to re-evaluate my priorities about a writing career.  Then I decided to self-publish.

Moment 8:  When people started reviewing my books on Amazon.  It’s kind of like having all these people looking at you and you look behind you because they can’t be looking at you….