Respect Writers

My whole life since I was a little girl I would write things down about what I heard, saw or felt. I wrote because I did not want to forget how a certain moment made me feel. Writing for me was like taking a picture. I wrote it down and I had it to keep as long as I wanted. I began to fall in love with my own words on paper. What a cool feeling to read your own words and be moved by them days later.

As I got older I got a bit more sophisticated and I bought journals to write my history on paper and I stored them elegantly on shelves. I did not refer to them as "my diaries", but my journals. Out of that my thinking blossomed into "I love doing this writing thing." And so, a writer was born when I was a lost teenager looking for an escape.

As I wrote I felt release and freedom. I could say whatever I wanted to say. I could curse my parents out, my teachers, that boyfriend that treated me wrong, whatever I wanted to say I could put it on paper and no one else had to know. That was good therapy for me, and when I got older I wasn't surprised when my therapist told me to keep a journal of how I was feeling and look back over it every so often and see if you have any patterns. Good advice, because I indeed had patterns of self destructive behavior that caused me a great many consequences.

All this to say that writing became an invaluable tool for my sanity as I went thru my teens, 20's, 30's and now 40,s.

About five years ago I shared some of my writing with someone that said I had a lot to say and the wisdom was so rich it seemed like a crime to keep all that to myself. He told me I shouldn't keep that shut up in a journal on a shelf, but that I should write a book and put it out for others to read and gain from. So over the past 2 years I started writing my first book.

I absolutely loved writing and forming characters, and developing settings, and finally coming up with a powerful theme for the story line. I never had writers block, but there were times when I had to walk away from writing because I began to feel things again that hurt from the past, but in the end it made my writing more intriguing and raw. I fed off that old pain and wrote my heart and soul down on the pages. A book was born for the world to read.

Now I'm thrilled to report, the book is about to be published, but not after going thru more rejection than I was ready for.

I wanted to write this hub to give my uppermost respect to all those who first of all sit down and create such great stories and put them down on paper. Then my hats off to those who for one reason or another publish their book using non-conventional methods, such as having an agent and a publishing company to hold their hand throughout the process until the date the book is released to the public.

I have respect for those writer's who are lucky enough to pickup by agents and publishing houses, no doubt I do, but I have an even greater respect for those that either self publish or go another route, because doing it on your own is truly a masterful work of art to be done. I respect the writer that will create his or her own buzz and do all the creative marketing and promotional work involved in getting a new book off the ground and into the hands of the readers. I know first hand that it is a dauntingly long and lonely road at times, but I believe deeply in my heart that it is worth it.

To all those writers and those beginning to write, I respect your craft and the mindset you have for writing and I encourage you to never give that up and when you are ready to be published, don't let anyone or any rejection letter deter you from your goal of being an author.

I love and respect the time and endurance it takes and I feel very proud to be among that special group known as writers!