I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing, when I didn’t have a narrator in my head turning my actions into sentences, when I wasn’t full of story ideas, when I didn’t itch to pick up a pencil and use my hand to form words on paper, when my favorite toy wasn’t my grandmother’s electric typewriter.
Each morning, my friends waited for me to deliver the spiral notebook I’d filled the night before with the next installment of our saga, the serial adventures of glamorous, grown-up versions of ourselves, intricately, confusingly, soapily plotted together at lunchtime or in the notes we passed during class.
With my mother’s encouragement, I transformed a walk-in closet into a writing space and spent most of the two years I took off between high school and college sitting on the floor with my typewriter, producing hundreds of pages of unfinished novels.
Years of grad school dulled my love of writing, as I bent and twisted clarity into something opaque and difficult and properly academic.
My writing comes in fits and starts now, held in a shelf of writer’s notebooks, a computer file of unfinished stories and essays, and the occasional output on this blog, but there is never a time when I am not forming sentences in my head that long to be written.
This prompt came from It’s Elementary and Multifaceted Musings. Thanks for the inspiration!
I love pieces of writing like this. I’m not a writer, but I’d like to be one someday. Taking part in the Slice challenge has sparked something in me. It has sparked an interest in developing my thoughts into words on paper (or on the computer). I’m glad to be on this journey with you, even though I’m sure you’re light years ahead of me with your writing process and progress. Thanks so much for sharing!
I am so glad you’re taking part in this challenge and discovering that you are a writer!
Bam, you have really conveyed so much in five sentences! I love that writing closet!
It became a challenge to see how many clauses I could pack into each sentence! I wish I had a writing closet now!
A lifetime of writing in five beautifully crafted sentences! I love the typewriter in the closet. Do you send your writing out for publication? Maybe it’s time…
I have always had a finishing problem! And now I think I have a starting problem too. More to ponder and resolve!
I still have and love your story about the sea creatures and motorcycle boy. I well remember that green closet.
It was a hideous color truly. But I thought it was so fancy!
So much of life put into just five sentences. You and your friends plotted during lunch and you wrote things out at night. My favorite line, ” there is never a time when I am not forming sentences in my head that long to be written.”
Always! Realizing that today, I’m wondering why I don’t write more since I’m always writing in my head!
Was that legit only five sentences? Woah! that’s impressive. I felt immersed in each stage, could imagine the enthusiasm and drive along the way. Hands down my favorite line: “as I bent and twisted clarity into something opaque and difficult and properly academic.” *Applause*
Only five sentences, and it was a real writing challenge for me too. I noticed the mentor texts used quite lengthy sentences, packing a whole memoir into each line, so I tried that too. My natural style is short and simple, I think, so this was tough. Remembering brought up so much I hadn’t thought about in so many years!
These five sentences were great! I bet that they took so much time to write. Your shared spiral notebook makes me smile!
Those are five awesome sentences. Wow! I loved this. I love the story you tell & the complexity of your sentences. That first one was especially fun as I got into the swing of things – and you didn’t even use a semicolon!
So much in five sentences! I loved the image of little you, typing away in the closet and writing stories for and with all your friends. It’s a pity how much education – even grad school – chips away at that kind of joy in writing. (It’s what I come back to the March slicing every year for!)
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Yes, that is an interesting style for sure and you packed so much into those five sentences! Will have to give it a go. Well done for all the writing you’ve done over the years, you must be so practised and find it relatively easy to get going.
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Love this and your concluding thought – “there is never a time when I am not forming sentences in my head that long to be written.” So glad you’re writing with us this month. I’ve missed you.
Thank you for this inspiring post. You remind me of my students who would write comics and trade them on the playground. And college, so sad that the academic can push away a writing spirit such as you.