When the Muse Speaks

I'm often asked what made me consider writing as an avocation.  I tell people that the bug bit me at a young age.  I started my first novel when I was in 5th grade.  It was a war novel.  I was inspired to do so after reading Robert Louis Stevenson's "Kidnapped." I remember writing a couple of chapters, then realizing that this was significantly more work than I had thought.  I put it down, never to return to it.

In college, at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, I especially enjoyed media writing...specifically screenplays.  I vowed at the tender age of 21 to write a screenplay someday.  Then things began to spiral.  I got a job at WGN-Radio after graduation...got married a couple months later...and then within a few years, we were raising a family.  And the dreams of writing were just that...dreams.

It wasn't until I reached  the age of 41 that I faced a moment of truth.  I looked back at the goals I had set for myself 20 years earlier.  And I realized that my dream of writing a screenplay had passed...or had it?  Was I too old to do so now, I wondered.  In an effort to jump start my life, I purchased a cassette program titled "The Psychology of Winning" by Denis Waitley, a motivational writer and speaker.  On the tape, he talked about the people who lived on "Someday I'll."  Notice the spelling.  These are the folk who say, "Someday I'll lose those extra pounds"..."Someday I'll quit smoking"..."Someday I'll learn a new language."  And I suddenly realized that I was also living there.

Denis Waitley's program was my catalyst.  The next day I purchased "Screenplay" by Syd Field, "Creating Unforgettable Characters" by Linda Seger, and screenwriting software.  I began writing in earnest that day...and have been doing so ever since.