How I started Writing. . .

Hey y’all

I was thinking what should be my next blog about when I realized I haven’t really talked about writing. That was the whole point of this thing. I wanted to not just practice writing but also to talk about, maybe even find fellow writers who are just starting to build their craft, just like me. So I thought what would be a good blog about writing, and I thought wouldn’t it be nice to let the people know how I got into writing songs and my novel, and blog writing.

So let’s start with song writing.

I’ve always written poetry. Ever since I was a little kid in elementary, poetry was my way of expression. I couldn’t draw. I couldn’t dance (or at least enough to think I myself was good). I couldn’t do anything really except write poetry. So that’s what I did.

I’ve also been surrounded by music all my life. For my family, music is more than just notes. It’s a passion that we love deeply. I remember listening to my dad, playing his acoustic guitar, singing songs. One particular song I think about a lot is John Denver’s ‘I’m Sorry’. I used to hide behind my dad’s den door when he would sing that song, and he sung with such passion and sadness that I would start to cry.

So when I started to get older and understand that song lyric were like poetry, I started writing songs. But it was always in the background until my sister and brother got me a gift card to Tom Lee Music five/six years ago. I bought my first guitar and everything changed. All of sudden it wasn’t just a bunch of word on a paper, but a lyrics with musical notes and more importantly, with a meaning. I am forever grateful for my older bro and sis for the gift.

Novel writing was a bit different, and it didn’t happen over decades of time.

In one of my old departments, I would be the newsletter writer. Simply a page or two about what’s going on in the department and in the company as a whole. Just normal stuff. Until one day, we found out the department was leaving my work and being outsourced.

A lot of people were told in a few months, they wouldn’t have a job. Stay on long enough to transition it over then out the door. It was a sad feeling. I still look back and miss the people I never saw again cause of that department moving. At the time, I was pretty hurt and distraught. While I was lucky enough to find a different job at my work, not many were. I was still asked to make a newsletter every two weeks. One particular edition I was asked to write about change and how it’s good and to be cheery and then add the manager’s and HR’s number if anyone needs help. I sat down to write it but I couldn’t. I wasn’t in a cheery, happy mood. I was scared and worried for my friends. And I missed them already, even they were still there. So instead I wrote from the heart. I wrote how I was feeling and how it was alright to feel those feelings of hurt and confusion, and frustration. In the end, I compromised. One side of the newsletter was my story. The other side was some advice from a seminar that my company gave about the year before about handling change. It turned out to be loved by my boss. She loved it and actually passed it on to other departments in other sites for my company, as they too were losing people.

After that, I thought that maybe, just maybe I was pretty good at this whole writing thing. So I decided to write a novel about something I knew a lot about: Star Trek. After six months of writing about a new Red Squad cadet team flying out into space, I realized it sucked and I had no idea where it was going. So I ditched it and started again. This time with a brand new idea, centering on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Please see the Book of Revelation, in the Holy Bible).

Finally, blog writing.

While all that stuff is true about wanting to practice writing, and make a community of writers to help me write, but really, the real reason, is I can’t say the things I write here. I could never say certain things. That that are close to my heart, or things that mean a lot to me. I could never seem to express them right. But I’ve never had the problem when I write. I could always put down on paper or blog what I couldn’t say out loud. Like I would never had told anyone about how I hate missing people, or how I don’t think I’ve treated the new girl at work very good. But this blog let me say something, and helped me sort it out in my head.

Also, everyone is doing it. Never let be said that BJ doesn’t follow the crowd.

Anyways, that’s how I started writing. How about you? How did you get into doing what you’re passionate about!

BJB