IWSG #14 ~ May 2014

Alex J. Cavanaugh created this awesome group, which I'm proud to take part in every month (or just about every month, lol). The IWSG now has its own blog as well. Click here to add your post link to the list. 

The first Wednesday of every month you can share your worries without judgement and/or your triumphs with complimentary confetti! ;D Join us - it's fun, a great way to connect with fellow writers, and we all can support one another! 

I'm still feeling pretty good about this whole writing thing. ;) Right now I'm reading a book for review called All My Restless Life to Live by Dee DeTarsio, about a soap opera writer who gets mysterious messages from her dad's computer after her own crashes. This book reminds me of all the writing projects I used to work on when I was a kid. 

I have always been a soap opera fan. I've been watching soaps since I was in the womb! My mom and grandma watched all the CBS shows - The Young & the Restless, The Bold & the Beautiful, the now-defunct As the World Turns (R.I.P.!), and Guiding Light (also cancelled, R.I.P.!). My mom also bought Soap Opera Weekly, which I read RELIGIOUSLY. 

I'd make issues of my own soap magazine and write my own scripts for Young & the Restless and Bold & the Beautiful (early fan fic?). My Barbies would act out the scripts, lol. I'd make my sister be a couple characters, too.  

I used to write and draw comic books, inspired by the Archie comics I read. When I was in sixth grade, I wrote a "book" over my spring break called Seven Friends which was basically my idea of cool future plans for us all. Unfortunately, I lost it. >.< 

For English class that same year we had to write and illustrate a children's book. Mine was called The Pen and the Penguin, about a penguin author with writer's block who conquered it by working with his pen (who was alive of course!). I'm not sure if I still have it or not; one day I'm going to look for it at my dad's house. He told me my mom saved everything, but there were some things stored in the shed that he had to throw out when mice got into it (there's a cornfield behind his house). 

I used to make newsletters, too, and hand them out to my family. I'm sure they just loved those, haha. 

So thinking about all of this made me realize how much of my childhood I spent writing and dreaming of being an author. When I got into high school, I wrote poetry and short stories. I've kept a journal since I was nine years old. Look at all the book reviews and blog posts I write, too! 

My point is, so I may have put away that novel I began a while ago. But I'm still writing everyday. My goal is to allot ten minutes to writing my novel everyday. I think that's a totally doable goal to start out with, and if I write longer than ten minutes, then even better! 

I hope you enjoyed strolling with me down memory lane. Do you have any childhood projects you worked on and forced on your family, too? ;)