Wish Me Luck! And, The Next Step

Maybe a photo of a four-leaf clover will be as lucky as the real thing.

Back after another…umm…hiatus, but resolved to Post Regularly. Check this out on my other blog for more on that. It also mentions my good news — I submitted an article to a children’s magazine, and the editor is actually interested in buying it! I don’t know if it will all work out yet, but I am happy, happy, happy to be validated in my writing endeavor. Wish me luck!

Now, where was I before the holidays frazzled me into …hiatus?

Let’s review, as I channel my sister, the teacher. You already know I was a work-at-home mom who began piddling around with writing again six or seven years ago. I got more serious with it about four years ago. I went back to school for a year, learned persuasive writing, humor writing (oy! — I am sooo not funny), grammar, and all kinds of creative nonfiction. Et voilà! I had a writing certificate to show for my efforts. I’m not sure what that means in the real world, and I know it’s not like having another college degree, but I do know having a writing certificate from Arizona State University sounds a whole lot better than, “hmm…I piddled around online for a few years to beef up my writing chops.”

I highly recommend going back to school if you are entering or re-entering the writing world. I’m no expert, I know. I haven’t even had anything published… yet (keeping my fingers crossed). But this blog is about my slog through the process (oh, hey — this could be The Blog about the Slog or The Slog Blog…what do you think? )

Also, maybe someone will benefit who may be in the same position I was and am in — work-at-home or stay-at-home parent, with a writing background, but no clue how to get on with it. You can read my previous posts to see how I have tried to educate myself. Don’t worry, though, there aren’t too many yet. Blogging is another part of my education process, and it’s pretty obvious that I am still negotiating that learning curve — a subject for a future post.

So, what was my next step? I took a few baby steps after school, but it was quite a while between those and the next big one. I’m not sure I want to admit to it, and I hesitate to reveal it. But, I will. Next time or the time after. Because aside from going back to school, it was the biggest step I took to further my future writing career.

On a side note, I may have made creative nonfiction sound unappealing last time. It’s really not. In fact, from a personal point of view, I’m thankful I took the classes. They came along just after my father died (four years ago this week). I was able to use the genre to give words to my feelings, analyze them and work through them. It was catharsis…but probably not that great to read as far as creative nonfiction goes.

And I’m not sure I ever want to get so involved in myself again — it’s kind of murky in there.

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