Thank You Stephen King!

I have been struggling to make sure that I am writing on a regular basis for myself. Trust me when I tell you that I am writing every day for my work as a grant writer, but this is different. My personal writing goals have different outcomes. As such, I was talking to my little brother about my writing and he suggested that I read Stephen King’s book “On Writing.” As luck would have it, I had a long drive home from vacation last week and was able to listen to it in its entirety. It kept me great company and inspired me to solidify my commitment to my own writing mission. 

Currently, I have published two books, The “Little Kids” and “Mrs. Bovat’s Survival Guide for New Teachers.” I am currently working on a book for substitute teachers and also have a novel started. I have a blog that covers a variety of topics instead of just one; business, resilience, education, and miscellaneous ones like this. So, as I was listening to Mr. King talking about his writing journey and at the same time offering sage advice, it reminded me that I just need to get writing every day for myself. After all, those words aren’t going to magically appear on the page. It takes dedication, grit and lots of time.

Years ago I proclaimed myself a professional writer. For the most part, I believe that to be true. I am a writer and a professional- therefore a professional writer. After listening to this book (and not the first or last book I will read about writing mind you), I have my new mantra.Wait for it … .it is very profound. 

I am a writer and writers write! 

Wild right? Who would have thought that something as simple as that could get me a ticket on the daily writing train. Yet here I am sitting down at my computer each morning making my personal writing the priority over everything else. This morning, I wrote another chapter in my book, but because I didn’t make my daily word count goal I decided to do a blog post instead. 

The book “On Writing” that is narrated by Stephen King himself is witty and straight forward. I truly appreciated his honesty about the process of writing and his fearless approach to sharing his opinion on how to create a solid routine and how he relies on his wife to be his trusted first, middle and last reader. I must have looked like an idiot to those drivers who passed me as I was smiling and laughing all the way home. I was talking to him as the miles passed. Like I said at the beginning, he was great company. What’s even better is that the last words were uttered as I parked in the driveway. Yay! 

So, thank you not only for this book, but for showing us novices a path forward and the push to forge ahead and see where the journey takes us. PS. This post puts me just about at my word count goal (close enough).