Round Robin Blog for November

The question we were asked this month is: How has writing rewarded you? What has it cost you?

I can honestly say that writing has rewarded me far more than I ever expected. In terms of what it cost me? Maybe a few friendships along the way but life is all about checks and balances and I have made many more friends in the writing community.

Being an army family we moved to the beat of its drum so I never knew how long we would be in one place. The reward, though, of each new school was discovering its library and there, I excelled because I read books way above my grade and so became popular with the librarians who were often the English teachers, too. Yes, I sucked up big time in order to get my hot little hands on more books than the curriculum required.

In my early teens, I switched from reading to writing. I was absolutely convinced I had what it took to be an author. Sadly, my tales of Virginia, Girl of the Golden West, went nowhere due, in retrospect, to the largely purple prose of the author. I tinkered with writing, gaining along the way prizes for essay writing at school and good passes in English Literature and Grammar (taught as separate subjects back then).   

Once I left school, writing faded into the background as I discovered boys, movies, and rock n’ roll – not necessarily in that order. However, I was always writing something, even if it was only an annual report for work until I decided to write a book for my daughter. The book was If Wishes Were Horses and took me two years to complete but it satisfied me in a way that reading didn’t. There was nothing better than curling up with a notebook (yes, I wrote in longhand) beside a blazing fire with the dogs snoring on the hearth once the kids were in bed, or shutting myself in my room on Sundays with a flask of coffee and a pile of sandwiches.  

Over the years I know my writing has caused coolness in some friendships because of the days when I’ve said ‘no’ to this or that proposed outing because I wanted to write. The times, mostly with family, when I have been uncommunicative because I was deep in my story have not necessarily been understood. Joining a writing group was the best thing I ever did because, being with other people who ‘get it’, is just the best. Overall, writing has given me much more in terms of satisfaction than just about anything else, so for me there has been far more reward than cost.

Check out these other fine writers and see what they have to say:

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
A.J. Maguire  http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-1qD
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com
Rhobin L Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com