The Writer Who Didn't Write

Confession: While I fancy myself a writer, I'm finding it harder and harder to actually write anything.

Okay, sure I write plenty of papers and things for my courses, but that doesn't count to me as actual writing. I mean the creative, stay up until 4 am because you can't get the dialogue onto the page fast enough, falling in love with your characters kind of writing.

I'm proud to say that last night I finally got something down on a page.

Granted, I have no idea if this story has a plot, what the plot is, why the characters are doing what they're doing and if I even like them. But it's at least writing.

Maybe this is like riding a bike for the first time in years. Yes, you can still do it. No, it isn't glamorous and you'll probably fall off, pull a muscle, or steer into something. The point is  you got back on the bicycle and you're trying.

Now I just need to resist the urge to flat out delete my work. I told a friend once that I didn't have any of my old writing because I got frustrated and deleted it all - he yelled at me for a good five minutes. He even offered to set up an email address for me to send everything to if I feel like hitting the delete button, just in case I wanted to look at it again in the future. In writing, it's important to be able to examine past work, and sometimes you find plots and characters that are worth revisiting now that you're a little older, wiser, and have a different perspective.

Besides, how can I really call myself any kind of writer if I never actually write anything except term papers and blog entries? Time to stretch my imagination a little. 

~Megan