Monday, August 15, 2011

Who Inspires You?

When I was a little girl my mom wrote. Letters. Lists. Notes. I found poems in my grandmother's purse on little snippets of paper, the backs of envelopes, where ever the fancy struck. When I went to elementary school my teacher gave us writing prompts. I loved them! In high school I had a creative writing teacher, Mrs. Dow. She loved everything I wrote and told me that my work would one day be published if I was persistent. She even suggested a couple of literary magazines to submit my poetry to. Back then, I was too chicken to even consider such a thing. I still have all those poems, paragraphs and writings from her class and treasure her comments. The second is Mrs. Moses. One class I'll never forget is her lesson on clauses. Really, clauses. It was this magical aha moment for me. My writing would never be the same. I went home and wrote a really long short story filled with complex/compound sentences. I brought it in to show Mrs. Moses when I was finished some week or so later. She was so impressed that I didn't have to take her final and used my sentences to generate the test. This amazing teacher said to me, "I hope you will always keep writing. You have a gift."

When I was the ripe old age of 22 my husband send me off to the library a couple times a week so that I could spend my evenings writing my first full length novel (by hand, mind you). I would bring my pages home, read them to him and then my sister would type them up on an old fashioned electric typewriter.

When I wrote my second novel, I sent pages of Soulfire, via email, to my mother. That was back when juno was the rage. Mom called me after reading one of my scenes. She was crying. Talk about inspiring. Everything I wrote was amazing to her. You have to love moms, right? They are  what keep us going.

My daughter inspired me to write Identity. She gave me the idea. Hubby and I often spent our Friday night dates just discussing my works in progress and he is a great sounding board. Sometimes I take him on plot walks with me, just so he can vocalize back to me what I'm trying to work through.

My high school teachers are long since gone, my mom has passed on, but my dear husband continues to be my inspiration.

Tell me about who inspires you in your writing.

8 comments:

  1. A huge inspiration for me when I write is music. I connect so much with the lyrics and music of the song. My husband always jokes that I can take any song and get an idea for a novel from it. Now, I haven't actually finished my 1st novel yet, but I'm still working on it. My Dad has been my current source of inspiration. He is always there to answer my random questions, read what I send him, and when I text him, he can always tell I'm worrying and he knows just how to encourage me. My Mom is also a huge inspiration to me.... I figure if she calls me crying and telling me she had to 'take a break' from reading what I wrote that it couldn't have sucked all that bad. My husband is my sounding board. We have this system that we often use when I get stuck and need to talk it out. (He lays flat on the floor, tummy down, and I lay on his back, tummy up. For some reason, this just helps.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love music as well. When I need a particular style of music I got to Pandora and find one that fits what I'm writing. I'm glad you have a support system for writing. I'm lucky I have mine as well. Good luck with your writing, Sara.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love reading what inspires other writers. What inspires me is my husband and reading articles about writing. When people like a story I write it inspires me to write more. Quiet time also inspires me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love feedback, too. It keeps me writing as well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a beautiful, sweet post :0) My daughters inspire me too. It's wonderful having family to write for.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for stopping by Elisabeth.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Absolutely fantastic blog!!! Glad I found it! Love it!!!

    Lola x
    http://lola-x.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete