About

The first time I wrote anything significant, at least to me, was around the third grade. The assignment could have been completed in just a few sentences, but when I got to that point, I was just getting started.

I don’t remember the assignment or what I wrote at the time. I just remember my teacher was not amused.

Of course, I would have to learn to follow instructions if I wanted to get anywhere. It set my writing back a bit to have such an early and negative critique.

Why write now? Maybe now, as then, I enjoy doing it.

I have a friend who is a writer. I showed her a piece I wrote several years ago. She told me that when she read it, it gave her goosebumps. Her reaction to that one piece is why I write now.

But I still remember my earliest criticism from elementary school. I do not have to follow any guidelines to do this now, and I don’t know how many times I can write a piece that might give a person goosebumps.

Maybe the reaction to strive for is someplace in the middle ground, between having someone wish I would just end this now, and my writer friend’s reaction.

All I know now is that I want to write. If something I write gives you goosebumps, I would appreciate it much more than if you told me you wished I would just stop.