by Ann Taylor

Created on: March 06, 2009   Last Updated: March 12, 2009

From the first pages of "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron, and forward through the entire trilogy, I was hooked on writing. Finally, my eyes were open! Yes, I can! And to this day, I keep trying. No, I am not published, nor am I well-known, and never have I had a writing course, other than a college English class where my creativity was horribly lacking. But, genetics carry us a long way.

My mother was a published writer. She started her career in the newspaper business and eventually published a book in the 1960's about the Civil War. Her book remains in circulation to this day, and she was able to track it through its glory days until her death this past year. When she autographed my personal copy of her book, she wrote, "To Ann who helped me by being good while I wrote."

I "helped her" by following her voice as I scanned the manuscript, my task to find errors on the pages, which became a great learning tool and a very big part of my high-tech profession. Obviously, I also helped her by staying out of her way while she wrote. I was only nine, and even then, a free spirit who wanted to go, go, go. But, it's true that our best writing occurs when our surroundings are exactly the way we need it.

I like my writing space to be quiet, usually occurring at the break of day, always with some music playing in the background, but definitely quiet. Words just seem to sing to me. They find their way into my mind like a melody that I can't stop humming. I follow the notes perfectly through the score - the inflections, the screaming, the laughter, the sadness and the joy - always sweet music to my ears. At times, I must jolt myself to remain fully aware and remember to capture every word on paper, assuming they are worth the effort. But truly, all words are worth the effort. They may not make any sense at the moment, but they will always find their way into a paragraph at some point in time. And then, there is "flow."

All of us have it. Time just seems to disappear when I write, and it is only when it's over that I realize my masterpiece. Start the presses! And then, without warning, there it is. A misspelled word, an incomplete sentence, or a word without context - now where the heck did that come from? And, how did my software editor miss such a blunder! We tend to forget that we are not perfect.

We all know that life is not perfect. Isn't that why we write? Without imperfection, how can one strive for perfection? Without errors, where is correctness? Without failing, how can one succeed? Without writing, how will my voice be heard? And, without the written word, how boring life would be! That's why I write, mainly for my own peace and happiness, possibly to be noticed some day, but truly, I just enjoy sharing my thoughts. So, if one person reads my words, I'm happy. Even if it's just me!

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