On Writing
A wise and well-published man once told me that everyone has a book in them. And I believe this to be true. Writing is something I encourage anyone to do. But the journey may be a bumpy one.
When I first began writing popular style, I was in a Writer’s Group, which was very helpful; but I confess that I was intimidated by the wonderful works of others.
As I read and re-read my short stories, I struggled to say things in a way that entertained or informed or instructed. But I kept at it. Month after month, I submitted short stories to this group of very capable writers. And each time I got helpful advice. At one meeting, a highly regarded writer looked at me and said, “Cheryl, you are a writer. You have a voice and I look forward to reading more of what you have to say.”
Since that time of encouragement, I have written hundreds of thousands of words; but in print, only a fraction are available to the public. From my years of writing, cutting, tossing or saving stories, there are a few things I have come to understand. To accomplish the aim of becoming an author, I needed four things. In the words of Dave Ramsey, I needed a mentor, a cheerleader, a coach, and a friend. I was blessed to have all four in my journey.
What is mindfully intended must transition. Getting one’s thoughts out of our daydreams and into printed form takes initiative and risk. In the image shown here are two novels that I have written. The first one The Choice to Remain in Heaven was so awful (in my opinion) that I had to go back and try again, and again, and again to get it right. The colored paper clips and tabs illustrate the number of changes I had to make to the original issue. I nearly drove my publishing assistant to turn in his resignation. But he persevered and never complained…he may resign later but for now, he has helped me with a Revised Original.
We need to hold in our hand what we have written so that one can touch it, see it, feel it and share it.
For many years my writings were scientific or medical; these were fairly easy to write because I just had to look up a reliable journal article, cite it and place it in a bibliography. After ten years of writing these fact-based articles, books resulted: Guide to Hemochromatosis, Guide to Anemia, The Hemochromatosis Cookbook, and Exposing the Hidden Dangers of Iron. Then I began helping my father-in-law Webb Garrison, Sr. write about the Civil War. As fascinating as history can be, my heart wanted to write something else…at the time, I wanted to write about my near-death experience—my visit to Heaven when my son was born…but just didn’t know how. Ron Pitkin, a good friend and well known in the publishing field, read some of my early attempts and remarked: “Intellectually, Cheryl, you make your point, but you need to shape this into a novel.” That is how my journey began. -30-