Saturday, January 15, 2011

You Write...

For a long time the fact that I write has been something that I’ve kept to myself, and even after starting Blogger Girlz with Ella it’s only been in the past couple of months that I’ve gotten to the point where I can write about writing. I'm still learning the ropes about talking about it.


This November I started mentioning to people I know that I was doing NaNoWriMo. It was a little disturbing how surprised they were that I write for fun. My parents were stunned. My brother was astonished. My friends were bowled over. My host teachers weren’t surprised.


They were excited, and I should have known right then I was in trouble.


When I say “I write” I know exactly what I mean. It may not sound all that specific, but in reality it is. “I write” is just a short form way of saying “I write Adult/ Young Adult fantasy books most of which are based at least in part on other stories.” I know this is what I mean when I say “I write,” so it makes sense that the rest of the world should some how know this too.


My host teachers debunked this idea. They probably realized that I had something I particularly liked to write, but at the same they seemed to assume that since I could write type of thing I could write anything.


This assumption is what led them to look at me on afternoon and say “Aaron, you write…” To which I hesitantly answered “yeah.” Then the trouble started “you should write a beginner reader about fairies!”


That is the story of how I ended up spending my break wading through websites about children’s books. Having learned my lesson now instead of saying “I write” I’ve started saying “I write Adult/ Young Adult fantasy books most of which are based at least in part on other stories.” It’s more of a mouth full, but definitely worth it.


- Aaron


2 comments:

Karen Jones Gowen said...

I'm glad that so many and especially your teachers were supportive of you when you told them about your writing. I kept my writing a secret for years, mostly because it was like saying "I'm on a diet." Nothing really changed so why tell people LOL?

BK Mattingly said...

:) I'll definitely have to remember this when I start student teaching.