A new year, a new … (insert preference here) – an IWSG blog post #IWSG

This post is part of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, an awesome blog hop frequented by writers of all kinds; those new to writing, those who are more seasoned, those who do it full time and those who dip in and out. For more details go to the main sign-up page, and why not drop by a few blogs while you’re there. Make sure you’ve got plenty of time though, you could be there longer than you thought …

• 

The question posed for this month’s post is:

What started you on your writing journey?

The answer to this is something that I immediately thought was easy to come by, but the more I think about it the more elusive it is.

When I was at primary school, probably aged about 9/10 years old, we were tasked with writing an autobiography of sorts, in which I wrote that I wanted to be an author when I grew up. However, my studies veered away from English towards the sciences, mainly because I thought it would be easier to get a job in that area.

Throughout my teens and early adulthood I didn’t write anything, but my interest was sparked again when I returned to work after having my first daughter. My job changed slightly and I was assigned to work with someone different in a new department. We started talking about non-work related things (as you do) and it turned out that he also had an interest in writing and stories. We would bounce ideas off each other and even made a start on an outline for a joint venture, although it never really materialised into much.

It was definitely thanks to him that I started to put pen to paper, or rather hands to keyboard, and write stories of varying lengths. Now I’m sat here thinking about it, I realise this was actually ten years ago. Where has the time gone?!

Over that time my portfolio has grown very slowly and I’ve got more unfinished drafts than finished ones. Having my second daughter has definitely slowed things down, practically to a halt, but I try and free write for at least 15 minutes each day.

As we start a fresh new year, I’m filled with optimism and enthusiasm to kick-start my writing once again, and where better to start than with an IWSG blog post to ground myself and get my head in the right (write?) space? I’m reluctant to come up with specific New Year’s resolutions, but I would like to up my writing output over the next twelve months and maybe send out my stories to a place or two. Here’s hoping that by the end of the year the number of finished stories will outweigh the number of unfinished ones.

How did you get into writing?

What was your inspiration?

Have you set any goals for 2020?