Use what you’ve been through as fuel, believe in yourself and be unstoppable!
I write because I have a lot to say. I was born to write. To put pen to paper and create pieces that will inspire and motivate people to pick themselves up and try again. I write because I want to give hope and strength to as many as I can on their most cloudy day and remind them of their potential every other day.
As a teen, I was the girl who loved stories and poems and everything literature with a maddening obsession. I wrote because I was shy and could not bring myself to use my voice, so I used my words. I wrote my heart out and I loved it. I wrote because I had characters to bring to life, poems to give rhymes and verses and a subconscious to satisfy.
- The First Hadley Novel I Ever Read. Retrieved From: google images
My head was mostly buried in a notebook or my collection of African poems and I had a collection of James Hadley Chase novels as well. I bought a new novel every week with my lunch money until my shelf was overflowing with Hadley novels. After a while I decided to try to write something. The first poem I wrote...Well, I don't quite remember the words but it was something about life's complexity. I moved on to write a short story and just like that I was hooked.
I continued to write as I branched out to drama, prose and random thoughts on several issues. It wasn't long before I moved on from the James Hadley Chase club. To broaden my scope I discovered the likes of Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel and Sidney Sheldon, and as I grew, my thirst to improve my writing grew as well. I did not want to write like the little girl who very much wanted to be like Hadley Chase, I wanted to be more like Robert Ludlum and John Grisham, so I read and read and read.
Till date, I always carry a notepad and a pen with me wherever I go, I have a holder packed with a bunch of pens (some of which I've never used) and a shelf stacked with books. I prefer to scribble down my thoughts on paper instead of the note app on my phone, but I'm getting into the phone thing gradually and I find that it isn't as bad.
I write because it is satisfying, not a day goes by without my random scribbling (It's the fun part of my day, everyday). When I'm too tired to write, I open my phone recording app and record my random musings. I write when I'm happy, sad, angry or whatever...I just write and I've come to find that you cannot grow as a writer if you don't read more than you actually write. It's 20-80. Write 20% and read 80%.