I was asked to start a blog about my writing experience. To be honest, I probably will not be writing a detailed and consistent blog. I'm really busy with writing, though I might post some of my thoughts or experiences.

I began writing in German at age six. I would sit down next to my mom and tell her a story. I would just make it up on the spot. I once thought up a three-minute rhyme and couldn't remember it when I started to write it down. That was my one foray into poetry. While I love poetry and consider making a new commitment to memorizing epic poems, my enjoyment is purely passive. I am just not a poet. And I know it. 

When I was in first and second grade I created fictional siblings my teachers were convinced were actual people. Nowadays I keep fiction on the page, but back then I couldn't help myself. I swallowed stories in any shape or form I could get them--movies (like Gone With the Wind, Giant, and Masterpiece Theatre), books, newspapers, nonfiction, you name it--and had the benefit of being raised by an English teacher, who would sit on my bed and recite epics for me like Beowulf. He would take off on my sick days to read me Kafka and Poe, and the reason I'm telling you all this is to lead up to my first point. 

I'm comfortable in uncomfortable places. My characters rape, abuse others, commit suicide, abandon children in malls, have palpable power relationships with friends, siblings, and parents. I don't kill *everyone*, but I don't shy away from experiences of danger, extremity, or pain in any way. Not all my characters are likable, pleasant, or redeeming. But I try to make 'em interesting.

I'm also saying this because I think, and this is an arrogant thought but one I treasure, that I am born to write. I'm not saying anything about quality. But I can't stop. I knew at six I wanted to be a writer. No matter what other things came my way, I always came back to writing--in a journal or in the classroom, writing is something that I just do. If I don't write for a few days, I become irritable, depressed, and depressing. When I have writer's block I am depressed.

If I had a grandiose writer's dream it would be to create a character that would stick into the cultural consciousness--Jung Werther, Kafka, Quasimodo, Jean Valjean, Scarlett O'Hara. That level of character. Since our cultural consciousness is changing, I doubt that will happen, but hey, I said it was grandiose, remember? 

It's taken a long time for me to pull my writing out of my drawers and computer files, but I've joined a lot of groups, gotten a lot of critiques, and I'm ready. And I'm hungry for it.