Write, Write, Write

I am currently enrolled in a children's writing course through The Institute of Children's Literature. This course focuses on writing for the magazine market. I can choose to either write fiction or non-fiction for each assignment. Since I've studied, and successfully marketed fiction, I decided to concentrate on non-fiction.

I never thought I'd be interested in writing non-fiction, but listening to my kids ask questions and talk to each other has given me more subjects than I will ever have time to write about. One question will lead to another which will invariably lead to another. I have notebook pages filled with possible article ideas and I'm interested in pursuing each idea. Thinking about what I can learn along the way is exciting. I want to learn about sea horses, rocks, and how to measure the weight of clouds. There's so much to learn and so little time to learn all of it.

I decided to take the course from ICL because I believed it would help me learn how to write non-ficiton more quickly and more efficiently than my own researching and reading could provide and because I wanted personal feedback from an instructor on how to improve my writing. I'm constantly working to improve my skills and often wonder if I'll ever feel like I actually know what I'm doing. I'm not sure that I'll ever feel like a real writer, especially since so many writers know so much more, and write so much better, than I do.

Once in a while, I wish I could escape the desire to write. I know I'd get a lot more cleaning done. I'd probably cook better meals. I'd have more time to sew, do crafts, make meals for others, and iron that growing pile of wrinkles in my laundry room. Yet, I can't seem to imagine my life without writing. It's such a part of me. I tried to quit. Once. I guess I'll keep at it until I'm too old to write anymore or I write everything I want to write, whichever comes first.