Writing About Writing

I'm in a coffee shop downtown and in a random sort of mood, so today I'm going to write about writing. Specifically my writing history and how I started writing about disability issues.

This is sort of inspired by a conversation I had in Phoenix with a friend's mother. She liked reading my blog posts and asked me what made me get into writing. I told her about wanting to write comics, and getting into Scriptwriting, then pitching my own story a few years later. I remembered the brief conversation the other day, and got thinking about just how far back my interest in writing, both fiction and non, has gone.

For me, writing started way, way back when I was six years old and in the first grade. We had to write in journals each day, and because of my disability, I got to use a computer. While the other students were certainly writing about sports, friends, or their pets, I (of course) was writing about adventures involving superheroes and a number of strange creatures.

Later on in high school, I got my first computer and, between school assignments, started writing again. Same mix of heroes and creatures, only the stories had expanded and matured a little.

In college, I took a creative writing class and started to write non-fiction. Stories of dragons and two-headed tigers were replaced by mini essays about my disability or attending Easter Seals Camp Merrywood when I was younger.

It was around this time that I had started to get more serious about public speaking, with focus on transitioning to adulthood with a disability. While I was coming up with ideas, I had found a website that accepted stories from young adults with disabilities. On a whim, I turned one of my presentations into an article and submitted it. The site posted it and I liked seeing my work online.

Shortly after, I applied to Scriptwriting, got in, and went in that direction, pitching comics and one-act plays for a while. I kept at it for about a year or two after graduating, then hit a wall. In a moment of boredom, I found the transitioning article that had been published. It inspired me to find a website, Support for Special Needs, that was interested in similar articles. The one article turned into a short series which I kept at for another couple years.

Then came the Joubert diagnosis, which led to more speaking, which led to this blog.

Future plans include a book and probably more submitted articles but, for now, that's the future.

And now my drink's gone and my ride's probably nearby, so I think that about wraps this one up.

Cheers!