Tuesday - The Writer's Life - Decision #MFRWauthor #Decisions #am writing

To become a writer - This all begins with a decision. I do hope if you read this you will share your decision to start writing as a career.

Now for me. I made the decision several times. When I was in high school, I started a dozen books and most were never finished. What I did then was try to imitate those who were my favorite stories. Did you try this, too?

Unfortunately, nurses' training took most of my interest. I still read but mostly textbooks and little for pleasure. The decision had been put on a shelf to be taken out later. I graduated, got married and the second time came when I decided to become a writer.

Think of pneumonia and being sent home from the hospital with prescriptions to a lonely attic apartment. My husband was in medical school so he was gone all day. I had stopped at the library before walking home and picked up a number of books, as many as they would let me take at one time. I also bought yarn so I could make afghans for people for Christmas. My father and aunt brought me books to read. Then my sister-in-law sent a shopping bag full of sweet nurse romances. I settled down to read these and after the first five, I decided I could write a better book. Unfortunately that decision didn't stick.

The sticking one came when my husband and I, along with our first child ended up on an Indian reservation with the Public Health Service. The library there had a lot of western books and I read them all. There was little else as far as books were concerned. Though I did read a few classics, or re-read them. Then came the day I went to a college library not far from where we shopped and nearly an hour from the reservations. This time, I bought books about writing and that's when the real decision came. Learning all the things a writer has to know started then. I filled notebooks with information on plot, character, settings. So the decision had been made. I would become a writer. Several years later, I sold my first short story and the decision was finalized.

How about you? How did you decide to become a writer? Let me know.