origins blogfest | Jennifer M Eaton

I need to interrupt my normal Monday “Gold Mine Manuscript Rejection” Post because today I am part of the “Origins” Blogfest. Tune in Wednesday for my article showing what our favorite publisher red-lined about our beloved manuscript’s Action Scenes.

The Origins Blog Fest

This blogfest is all about your origins as a writer. It can be when you started as a Journalist, what made you want to be a Writer, or even as easy as what made you start Blogging. So, what was it? What made that little sparkle happen? What lit your fire? What made you say: “Holy Cow! I’m a writer.”

If you want to see the Linky list to more great Origin stories, and maybe even hop on board if you are so inclined, your can zing over there by clicking HERE.

I sprouted early. I always had an over-active imagination. I created whole worlds to play in. Nothing was impossible. In high school, I mashed this together with my love of the English Language, and started typing on my Dad’s computer one night. (I was so excited to have one. My Dad had it for work. NO ONE had computers in their homes, yet)

Out popped chapter one. I bought it into school and gave it to my friends to read. (I was a lot less shy back then) All of the sudden, I had a chapter-a-night deadline.

MUST BE DONE BY HOMEROOM THE NEXT DAY.

Wow… what a driver. When that novel was finished, it took three whole computer disks to store it. (They only held a whopping 1MB of info back then)

It was a huge learning experience for me. Why did I do it? Simple… The looks on their faces when they read it. The big smiles. The appreciation for something I HAD CREATED. I was hooked. Undeniably hooked. I think that was the last time I was on planet Earth. After that… my eyes were on the stars, and a SciFi Fantasy author was born.

It was always the creation part that was fun for me, though.

Once I was done with a novel, I would just print it out, stick it in the closet, and move on to the next. (I have three completed novels, a novella, and a few that never actually made it to the finish line) I stopped writing when I got married, and had to start worrying about bills and things… I had to focus on the real world and keep my head out of the clouds. It couldn’t stop my over-active imagination, though.

Only recently, when I started an elaborate fantasy to keep myself awake while I was driving 1 hour back and forth to work, did I decide to focus my energy into polishing something for publication.

My husband begged me to go back to my second novel… as he puts it: “The best dern novel he’s ever read.” I thought about it, but I decided to move forward instead. Thus my current baby was born.

My husband’s favorite will probably scoot its way out of the closet soon. It needs to be re-typed, though– Those old word processing programs can only be opened in Wordpad, and the formatting is all off, and extra characters appear everywhere… what a mess.