My Relationship with Writing

I don’t dream about vampires, wizards or elves. My imagination creates nothing original. It’s just a borrowed collection of things I’ve heard or seen before twisted to my own perception or liking. Because of this, I’ve never felt the need to have others read my writing. I write for me.

I began writing in my journal when I was eight years old. At first, my journal entries were written in the dark, scribbled on a small spiral notebook because of the two sisters I shared a room with who didn’t want the light left on. I had been taught to keep a journal and I very much enjoyed reading and learning about my ancestors, so I decided then to write daily. In the years since then I have filled four more journals, each one bigger than the last and much more detailed. It’s fun for me to go back and look at the person I was compared to who I am now, though it is hard for me to imagine anyone else enjoying the entries as much as I do.

Writing allows me to express myself in ways that I never would with the spoken word. In school I was able to get near perfect scores on book reports after never having read the books--which is surprising now, because I am always reading—so I guess I have some talent for embellishing! Though I have never written anything nearly good enough for publication, I look forward to the chance to develop a skill in writing along with the rest of the writing group.

-Heidi Parkinson