Before I Was A Writer
by Kaylee Baldwin
Long before I was a writer, I was a reader.
Even as a child I read anything I could get my hands on, including: the free encyclopedia (A) that a door-to-door salesman gave my family to entice us to buy the series, my mom’s Reader’s Digest magazine (cover to cover every month), and some totally not age-appropriate books I sneaked out of my parents room.
I’ve always loved writing as well, but it wasn’t until about six years ago that I really started to wonder if I could write a book. My husband had just taken a new job and we had to move away from our family and friends. I only had one child and wasn’t working at the time, so while he napped, I wrote.
It was a lot of fun writing that first book. I was really lonely, and my characters really came alive for me. I could make them do whatever I wanted. If I was in the mood to read a certain type of scene, I would just write it. I have strong doubts that the first book I ever wrote (a young adult contemporary, btw) will ever see the light of day, but I learned so much from it.
It was eye opening to me to go from being a reader to a writer. I’d never thought about how much work went into word choice, making sure the story had good pacing, making sure it flowed, answering all the plot questions, giving the plot enough conflict without overloading my characters, and coming up with a satisfying conclusion.
Being a writer has changed me. Everywhere I look, I see story ideas. I make sure I have a notebook or pieces of paper that I can scratch my ideas down on at any given moment so that I won’t forget them. I also find myself reading other books with a more analytical mind. I ask myself questions like: What elements in this story are making me like it so much? Why does the pacing feel fast/slow and what could the author do to change it? I find myself editing the books like I would for a critique partner because I’ve trained my mind to think that way.
When I write, I create. When I read, I escape. I think that all good authors have to be readers as well. We have to make time for other people’s words as well as our own. And although I love writing, and it fills up a part of me that nothing else could, my first love will always be reading.
Author Kaylee Baldwin
I grew up in Mesa, Arizona, and graduated from Arizona State University
with a degree in English literature.
I currently live in southern Arizona with my husband, Jeremy, and our three children. When I am not writing, I enjoy reading, starting new craft projects, and spending time with my family.
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