My Writing World: a meme/tag

My mother tagged me to be part of a meme, which, in my day, was called a “tag.” (That was back when blogging was for social media purposes. Now that blogging is all artsy fartsy, it’s no wonder they changed the name to “meme.”)

The rules:
Post these rules.
Each person must post 11 things about herself on his/her blog.
Answer the questions the “tagger” listed for you in her post.

Here are the questions I was asked:

1. How long have you been blogging, and how often do you post?

I have been blogging for six and a half years. Since I was fifteen.

I posted 256 posts on my xanga site, and then I moved to wordpress and posted 242 more posts. That makes a total of 498 posts, which means this will be my 499’th, and the next will be my 500’th post. Wow!

Approximately one post every 4-5 days.

2. Have you had anything published, and if so, what and when?

Yes.

A memoir.

A few articles for my college newspaper.

Some CLP short stories which I was terribly embarrassed by.

Some articles for a website called Ypulse.

3. Who is the author who best speaks your language and who you would most like to be like, in style and message?

Emily Smucker.

Oh wait, do I not count? Well, I want Jerry Spinelli’s characters and Louis Sachar’s plots and Gail Carson Levine’s fairy tale world and C S Lewis’s way of adding spiritual meaning to stories and Robin McKinley’s magical way of stringing words together and Sharon Creech’s realness.

(Yep, they’re all Newberry winners, only with CS Lewis thrown in for good measure. Anyone want to guess what award I dream of winning someday?)

4. What do you see as the unique message God has given you to share with the world?

There isn’t one.

5. Who or what has made you believe in yourself as a writer?

My mom, obviously. All the people who follow my blog. My editor, when she decided that my writing was good enough to be put in a book.

6. Who or what has done the opposite?

Nothing. Okay fine. I am sure there was something, but I obviously wasn’t too scarred by it, because I can’t think of anything.

7. Besides blogging, what types of writing have you done? (journaling, poetry, news articles, letters, short stories, etc.)

I write EVERYTHING. Songs and scripts and ideas and quotes. Poetry incorporating my love life with random things I’ve been learning in college. Essay about why I hate the game “king’s base.”

There is always ink on my left hand and my right leg. I just write.

8. Where would you like to be, writing-wise, in five years?

Disciplined.

9. What would need to happen to move you from here to there?

Discipline.

10. Any advice for beginning bloggers/writers?

Yes. People would rather read something fun and funny than something deep and full of long paragraphs.

If you get good enough at the fun and funny stuff, you learn how to write the deep stuff without the long paragraphs.

Then people will actually read what you have to say.

11. Just for fun: what’s a skill you have that almost no one knows about? (example: I know how to develop black and white film in a darkroom.)

I used to teach myself morse code and how to play the spoons while I was waiting on my slow computer. Now days I just read a book or do homework.

Now I am supposed to tag people, which I don’t feel like doing. Instead I will invite you to ask whatever random question of me you wish, and I will answer it in my next post.