Having to Put Foot In Mouth Is Always a Great Incentive

So here's the deal. I like to write. You may have gathered that. Most likely you've just gathered that Melanie likes to shoot off at the mouth about whatever pops into her brain. I'm fine with either conclusion because they're both true and in any event, are the reasons I have really gotten serious about writing in the last 6 months.

A little back history that dates back to Elementary School Melanie is that I knew I wanted to be a writer as far back as the fourth grade. With the help of my mainly useless, long term memory super power, I remember the exact moment.

It was the fourth grade and Mrs. Snyder was reading us Charlotte's Web, a chapter a day. After we finished the book, she encouraged us to write a short story to share with the class. Maybe there's Kryptonite somewhere in my office because the memory is fuzzy, but all I know is that my story revolved around a frog, I loved writing it, and read it over and over, thinking it was the most incredible story about a frog that was ever written.

I think the idea of being a writer was solidified when I read my story in front of the class, got praise and encouragement for it, and realized I loved the adoration and it being all about me, glorious me!!!

Wait, what was I talking about again, oh yeah...

Fast forward to the 6th grade and in my hot pink spiral Mead notebook I wrote my first "book." The plot revolved around a boy who kept getting strange dreams about one of his ancestors. Later, through some time space continuum, this ancestor appears to him and tells him she was murdered and that somehow her murder will affect their family for years to come unless he time travels back and stops it.

I know, sounds a bit like Back to The Future, but hey, I was 12.

What I do remember is my Language Arts teacher Mr. Rosetti. When he discovered that I was scribbling in my hot pink notebook when I should have been doing classwork, he had me read a chapter a day to the class as way of encouragement.

Yes! The spotlight!

(And aren't teachers like that A-mazing??)

I won't bore you with the rest of my writing career because at nearly 31, I understand it's actually not all about me. Well, to a better degree at least.

The short story is I wrote another "manuscript" in high school, got great teaching and guidance from Creative Writing and Literature teachers who took an interest, only to put my writing on the shelf a few years later. I won't wax philosophical on you right now, but why do we do that as adults? Don't believe in the things we want to do like we did unquestionably when we were young? It's interesting and maybe a topic for another time.

Fast forward 13 years and I've decided to take the writing skills off the proverbial shelf. I'm still sneezing and coughing from the amount of dust, but beginning to find my enthusiasm and love for it again.

You may ask, "But Mel, you are an enormous procrastinator, with 4 kids, who loves to waste massive amounts of time with reading and watching TV. How in the world are you going to write a novel?"

Excellent question.

Drive myself with the fear of humiliation. It's usually the best motivator for me. I mean come on, how else do you think I'm running a marathon?

So stage one of Plan Ridicule was signing up for a contest where I'm supposed to submit 50,000 words by Nov 30th.

Stage 2 is blogging about it to all of you so that you can help keep me accountable, and laugh mercilessly at me if I fail.

No seriously, that will help.

So I'll get to writing-you get your best jeers and insults ready and mark them down for the 30th, and I think together we'll make a great team.