When I was 8, I wrote a story for my grandfather titled Why Grandpas Are Special. It was about a little girl’s grandfather who bought her a pony (and kept it in his yard, of course, since hers was too small). And she loved him SO, SO much.
I handed him the story bound in red construction paper, rolled and tied with a ribbon. He read it aloud like a kindergarten teacher to his class, all the while laughing and wiping away tears.
It was thrilling to have a story created in my imagination received so emotionally by my ideal audience, and even though I didn’t get a pony out of the deal, that feeling has long stayed with me. I decided then to be An Author.
I had other interests too, one of which was working with children. Life lead me to teaching in public education, where – shocker! – my favorite subject was writing. Coaching students from second grade through college to generate an idea and see it come alive on the page was so satisfying. I saw many of them go from deeply doubting their ability to write to seeing themselves as writers.
I founded a nonprofit creative writing program for kids and teens in my community. For six years, we offered free workshops, teen writing conferences, and one-on-one support to local young writers with volunteer writers.
So there I was, talking about writing all day…but I wasn’t doing my own writing. The problem was that I didn’t believe in myself as a writer. I thought I was too busy, too distracted, too unmotivated to ever make my dream a reality. I thought I was unqualified, untrained, unlikely to ever get published.
Sound familiar? It is such common self-talk among creatives. But I wanted out.
It wasn’t enough to WANT to write. I realized that if I was going to be a writer, I needed to be willing to believe in myself and my ideas. And the only way I was going to do that was to learn how to manage my own self-doubt.
I needed to follow the advice I’d been giving my students for years. To help myself sit with the doubt and fear and put words on the page in an intentional way. I needed to learn how to manage my thinking and my expectations.
So I did that work for myself. And the result was the publication of my first book, Unspoken, in early 2020.
Guess what? I still do this work for myself. It’s hard, but it’s possible. In fact, it’s not just possible…it’s totally worth it.
And that’s why I’m here. To help you put your words on the page, to get your words out of your head, off of your heart and onto the page. To share my process, my ups and downs, in case it helps. To encourage and celebrate this beautiful community of people who want to tell stories.
Our stories matter.
Thank you for being here, whether for the past five years or five minutes. 💗
Warmly,
Stephanie