User blog:Melanie Jean Juneau/Rediscovering Playful Writing

When I remember that I am a writer, a born writer, not someone pretending to be a writer by wearing a mask, then work becomes play. God gave me a love of books and an artistic gift of writing and drawing. When I simply relax and enjoy life as a child of God, then I can allow Him to work through my fingers and my imagination. Now we create together. It is a joyful experience.

MY FAMILY’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH BOOKS IS A GENERATIONAL BLESSING. My maternal grandfather, uncles and my mother love to read. I in turn love books.In fact, I have always loved books, reading voraciously as a child. I remember walking slowly home from the library with a tall stack of exciting choices, reading my first choice even before I managed to walk through the front door. My mother would cajole me in the summer, “Well, at least read outside in the fresh air.” I read to all my nine children, they in turn read to younger siblings.

Now my oldest grandchild who is turning two absolutely adores books. Standing below the book shelves, she stretches out her arm, pointing until someone lifts her up. Marie knows exactly which book she wants. She sits absolutely still, absorbing every word as my son, daughter-in-law or any of her aunts, uncles and grandparents all take turns, reading yet another book.

I have written about 300 stories and/or articles in the 18 months, after not writing for 30 years. The stories well up from a hidden spring because I have collected them for decades.I simply told oral stories about 9 kids on a hobby farm but I  could not get them written before it was the right time. Forcing myself to get down to the business of writing was an exercise in futility for years. Now it is the season for writing;

Since I have polished 72 stories on ReadWave, the question now is, “How do I approach publishing? Suddenly, a publisher, albeit a very small Catholic publisher approached me after following me for a month. Now another can of worms has opened up with tax issues, etc. and I realize that THERE IS NO RUSH. '' I should enjoy creating a book, drawing, coming up with titles and featuring my quirky quotes and even consider kid’s books. NOW that would be fun…'' Iggy the Bold Bunny, Renegade Raccoons

I am Batman Foevaaa, The Smart Fox and the Dumb Dog !! Of course I started to worry, become grim again. Instead of listening to the Spirit within me, relying on Him, I tried to get down to work, to do it on my own, with my intellect alone.

Then my fellow bloggers once again, stepped in as mentors to guide me and the Spirit spoke through the: “My experience when feeling lost is to start small and remember the best art comes from play. If you plan to illustrate or provide visuals for your books (which is so much fun) then just sketch or take pictures or whatever for fun–don’t think about figuring out formatting until you really have some ideas that excite you. There’s always people around to help you with technical stuff. Once I stopped immediately judging my first drafts everything fell into place for me. I still have moments of doubt but I realize that’s perfectly normal and then I get back to work (play). “