I've always been a storyteller. Even as a teenager, I'd make up stories to tell myself as I was falling asleep. I was never very good at writing them down, though. If I started writing one of my stories, I'd mentally finish it and move on to the next story before I had more than the first chapter written down. (Part of my problem has always been the desire to re-write a scene until it is perfect. I'd never get around to writing the rest of the story. Now I force myself to write the complete story down before editing it.)
When I was in high school, I saw an ad for a mail-in course on writing children's literature. It was with the Institute of Children's Literature. I somehow (and I'm still not sure how) convinced my parents to let me take this course. The Institute wrote back saying they normally didn't take students as young as I was, but that my writing was good enough that they'd decided to accept me. I took the course and learned a lot from it. However, my teacher didn't really like my fantasy stories. She saw that I was very good at writing educational stuff and encouraged me in that direction.
I turned in my last assignment--a fantasy story!--right before heading off for college. It was returned with a "you can do better than this--try again!" note. Well, I probably could, but I was too busy with school work and settling in at college. Nearly two years later, in 1996, I finally decided that it would be a shame not to finish the course. I wrote another fantasy story. Back came a letter saying, "I never thought to hear from you again after so much time!" along with some notes on my story and a graduation certificate.
At that point, I started to ponder how I could combine my college major--equine science--with writing. I decided to create a CD-ROM on horse care for my Honor's Thesis. I sat in on a graduate-level course on authoring CD-ROMs and created my first CD-ROM on how to select, buy, and care for a horse. My equine science teacher knew about this and asked me to do my internship with her. Some of my fellow students had troubles learning the various horse gaits (e.g. walk, trot, canter, gallop, foxtrot, rack, slow gait), and my teacher wanted me to write a CD-ROM teaching this information. My "Horse Movement and Gaits" CD-ROM is now used by many universities, horse clubs, and individuals all over the world. After I graduated, I refined that CD-ROM and went on to produce CD-ROMs on "A Guide to Horse Nutrition" and "Horse Conformation & Athletic Movement."
About a year ago, I decided to write fantasy stories again. Looking back, I can see that my Children's Literature teacher was right about the problems with those stories. I can also see how far I've come in my skill as a writer. One bonus in writing educational CD-ROMs is that it taught me how to clearly convey information in as few words as possible. That is a very important skill for any writer.
Writing fantasy is very different from writing educational CD-ROMs, but I love it!
2 comments:
Hi, Deborah. I followed your link at Deep Genre. Just wanted to say that back when I was a young mother, I wanted to write but didn't know where to start and then I got a packet from the Institute of Children's Literature...
Hehe. Well, I passed their basic course, learned a lot, but decided ultimately that I'd rather write for adults than children. And I wanted to write fantasy!
And also, I love horses. I was an absolute horse-nut as a child. My parents couldn't afford riding lessons for me, so I fed on horse books and a rich fantasy life. I didn't learn to ride until I was an adult.
I must say, though, that while I have heard of rack and slow-gait, I'm not sure what a foxtrot is. Except a dance. :) Dressage is more my thing.
Hi, Beth. Thanks for visiting. Hmm. Maybe someday us fantasy writers can convince the Institute of Children's Literature to put a fantasy writer or two on their teaching staff. ;) Or maybe they already have, by now.
I still have a YA book idea or two in me, but I think most of my book ideas are currently geared toward adult interests. Hey, at least we both got a good foundation in writing from the Institute!
As for horses, I wasn't allowed riding lessons until I was a teenager. I didn't get my first horse until I was out of college for several years. Then it suddenly hit me--I could afford a horse! Happy day.
I love hunter/jumper and dressage, but we had to learn all those gaits even if we would never ride a rack or foxtrot in our life. Personally, I like the trot, so I don't often ride 'gaited' horses.
For your information, the foxtrot is a smooth gait where the horse appears to walk with the front feet while trotting with the hind feet.
Again, thanks for dropping by.
Post a Comment