And Your a Writer?

So how do you know you are a writer? I guess for some it is easy. They have a love for books. They read in their free time and feel content in the thoughts of other's stories. Maybe they get up every morning and write, there ideas connect with words on the paper and others can relate to what they have to say. Maybe they even have a talent for spelling or grammar. Well, my journey is different.

I would say I am a late bloomer. I was never confident with my grasp of the English language despite getting through UC Berkeley, as an undergraduate in Psychology. I remember taking German in my freshman and sophomore year for my foreign language requirement and realizing I was really learning the basic of English for the first time. Thankfully I was able to get through the requirements and graduate with my BA in psychology 1990.

After my BA, I started teaching preschool and taking classes in creative writing through UC Berkeley's extension. I loved working with two year old's and knew I wanted to be involved with children in my work. Balancing teaching and writing, I was fortunate to work with Adrienne McDonnell a short story and novelist coming out with her first novel this July, The Doctor and the Diva. I remember she was teaching basic creative writing and even then I was thinking I wanted to write for children. I was invited to join a writing group that Adrienne McDonnell hosted in her home. I wasn't able to continue with the group for long but I remember feeling very inspired by the creative process this kind of group provided.

I continued teaching preschool until I was accepted into a masters program in Developmental Psychology at San Francisco State University. After Graduation I considered continuing in research but felt I still wanted to work directly with children. I developed a board story that I still use in my clinical practice helping children with their anger. Then was accepted into JOhn F. Kennedy's Psyd Program, in Orinda California, specializing in clinical psychology. My training emphasized ethnography, writing and clinical skills, all of which have been invaluable in my current career as a Child Psychologist and in my desire to write for children and parents. Where I struggle with spelling and grammar, I make up for it with concepts and flexibility to accept editorial help.

My most recent efforts have been in joining a critique group that we loving call Lula's Bunch. We use to meet in a small cafe (Lula's) on the side of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend Indiana. Due to lots of students and many distractions, we have since retreated to a circle of rocking chairs we found outside a large book store. We now meet every three weeks to exchange our critiques of each other work and to support the writing process we are all sharing. I also attended a writing workshop with a local writer April Pulley Sayre (very inspiring) and am attending my SCBWI conferences offered in driving distance.

So when I ask myself, are you a writer I am certainly coming in to this identity now. I wasn't a confident writer in college and graduate school taught me how to practice writing on topics of many different kinds. I now write for pleasure and for the hope to pass a few stories and thoughts along to parents and my true love, children.