Writer's Corner: Inspiration

Happy Wednesday everyone! As you may have noticed, I have posted two blogs today. My lack of internet access at home prevented me from blogging yesterday, so please check out both articles today. As always, I would love to know what you think. 

Today's Writer's Corner is about inspiration, but before I get into that I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has followed my blog and visited my site. I have received over 1,000 hits and I am thrilled! Judging by the amount of traffic to my blog, I would say there are a lot of you out there who are reading, but are not yet following me. I beseech you all (I totally stole that word, beseech,  from The Tudors) to follow my blog and encourage your friends to follow as well.

Remember, I am trying to reach 90 followers in 90 days, and I will be raffling off a gift card to one of my Discovering Sarah followers if I reach this goal! So follow me, pretty please...

...with a cherry on top!

 Alright, that's enough begging. Now for the the good stuff. Please enjoy today's Writer's Corner article on inspiration.

Inspiration
By: Sarah Lenore

I can remember the very first time I wrote something that I thought was special. It was in seventh grade and Mrs. Katz was teaching English Composition. The topic: dramatic structure. The assignment: write a short story using Freytag's analysis; exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement.

I loved that word—denouement. It sounded so provocative; so French.

I sat down to write my story (which turned out to be 30 pages long) and completely amazed myself. I didn't know I could be so creative! I didn't know I was capable of writing something that seemed as thick as a real book when transferred from the computer screen to the printed page. I had created a masterpiece! I was up there with Michelangelo, Leonardo Davinci, Donatello, and that other Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtle.

Of course, upon further analysis in later years, I realized that my masterpiece was actually 30 pages of never ending crappy dialogue spewed from the mouths of clueless teenagers. I wasn't even a teenager yet, and had no idea about anything at that age. Still, I have cherished my horribly written story for about 17 years now, and have revisited it several times. I completely rewrote it, keeping the core plot intact, and it resides in a file on my laptop to this day.

One day, (ideally after my first book is published) I will finish it, and my journey from seventh grade English class to published author will be complete.

After creating The Haven in seventh grade, I began to write poetry, which I found to be a wonderful emotional outlet for me. When I was feeling something that I just couldn't keep bottled up, I would write a poem about it.

Though I continued to write into adulthood, I never really thought of myself as a writer or poet. It was just something that I enjoyed on occasion. It wasn't until April of 2009, however, that I was bit with the writing bug and knew without a doubt that I wanted to be a writer.

Now, I know some of you will be yelling at your computer screens when I tell you this, but it was actually Stephenie Meyer's Twilight novels that inspired me to pursue writing as a profession.

Sparkly vampires, shape shifting Native American guys with six packs, and a love that survives against all odds; what's not to like? I enjoyed the novels, to say the least, devouring them all in eight days. Though, it really wasn't the actual story that inspired me so much. It was Stephenie herself.

She had been a Mormon housewife with three children and a BA in English, but never thought of herself as a writer. After a memorable dream involving two star crossed lovers laying in a meadow, she decided to write a book. Six months later, she was the published author of a franchise that eventually made her one of the most notable authors of our day (right up there with J.K. Rowling). Not to mention, she made a fortune off of those books!

I was inspired, to say the least. Not just by her ability to make a ton of money, but by the fact that she'd managed to turn one little dream into something that has impacted millions of people around the world.

Instantly, I knew I wanted to do the same thing. Maybe not quite on the level of a Stephenie Meyer or J.K. Rowling, but I wanted to make my mark on the world with my words.

At this point in my life, inspiration is all I have; like a tiny grain of sand that has the power to change everything. Maybe one day, some little girl will randomly come across my blog or read my book and be inspired to make her dreams a reality, against all odds. If J.K. Rowling can bring wizards to life with a flick of her wand, and Stephenie can make millions of teenaged girls and grown women fall in love with a fictional vampire, anything is possible.