A natural part of me.

It is great to finally be a member of this great community. This would be my first time publishing here and also my first participating in this contest

I can't recall the first time I picked up a pencil or a pen. But my Dad, anytime he is reminiscing, still shows me some of the havoc I made with pens on his books. He said when I was a baby; I love scribbling on things. It got so bad that he had to hide books and pens from me. My love for scribbling got so much that my parents were forced to buy a writing board for me.

I can't remember how I got to love writing, but I do remember my first attempt at writing a novel as a kid. I was just 10 years of age and filled with a lot of love for history. This led me to start writing a historical romance novel. But guess what?

I couldn't finish the novel. I believe that I stopped writing the story in Chapter 6. The reason why was that the story began becoming complex, and I found it hard to turn my imagination into words. For example, how to describe a sword fight or explain how a battle took place. Shortages of words to describe what was going on in my head is another reason.

Growing up, I realized that I was trying to bite more than I could chew. Sometimes I wished there was someone who had paid attention to my writing talents. I just wished there was.

The picture below is one of the stories I wrote. Although it wasn't my first, it was one of my earliest.

But as I grew, even though I didn't press on to develop my writing skills, writing never gave up on me. I still find the urge to write and scribe my thoughts down. As a result, I didn't find blogging that hard. Presently, I find myself writing more non-fiction than fiction.

I do often tell myself that I had lost the imaginative spirit, I had when I was a kid. But I realized this might be a lie and an excuse I give myself for not writing fiction.

But now I have realized that writing is more of a craft than a talent. The more you write, the better you become at it. You might be talented as a kid, but without developing your talent through constant practice you will still be a noob writer like me. I often tell people I didn't learn how to write instead writing is a natural part of me.

Thanks for reading!

Lead photo by Hannah Olinger on Unsplash