To Write or Not To Write

I started this blog over a year ago with much trepidation.  I expressed in that first post my secret desire to be a writer and thought it might be fun to see what came out of my head here in blog world.  I wasn't even sure I was going to tell anyone I had started it assuming that if I didn't tell anyone nobody would ever read it and I could sort of get it out of my system without having to be vulnerable.  Of course the reality is that I can't keep a secret, certainly not one about myself, and so I told my sister within hours of publishing that first post.  She doesn't get my weird insecurity at all and insisted I go for it, dictated the topic of a couple of my first posts and as I recall published the link on her facebook page.  She also started her own blog as did my mom as a result. 

All of that certainly gave me a lot more confidence to go for it here in blog world sharing oh so many random pieces of information from deep to pointless.  As evidenced by my snowman post the other day, I can always just whip up a post on nothing any time I hit a dry patch.  I am having fun writing here and recieving positive feedback on my posts.  Believe it or not I also get a lot of people who read the random emails I send them telling me that I should be a writer just based on those.  Email readers tell me I am funny...Do you think my blog is funny?  I feel like I am funnier in email than in my blog...Well that is another discussion and getting a little off my point...

Today I have another secret that I wasn't going to tell anyone for a while but here I am writing about it a few hours later.

I was chatting with one of those friends who thinks I am a funny email writer telling her I felt like God was preparing me for some next step in my life as Isabelle gets near school age but I didn't really know what it was.  We discussed various careers I could embark on but that didn't really feel like the direction I was being pulled.  Then I mentioned the writing thing and my friend got all excited and said I should definately pursue that going on and on about what a great and funny writer I am. (She actually used the words "modern day Erma Bombeck".  Really?) She really pumped me up and by the time she left I was seriously thinking about it for the first time in my life.  I picked up a book at the library about writing and perused a few books while out at Barnes and Noble.  I told my husband who was also extremely supportive of the idea.

I know it might sound a little weird but I really want to write magazine articles.  Yes, yes maybe a book someday would be an ultimate dream but seriously I would think I hit big time if a magazine of any size published something I wrote and actually paid me for it.  So that has become the big goal.

How is this done?  I still barely know.  If you know someone who is a writer and has a clue where I start please send them my way.  In the mean time I have some research to do this spring in preparation for the big step I am taking this summer...I signed up for a writers conference! 

A friend of mine who wants to write a book and actually launch a whole ministry was planning to attend and telling me about it.  Knowing my secret desire she had suggested in passing that I should come too but I am sure never thought I would consider taking her up on it.  And when she said it in passing I never thought I would consider taking her up on it.  But here I am a couple months later all signed up to drive to North Carolina the end of July for She Speaks Conference.  Have I lost my mind?  Totally possible.  But I just really want to live my life pursuing my dreams rather than just talking about them.  I don't want to wonder if I could have been a writer but just passed on the opportunity.

Actually that is a little of what I am speaking on at our women's retreat, following God's leading in your life.  I am planning to encourage all those women to listen for the prompting of the Holy Spirit in their lives and act. I am planning to tell them that if God is in it whatever He asks of us will be doable because He has already prepared the way.  So that is what I am believing, God is preparing the way for me in writing.  I don't know where he is taking me, and I suspect it will not be a short road, but I am excited to walk down it and see where it leads.

Anyone else want to come?