The Writing Journey

 Writing is not difficult. If we can form a thought, we can write. It takes time to get organized, but once we have a general outline in mind, it's time to get down to the business of writing. I've attended conferences where people have written several rough drafts or just outlines but have not published. 

That's a shame. Writing is art. If we accept that art should be shared and that as art it does not need to fit someone's notion of what art should be, we should release it into the world. 

For years I worried about whether I could write something as important as some of the writers who have been traditionally published in the field of literary fiction. However, as time went by, I realized that I could sit on my writing forever or release it as the art that it is. 

I like to think of what other writers and doers advise about going forth in the world. 

Nothing is impossible. The very word itself says, "I'm possible."  Audrey Hepburn

When anyone tells me I can't do anything. . . . I'm just not listening anymore. Florence Griffith Joyner

--Few and mean as my gifts may be, I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secondary testimony. Ralph Waldo Emerson

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Some advice to get started:

1. Write an outline to give yourself a map for the writing. If it is fiction, consider what characters you will use and what their goal or challenges will be. Don't worry if the characters take the story someplace that surprises you.

If you're writing non fiction, write an outline and try to stick to the main theme. Worry about cutting out unnecessary ideas later.

2. Write --whether it's a little every day or a lot on selected days, don't give up. Finish what you have to say. 

3. Read what you've written. Edit it yourself for errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar. Writing programs, such as Microsoft Word, offer great advice and help you to clean up your work.

4. Ask someone to read it for you. Ask them for concrete feedback -- not just, I liked it. Ask them to point out places where you might have, for example, given the reader more information or developed a character better. 

5. Don't let what others have to say about your writing discourage you from writing. Keep writing! 

6. When you've finished writing your material, copyright it. More on that later. 

A Home for Easter

 

The first book I wrote in the Apple Hill series, A Home for Easter, explores the life of my ancestor, Easter. I was surprised to have found information on her since she was born in the early 1800s. My father had asked me when I was a journalist if I would write about his family. He must have heard some hair-raising tales to ask such a question. Since, at the time, I was busy taking care of my family, I didn’t get around to it until later in life, but finally, I did. My father knew then that his family had an interesting story. Easter indeed has a compelling tale. She was probably in her 20s in 1838 when First Nations People were forced from their lands and removed west to “Indian Territory.” I asked my father many years ago why we looked like we did, and he always pointed to our First Nations ancestry. A Home for Easter also explores  how African Americans and Cherokee became culturally and genetically blended. Of course, that’s not the only story, but Easter’s story is important because it demonstrates what a family does to survive a very turbulent period. The Cherokee were being murdered for their land. But my great, great, great grandmother persisted. So did the other members of her family. Some of them I created because I did not have all the information necessary to build a better picture of what happened to African Americans and First Nations people. But I think the story is a good representation of what happens when people, especially women, put their minds to the tasks at hand – survival. I think I saw pictures of my great, great, great grandmother in my family’s possessions. She always had a hard look on her face as though she had survived terrible times. She was not smiling. But, hopefully, she is now. See her book at kateayrecampbell.com – A Home for Easter. If  you’d like to read about Cherokee history, there are some good books available. Check out: The Cherokees by Grace Steele Woodward or Cherokee Women by Theda Perdue.

 Welcome to my blog page! I'm Dale Marie Taylor. 

I'm interested in discussing writers who have not traditionally received a great deal of attention from the main stream press or who have, because of time or lack of focus, not been remembered. My site is about sharing my own writing and the books I have published but also about exploring the writers who have made an impact on the world and especially on the lives of African Americans, First Nations groups, Latino Americans and others who do not often find a voice in classrooms across the United States and throughout the world because there is much less emphasis on compassion, identity, difference, or an appreciation of the shared human experience. 

I'll discuss some of my own writing and invite you to comment about it or the writing of other authors. Later in this blogging journey, I plan to offer a contest for unpublished independent writers who are creating fiction in the under represented categories I mention above and some others that I have not mentioned.  I'm about encouraging your writing as much as I am writing my own material. This blog is about being supportive and positive to those who are writing and trying to find a voice and an audience.