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Why I write? (Emma Price)
I write because I have something to say that I think others might want to read. Writing has always been a part of me, just like reading. Why? I don’t know. I was told that if you love reading, it’s a given that you will love writing. From a very young age, I loved to read. And after I retired, I became an author.
When I retired in 2005, I was at a loss. My daughter asked me what was I going to do. I said I don’t know. She said, “Mom, I will always remember you reading. why don’t you think about writing?” So, I did. I thought about writing children’s books--after all, I am a retired elementary teacher. I always loved teaching reading and writing to my students. So, I went back to school and took classes on writing children’s books. What a joy!
The results are my two children’s books, Portia’s Incredible Journey, (2010), and Another Girl Calls My Dad Daddy (2015). And after a few of my teacher friends encouraged me to create a teacher’s guide for my first book, I wrote one.
Now, I visit schools, libraries, bookstores, and other events for book readings and signings. For me, this is the perfect second career!
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I write because like many things in my life -- I just can’t let certain ideas go. There are those ideas that just gnaw at me until I get them on paper. I used to write poetry. My 8th grade English teacher Ms. McCampbell supported my poetic tendencies and that love of verse carried me through my very dramatic high school relationship. I will say that the drama wasn’t for naught-- I wrote a poem, “Deep Blue” after break up #4 (or was it #5?) and it was published in a young adult anthology.
Though poetry has gone to the wayside for me, as an 8th grade teacher I wrote prose for my students regularly. I wrote models of different types: narratives, arguments and an analysis or two, to help them see that there are many types of writers. Students used my work (among others) to study craft and help shape themselves into writers.
In my “spare time”, I write because I’ve had a series weighing on me for years. My home office is covered in papers and photos of my setting as well as post-its and drafts of chapters and sentences I like. Character ideas that live in my dreams. My kindle is full of models by Laura Childs, Karen White, Ellery Adams and Mary Higgins Clark, along with others who help me be a better writer and inspire me to be a better thinker. They allow me to study how they get from murder to solution all while adding in humor, a love interest, and an interesting job in the mix.
I write so my own children see that nothing is “just a dream” or “something I’ll get to eventually”. I also want to show them that passion projects take time (that, for the most part, I need to find hidden between an episode of my favorite show and after a night’s sleep) but also that it takes work and patience.
I write because at the end of the day, writing has always been my marathon, or climb. It has always been a puzzle to figure out.
--Jackie Ryan
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