The thing about writing...

Don't let the fact that you are bad a spelling or grammar stop you from writing. You will never get better at it unless you start somewhere.

I was lousy in school with creative writing, so much so that I almost failed my English class - and it's my first language! Granted, I grew up in a mixed language environment that included Afrikaans and German.

My point is, I am a very creative person, files and books full of ideas for characters and stories. Yet, due to my poor performance in school with regards to English studies, I lost any confidence I might have had to write and actually let people read it. I was a decent student, good in all my other subjects, even won awards for computers and geography - but English was the bane in my life.

The teacher was no help either. In stead of helping me she simply told me to learn to spell! It was not my content so much as it was my spelling and grammar. Of course, some of my stories were a little way out sci-fi fantasy and I often felt they were misunderstood. The teacher wanted real life drama and poetry. To each their own was a concept they did not understand.

Regardless, years later I happened upon some information regarding my family. It turned out my spelling was only bad because I suffer from mild dyslexia! I had all the letters correct in my words only, I got their order mixed up. This is when I turned over a new thought pattern and decided it was high time I began writing and publishing my works.

Thanks to technology and word processors, I was able to write and have the machine correct my spelling and even help me with some grammar. I am still not very good at it but I do believe that I have come a long way since.

So don't let the little things get you down, stop wasting time and move past them. Had I known then what I know now - I would have began writing a lot sooner.

(Reposted. Originally Posted Monday, June 15, 2009)

Another thing I've added to my plate!

When blogging first became popular I thought I might give it a try. So I sat down, opened a fresh new document and typed "My Blog" and the date.

That was 29 November 2006. I have not typed another word in my blog since.

What happened!? Honestly I chickened out. I thought to my self 'who would read this?' and 'what if my thought are so silly that people laugh.' Well, that was just some of the things I thought and so I convinced myself to rather not bother.

Years later, my friend overseas showed me her blog and I thought to myself 'hey, that's not so bad, maybe I can do this'.

So here I am, blogging. Just another thing on my already over full plate that I have taken on. We shall see how this goes.

If you are shy like me and lack total confidence in almost everything you do, suck it up and try something new. This is me stepping it up a notch.

(Reposted. Originally Posted Saturday, June 13, 2009)