I remember my earliest attempts at writing from junior high school. Our house had a pass-through room between the living room and the den. It led to a closet under the stairs on one side, and on the other was a board forming a desk. An old manual Remington portable typewriter sat on that board, and I would type on that typewriter. I’m not sure what I typed. But I typed. Mom or Dad — I don’t remember which — caught a snapshot of me at work (yes, I was surprised, and chuckle, heck roll on the floor laughing all you want, at the 70s fashion). I think I was around 11 or 12 here.

This is the earliest writing I can remember, and I don’t remember what type of writing I was doing. I can remember sitting on the floor of my bedroom typing poetry on an electric Smith-Corona (I still have it). A lot of that was angsty high school doom and gloom poetry. How many of you are thankful Facebook wasn’t around during your high school years? Raise your hands. Yes, I thought it was unanimous. When I look back on the things that bothered me and were horrible crises from my high school years, I cringe. But at least nobody ever saw that. Seeing the same type of stuff played out on teens’ Facebook pages today is painful. Not because they’re going through it — everyone does. But to have it preserved for all to see for decades to come is sad. Thankfully, few people are likely to look that far back on most peoples’ walls to find that stuff, and I would hope it would be discounted (too bad if you’re hoping to be a Presidential candidate someday, but I guess you’ve known that since you were a kid and acted accordingly, right?).

Right. So, high school was largely poetry. Then there were my physics and trigonometry notebooks. The sources for the blog title. Those, for some reason, had several of my friends wanting copies, so I “self-published” a few copies and sent them to the various friends during my freshman year at college. Why the quotation marks around self-published, you ask? Self-publishing in those days meant I typed the text and hand copied the drawings from the notebooks onto onion skin typing paper. I stapled them together, and I was “in print.”

I was a pre-veterinary medicine major in college. Then I got a “D” in chemistry and a “D” in college algebra. I thought I was doomed for veterinary science. (Technically, no, Ohio State had a “forgiveness rule” for students like me who were a little overconfident at first and bit off more than they could chew.) Had I stayed the course and exercised that rule, I probably could have recovered to pursue veterinary medicine. I had a bigger problem then — my attitude and my interpretation on the economy. In 1978-79, the economy was in the tank (sound familiar?). PhDs were working at McDonalds — if they could find work at all (sound familiar?). I doubted a college education would be worth the expense and debt I’d wind up with to complete it. I counseled with my high school college prep English teacher. Could I be a writer, I asked him. He thought for a minute (seemed like a long time to me). Yes, was his eventual answer. Yes, I could. (I REALLY would like to know what was running through his head while he formulated his answer — 35 years later, it wouldn’t matter, but I do wonder — I’m guessing he was considering options and decided to go with a positive answer that left possibilities open and allowed a possibly tenuous dream to live — that’s the kind of guy he was.)

I didn’t return to college for my sophomore year. I found a job in Granville, Massachusetts, making toy drums. The company still exists today, but they are making real drums instead. I left the company in 1980 to join the Air Force. It turns out I really wanted an education. I was mightily bored with jobs that didn’t require an education. I couldn’t really afford to return to school, so I turned to the Air Force. I wrote sporadically until 2002. At this point, I strongly advocate a college education or training in a trade. These days, unless someone is truly interested in academic pursuits, I’m leaning toward a trade with business and entrepreneurial education as a solid way to begin adult life.

Since 2002, I’ve been on a very slow journey. I’ve finished first drafts. I’m in the process of learning to revise those drafts to make them marketable. For me, writing the first draft was relatively easy. Revising to seek publication has been infinitely more challenging.

Today’s post was inspired by the topic “My earliest writing dreams” (i.e., why I am a writer), July’s topic in the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour an ongoing tour where you, the reader, travel around the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. We have all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s something for everyone to enjoy. The next post in the tour will be on the 20th, by L C Aisling. Be sure to check it out.

If you want to get to know nearly twenty other writers and find out their thoughts on the writing journey, check out the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour. You can find links to all of the posts on the tour by checking out the group site. Read and enjoy!