When people ask me what I do, I stumble to explain …

Well, I come from an early education background….. but now I am home with the children……I write a blog about early education and parenting and I’m trying to work out what to do next.

STOP!

What have I been doing for the past year since I started my blog?  Writing.

What do I do during the evenings and when the children aren’t around? I write a blog.

When I am not writing my blog what do I do?  I write articles for websites, write children’s stories, write poetry and  write diaries.

What do you do when you are not writing?  I research things to write about, read and take photographs of things of interest (oh yes and look after 3 kids).

So I don’t get paid for any of these things but it is what I do.

I am a writer.

I have been writing since I was 6 years old. I would absorb myself so much in story writing  that the words couldn’t hit the page quickly enough and would move in a diagonal fashion away from the margin.  I was always being told that I needed to improve my handwriting.  As a teenager I wrote poetry and short stories and enjoyed writing essays. My English teacher called me her shining star. I always kept a diary and often wrote letters.  I studied English Literature at University (I preferred English Language but there was no degree option for this)  because I loved to read and write. On my honeymoon I wrote a journal of our trip and have kept a diary of pregnancies and the early years of my children’s lives. I had mostly A grades for my essays during my Masters Degree.

I am a writer.

A few years ago I read a book by Ken Robinson called The Element. The book talks about how finding your passion changes everything.  Everyone has their ‘element’, some have more than 1 and some people never realise it.  I wondered at the time what my ‘element’ was and now I know, it is and always has been writing.

I am a writer.

People tell me they like what I write, people tell me they like the way that I write, people even sometimes tell me that they are inspired by what I write.

I am a writer.

I may never get paid  for my writing but that won’t stop me. If I keep writing and sending things to publishers and publications maybe one day I will become a professional writer. Even if I never make a penny as long as I keep writing and people keep reading .

I am a writer.