Hi everyone, this is the very first personal post where I actually talk about my humble beginnings into the art of writing. To say I always wanted to write wouldn’t be the whole truth, but if you wanted to know exactly how I came to this point today… well… I think you know the drill…
Great, you made it to the beginning of this post!!
Well to begin with, the writing work I did in school inspired me to write little stories and poems when I was just a little girl. My mother still has a few hidden away somewhere, I think. My first attempts were stories with magic and fairies, maybe a few with families, but they all ended with happy endings and followed the same pattern. As I grew up with assignments involving essays and reports I suppose my writing changed into the academic variety. Writing for leisure took a slight backseat as I forged my way through high school and into university here in New Zealand. Changing countries and schools may have had an impact on my leisure writing but I don’t think it affected my imagination. You see, my collection of books came with me. Those good friends I made in Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, and To kill a mockingbird would always be around. I suppose you could say, they inspired me to keep my imagination alive and fired up the dormant writing skills.
My start into poetry began in the late 1990’s when I was in university. You could say what I was learning in a brand new country helped me find inspiration. My relatives back in Sri Lanka would send me postcards and cute pictures which would also give me some prompts for a poem or short story.
As my confidence grew, so did my poetry. You could say I found my groove. I decided to write about memories from my younger years and experiences I had with my family. I’m not sure if I read a lot of poetry back then, but the words came freely. Rifling through old photo albums helped quite a bit.
(Apologies for the tiny print, but it’s clear I had a lot to say about the Savannah in Eastern Africa after a visit there!!)
I suppose after I started this blog, the books I read over the last few years propelled my love for poetry even more. Those tween reads written in verse opened my eyes to a whole new way of storytelling. I learned about the different styles poetry takes such as acrostic and concrete poems along with the traditional free verse, haiku, and sonnet style. Whenever I read a book that’s written in verse, I feel a little thrill because I know that author has had to work a bit harder to find just the right words to bring the story to life in that form.
My own writing has certainly changed over the years. Although I enjoy poetry I find myself writing more prose and well…these blog posts instead. I do have a few short stories I penned when I was younger but sadly, my courage to publish them on any platform has waned a bit as they feel a bit childish now!! I have started my life’s story and have a few chapters written out along with seeds of ideas towards a manuscript of a novel. However, friends, that is a story for another day!!
So, that is another little snippet into my writing endeavors. I hope you enjoyed the small pieces I’ve included in this post.
Stay safe and keep reading
Miss Mahee
Miss Mahee's Library of Reads 