Musings on the Art of Writing

As a child, I discovered fantastic worlds created in books. When I began writing about the worlds of my own imagination, I realized how hard authors work to set their characters free to live for our enjoyment. This blog will explore that weird and wonderful process.


Thursday, April 19, 2012

Hobbies

At one time, many years ago, writing was a hobby of mine.  My real job was doing well in school, getting my degree, and landing a job as a technician.  I wrote occasionally for fun.  Then I lost my job so had to fill the hours.  I did this by researching a story about a young girl who witnessed the building of the Rideau Canal in Ottawa.  I discovered that I enjoyed researching and loved writing full-time.

When my hubby and I decided I should stay at home to raise our children, writing became more than a hobby.  I began honing my craft--writing, re-writing, and writing again.  I read books on writing and even took a correspondence course on how to write for children.  I submitted my work and slowly the rejection letters became personal.  Writing young adult fiction became my career.

Now, my hobby is photography.  It is a different way of expressing my creativity and can be lots of fun.  I began when I photographed our honeymoon where mushrooms captured my enthusiasm.  I developed a love for capturing flowers and plants 'on film'.  Well, slides/film are an ancient medium today with the advent of digital photography.  Just as the computer changed the way I wrote, digital photography changed the way I took pictures.  No longer do I need to worry about straight horizons or bad lighting.  Even 'dirt' in a photo can be removed.  I've taken out offensive graffiti and even created a hand where none existed in the original piece.  I've removed unwanted people from photos and moved others around.  It's fun but still a hobby.

Today, something happened that surprised me.  While in Aurora, we had wet snow fall that coated all the budding trees with ice.  I braved the elements and took photos of my son's apple tree.  I posted it with others of our trip.  My sister, Lynda, whose photography goes beyond hobby status, sent a copy of it to a friend of hers who is a landscape designer.  The woman loved it and wanted an 8 x 10 which she could frame.  Suddenly, my hobby has appealed to someone who wishes to hang my 'art' in her living room.  This is pretty heady stuff.

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