Writer Wednesday: Dawn Herring

Moving Forward

by Dawn Herring

Words.
Whether spoken or written, they have the power to harm or to heal.
The power behind words is vast.

This is where I start: with words.

My desire is to inspire, energize, enlighten, refresh and provoke thought with vignettes of my daily experience on topics relevant and universal.

I used words in song lyrics and essays at an adolescent age as I dealt with cultural, emotional, and spiritual issues that had deep relevance to me.

As the spiritual dimension of my life was heightened with entering adulthood, it continued to showed in the topics I wrote both in my essays and note taking from spiritual sources.

Journal writing was incited as I experienced a new and growing relationship with Bill, who would later become my husband. My entries were sporadic but detailed.

I found my use of words to be more prolific when emotions and feelings ran high, making writing a great creative and expressive outlet for me.

Once we married and had children, journal writing took on more significance, due to the dimension of motherhood added to my every day experience, writing to my first born and then to my second born, each in their own journals as well as my own.

When I chose to home school my children, I became a student myself as I began to digest all I could from books, magazines, and other writing sources to better my craft and learn about the publishing world.

As I continued to keep a more regular journal, both spiritually and personally, I received the seed to a novel that, at first, came in fits and starts. But with a move to a new neighborhood, my novel occupied my attention even more so as it took on a life of its own.

We were also in the process of starting up an electrical contracting business. The office work became my new job, so I had to learn to balance the time I spent on my novel versus on paperwork. For a time, I struggled with this issue and even put the novel aside for a couple of months so I could be loyal to the office work and not have it compete with my writing life although I continued to journal regularly and write the occasional essay. But, after much thought and consideration and discussion, I decided to return to my novel, with office work as priority over my writing.

A computer entered my world, making my writing even easier, and with the discovery of the Internet, my blog began its debut as I wrote for friends and family and anyone else who might stumble upon it. The vastness of the Internet, being the World Wide Web, felt huge to me, concerning exposure of my writing to those who found it.

Another move put my writing off for a couple of months as I packed and unpacked. But I managed to get back into the swing of things, still keeping the office work in the top slot and working more in the late afternoons on my novel, which was slowly progressing. I also continued posting on my blog, sharing tidbits of life from family and personal experience.

Then I discovered social networks, hearing about Twitter and then Facebook. As I waded through the in and outs of gaining friends and followers, I learned a lot along the way. I began to find so much information about publishing and writing, I was amazed. Newsletters and websites were a gold mine to me. I began to answer questions from the writing and home schooling online newsletters I received in my inbox and found my answers being published, which I celebrated.

I began to keep track of these publication credits, and I looked to garner more opportunities to share from my life experience. I submitted work to a writing newsletter where I was later published. I also published clips in my city newspaper which felt like my biggest accomplishment yet.

As I continued to work on my novel, I also began to write memoir pieces from my childhood as I discovered the memoir genre on line and in book stores. I was fascinated with reading what folks wrote about their personal lives. I also began to write poetry again, as a response to emotional and spiritual events that took on great importance in my life. I enjoyed using metaphoric imagery to express my feelings.

As I made more contacts and friends on line, I discovered chats on Twitter, especially one for writers called #writechat. I met many wonderful folks there and enjoyed the camaraderie with other writers. I was encouraged and inspired to keep working on my novel and my memoir as I chatted with new friends and shared my experiences on line.

I set and met the goal to complete my novel manuscript by Thanksgiving weekend in 2009. I was so excited! I knew I still had a lot of work ahead of me, but it was a great experience to share my accomplished goal with friends and family.

My blog has gained regular readers and friends who I appreciate, who inspire me to keep posting as I continue to write in the essay format.

My journal writing continues to be a major source of inspiration, often the framework from where much of my writing gets its start.

My goal is to be a continued source of inspiration and refreshment as I share samplings from my personal experience that I hope will encourage someone in a way that will truly make a difference.

I host and moderate a new chat on Twitter called #JournalChat for all things journaling. It's a place where those who journal can share the benefits and techniques they enjoy while those who are just getting started can be inspired and encouraged to begin their own journey into journaling. The chat takes place every Thursday at 2 EST/11 PST for one hour.

Here's a link for more info: Facebook/DawnHerring

You can follow me at @JournalChat on Twitter for updates, links, and more.

Dawn Herring is a freelance writer and avid journaler. Her website is http://www.dawnherring.net/ and her blog is http://www.journalwriter.blogspot.com/.

Thanks Dawn for being this week's Writer Wednesday guest and thanks to all of you who taken time out of your day to stop by.

If you would like more info about this series, or would like to be a guest please follow this link Writer Wednesdays: The Intro .

Thanks,

Kristin : )