Experiments Can Be Fun

As I wrote waaayyyy back in my first post, as a kid I wrote a lot of stories. As I mentioned in that first post these stories were written on an old manual typewriter. I clacked out many a story until my two pointer fingers we sore and blistered. And then I typed some more. I often listened to Chicago or Air Supply. Don't ask me why. My brother was ten years older than me and I listened to his tapes. In my defense my favorite tape of his was the Pretty in Pink Soundtrack. My point is I loved to write. I'm not saying I was any good at it. In all probability I was not. I read a lot of Sweet Valley High books back then. But oh, how I loved them. I will never know how terrible, or funny those stories were because I do not have a single one. My parents were not big on the collecting of childhood memories for my future. Sad, I know. I think I have one report card from like, grade 4. It's depressing because it says stuff like “She has trouble focusing on her work and often distracts her classmates.” and “Spends too much time socializing and not enough time on her school work.” Yes, socializing is BAD! Better not to socialize and become a socially handicapped freak who ends up taking a gun to work one day and blowing away all her coworkers who she doesn't know how to socialize with. Ahem. So anyway, I don't have any of these stories I wrote.

This love of writing did not die, it was only partially squelched by teachers through the years. I still wrote but I didn't think I was any good at it. A few years after graduating from high school I found a story I had written while still in school. To my surprise I found it to be rather good although I hadn't finished it. I decided it would be fun to improve upon what I had written thus far as well as to finish the story. My love of writing was rekindled and I found I was already thinking about the next story I wanted to write. I was dating Peter at this time and he asked me if I would let him read my stories. I reluctantly let him and was skeptical when he told me he thought they were pretty good and encouraged me to continue writing. He gave me realistic criticism which I appreciated.

During our first year of marriage I began a story inspired by a young man who lived in our apartment building. Peter loves this story. As with most of my writing I have not finished it. Peter found this very disappointing and has often encouraged me to go back to it. I still haven't done it. I was in another dry spell until I began writing this blog. I am enjoying blogging so much and love the community of blogging friends I have met.

I have been satisfied with this amount of writing and don't know where I would find the time to do more. Then Peter made a suggestion to me. He thought I should start another blog where I would publish my stories piece by piece in serial form. He was a big fan of this as a kid. At first I didn't even consider it. Then I couldn't stop thinking about it. I could put stuff I've written out there for people to read, critique and enjoy? Scary? Yes. Interesting? definitely. I think I can take the criticism. I mean, I haven't had any specific education on journalism or taken any writing classes. It's just for fun. If people enjoy it, cool. If people hate it, oh well. If people don't care, whatever. This is why I've called it The Mama D Experiment. I've started with the story that Peter loves and wants me to finish. If other people like it, maybe that'll get my butt in gear to actually write an ending. So check it out, and let me know what you think.