All those voices... LWhitley

Why do I write? Could it be because of all the voices in my head? Voices that have been with me all of my life. As a child I made up stories that my barbies willingly played out. In my teen years I started writing poems, but they became so dark and piognant I stopped for fear I'd commit suicide. Not really but they were gloomy. Then the years just toppled on top of each other until 1998, my husband and I were on our way home from a family reunion in Palmyra Nebraska. A little speck of a town south of Lincoln. This is where my dad's family migrated to after coming here from Ireland in the 1800's. As we drove along the 2 lane stretch of high way, past the endless miles of corn fields, I couldn't stop myself from imagining what it must have been like to travel through this countryside in a covered wagon all the way from Champagne Illinois.




It couldn't have been easy I decided, my mind started to entertain thoughts and scenarios of how it must have been to come to a new country. When I got home I started to write the story that came to me seemingly out of nowhere, I didn't know what I was doing, because I'd never attempted something of this magnatude before. So I bought books on writing and charactors and any thing else that seemed relevant and studied like I was back in school. In the beginning I was nervous and scared, my stomach literally twisted into knots when I sat down at my computor, negative thoughts would threaten to chase me away. but I pushed them back and with trembling fingers continued to punch words into the keyboard. One of the first things I noticed, was when I was writing it wasn't the typed words I saw, it was like I was watching a movie unfold before my very eyes.I have yet to finish that first novel, and it's been years since I have read the manuscript, but there's still the glimmer of hope I'll pull it out one day and finish it.



I kept on writing because I discovered it to be the only way to quiet the voices in my head, I know it sounds schizophrenic but then I found this wonderful group with the same illness and knew I wasn't sick. I don't write to become rich and famous, not to say if I came upon the bridge of it I wouldn't turn it down either. Now all these years later unpublished with thousands of words written I couldn't imagine doing anything else but write.

10 comments:

Reese Mobley said...

Great post, Lori! Keep at it and some day your dreams will come true.

lori whitley said...

Thanks Reese, yours too! I got a genaric rejection yesterday from the Donald Maass Agency, so all can do is go forward!

Rox Delaney said...

We're glad you found us, Lori! Wishing you much success in the years to come!

Reese Mobley said...

Hugs on the rejection. I know they hurt. Someone once told me to think of them as not so much a rejection as an invitation to submit elsewhere.

lori whitley said...

Thanks all and Reese that's exactly what I'm going to do. Keep the rejects in a file and when I do get published know not to send to them again!

Joan Vincent said...

Your journey sounds similar to mine. And the rejections too. Persistence has more to do with getting published than almost anything. Good luck with the next agency you query.

lori whitley said...

Thanks Joan, I'm trying to keep it positive and use it as a learning experience knowing it was my first novel with all the trials and tribulations. The only way to hone in on our craft is to keep writing and that's what I'm going to do.

Pat Davids said...

It wonderful to read about the start of your writing journey. You're still in the opening chapters of that journey. You've go words and words to go yet.

lori whitley said...

Thanks Pat, I look up to all of you ladies and your journies give me encouragement.

Nina Sipes said...

Lori,
Sorry I'm so far behind in my reading. This is a great post! I've never felt so welcome or at one with a group of people than I have in a group of writers. They are amazing. They are relaxing. I'm glad you're part of our group!! Yea to those with more than one voice--wherever we have it!