A few questions for the writer [Part 1]

Friday, 23rd of August 2022

A few days ago I read @emily2u ‘s article titled Have I always wanted to be a writer? where Ems talked about her journey as a writer. Her article in turn directed me to @bmjc98 's article where I found the link to a plethora of questions to use during an interview with an author. There are 100 questions to be precise and I saved many of them for the days when I just can't think of anything to write about.

Truth be told, it's not like I have a problem with finding topics to write about. It's more that Ernesto is not often cooperating with me when it comes to writing. I first have to meet his requirements for fun and excitement before he allows me to sit down and write ;)

To answer some of those questions, firstly I'd have to assume that I am a writer. That would make me jump into question 11 from the list.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Even now, sitting in front of my computer and writing this article I still wonder if I am a writer? What actually makes a person who writes a writer? A quick google search and the definition of a writer I found at dictionary.com is:

a person engaged in writing books, articles, stories, etc., especially as an occupation or profession; an author or journalist.

I guess that has answered my question. Since I write articles and get rewards for doing so, I can indeed be considered a writer. Although this fact only just sank in fully today, I guess the first time a penny dropped some time last year, when I told my salsa friend that I write articles and she exclaimed: ‘Oh, I didn’t know you are a writer!’. I guess until that point I always thought that I’d have to write a book to be considered a writer.

What inspired you to start writing?

I can’t really recall an inspiration as such. As a teenager, I was taken into foster care and being on my own in an alien place made me want to share my journey with someone. I didn’t have a trusted friend at that point, so I picked up a notebook and started writing my thoughts. That’s how my first diary came to life. I still have that first one somewhere in my stash and sometimes I like to pick it up and read about my then life through the eyes of a teenager. It’s very sweet and innocent.

I also shared that diary with some of my school mates at that time. I remember there was a queue for reading it, as one of my mates spread the news that I write best romance novels and I will be a big writer one day 😅🥰

How long have you been writing?

If I consider that first diary as my start point, then I have been writing for over 20 years by now. I won’t say exactly how long, as in makes me feel so old!

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Truth be told, I have! People have been telling me for years that I’m great at telling stories. Years ago I was car sharing with my colleagues and one of them told me that they love listening to me describing just about anything. Even if I was to tell them off, it would probably sound so good, they wouldn’t feel bad.

Ever since sharing my journal with my school mates and seeing their enjoyment while reading it, I had a dream of becoming a writer. I continued writing journals, but I rarely shared them with anyone. I had couple of blogs too, but somehow I have always been resistant in sharing them with people I know. I felt better when hidden behind a made up nickname and even now, after writing articles on read.cash for over a year, I never share them on fb or any other social media where people know me personally. Just a little quirk about me ;)

My dream of becoming a writer was somewhat paused when I moved to UK in my mid twenties. I barely knew English and doubted I will ever be able to understand and express myself in English as well as my native Polish language, but it didn’t stop me from learning. It took me a few years before I started comfortably reading books in English without dictionary laying next to me. These days I read, speak and think in English. If fact my dad sometimes laughs at me when I can’t find the right word in Polish to express myself 😉

What advice would you give a new writer, someone just starting out?

One advice above all! Read, read and once again read. Both of my parents read a lot and there have always been 100’s of books in our place. Naturally I picked them up too, as soon as I was able to read.

Read books, magazines, publications, articles, manuals and pretty much anything you can find. If you want to be writing in English and it is not your first language then read even more. I remember doing silly mistakes in the past, because I was trying to write a sentence the same way as I would write it in Polish, but many words and expressions can not be translated literally to another language. Also some words that might sound the same to those in different language do not necessarily mean the same thing in English.

The one I see a lot would be someone writing ‘this last July’ for example. No native speaker would write this. They would say ‘in July’ or ‘in July this year/last year’. Not a big deal, but it instantly gives away that the writer is not a native English speaker. There are many similar phrases like this.

The only way to really familiarise yourself with a language is to read a lot. That’s when you get exposed to the appropriate ways of constructing the sentences in a given language. Also how you learn a correct spelling of the words, although with many word editors available these days, this part has become much easier for writers.

That will be all for today. I’ll keep the remaining questions for another time when I want an easy writing topic. Feel free to write about your writing journey using the questions from this website.

Until next time 💙