My Writing Journey

Part One

IN THE BEGINNING OF MY WRITING JOURNEY

When I was ten years old, my friends were asking their moms where babies come from. I asked my mom where books come from. She explained how a book came to be, and I asked whose idea a book was. She told me that they come from writers. Since I already worshipped reading and writing, I was now armed with knowledge and a goal: I needed to become a writer.

The books and poems I wrote out longhand served well for school assignments. My first publication was a poem in the county school board’s annual literary collection when I was twelve. But even then I had so many story ideas swirling around in my head that the manual production method became frustrating. At the time, Mom owned a hand-cranked (still some manual labor involved but the technology helped speed things up a bit) mimeograph machine to use for making multiple copies of the parent information she distributed in her ballet school business. She typed up the information on a special kind of carbon paper then clipped it onto the roller ball of the mimeograph. After loading the paper in a tray, much like we constantly load our modern-day printers, I was responsible for turning the crank over and over until there were enough info sheets to hand out at the studio. I loved it but it was probably the start of my repetitive stress syndrome in my right wrist.

I loved reading the newspaper, so when I was twelve, the “Durham Heights News” was born. I could hunt and peck on Mom’s Royal typewriter and knew how to operate the mimeograph. I made a list of article ideas and went door to door in our neighborhood asking nosy questions like:

“What’s new in your house?”

“Do you have any housekeeping tips?”

“What is your family’s favorite recipe and can I have a copy?”

I was also the “paper boy” (politically correct at the time,) and soon returned to each house with a hot-off-the-mimeograph-machine copy of the newsletter for every household. By the way, my first editor was my junior high English teacher who lived next door. Does the universe provide or what?

Two years later at age 14, the local newspaper telephoned my mother and asked if I could write a weekly column for The Clendenin Herald about the events and people at the junior high school I attended. Mom didn’t get to finish the question before I said “Yes.”  I was already a reporter for the school newspaper. I thought a column in the local paper would be a piece of cake, but I didn’t understand tight deadlines then. The school paper published monthly, and we actually met in a daily scheduled class to learn to write and work on the paper. TCH had a tighter weekly deadline. I couldn’t type fast enough to meet it. They eventually accepted my handwritten column and typed it for me, but that was my first experience with meeting a publication deadline. The first time I saw my name in the newspaper byline was quite a thrill, and I’ve been writing and publishing ever since.

Years later, I would discover that the word deadline originated from the 19^th century definition of the line around a prison where escapees would be shot if they made it that far. No fences in those days, just a boundary made of dried prairie bushes or weak wooden planks set in place. If you got out of the cell, made it past the line of bushes, the guards---well, the guards had shotguns for this situation. I learned to never miss a deadline. To this day, I will crawl across hot, cut glass to meet a deadline, and they keep me awake at night as well.

That’s the beginning of my journey as a writer. Stay tuned for future installments which don’t have deadlines because I’m full up with them now as an author, university creative writing instructor, and entrepreneur. Thanks for reading.

How did your writing (or reading) journey begin? I’d love to know.

Be well, write well.

Joy

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The idea behind My WRITEDAY is to help writers spend more time creating stories, engaging with like-minded book friends, and enjoying the juicy, creative life they deserve. From craft books to office supplies to fun, writing/reading inspired décor, subscribers will discover an experience designed to offer a healthful plan for living their best writing life.

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JOY E. HELD is an author, educator, editor, entrepreneur, and literary citizen responsible for this site and its contents. She is the author of

Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity (Headline Books, Inc., 2020)

Writer Wellness Workbook: A Guided Workbook and Journal to Accompany Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity (Headline Books, Inc., 2023)

The Mermaid Riot (Melange, 2024) Young Adult Historical Fantasy

She writes spicy historical fiction under a pen name.

She is the winner of multiple writing and book awards:

West Virginia Writers, Inc. Annual Writing Contest, Honorable Mention, Novel, 1998.

New York Book Festival, Honorable Mention, Writer Wellness, 2020.

Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Finalist, Writer Wellness, 2021.

Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America, Member of the Year, 2020.

Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America, First Book Award, 2020.

She is an adjunct faculty member in the Southern New Hampshire University Online MFA Creative Writing.

She is a proud graduate of Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA with an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction.

She is a member of The Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Joy is the founder and CEO of My WRITEDAY Subscription Box for writers and readers.

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