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This is a recent phenomenon. Actually, for most of my life I hated writing and recall having work turned back from teachers covered in red marks and the caption, “redo.” I was convinced I would never be capable of producing even the most basic essay.
Like many other writers, I started to write because I started to read. There were Young Adult (YA) series in Middle School and more complex literature in High School. Moving through college, I realized I needed the ability to write research-based reports and papers. Taking a variety of writing classes, I also attended the Southern Arizona Writing Project (twice), where daily I was expected to write, for two weeks, eight hours a day, and to share my work with peers and presenters, receiving feedback both critical and encouraging.
I began to find authors, i.e., Thomas Hardy, John Steinbeck, Charles Dickens, and other classics. I really began to pay attention to how authors constructed their novels, their word choice, and sentence structures. My writing is still a cumbersome and slow process requiring a great deal of editing and rewrites.
My Master’s Degree was at the University of Arizona, Language, Reading, and Cultures (LRC) with an emphasis on Reading. Here I learned how to analyze reading issues and while teaching in middle school was assigned to work with struggling readers.
With the pandemic, my wife and I sheltered in place (we are now both retired) and I started pulling and viewing old family photos and newspaper clippings with the goal of passing them on to my son and grandchildren and wanted them to know who the people in the photos were. Along the way I conducted computer searches and gathered research from my family. While viewing photos, all of these long-ago forgotten family stories started to come back to mind; and, with time I started to write them. Desiring to increase my knowledge base, I started taking on-line courses and reading how-to-books and magazines. Writing is still a chore, but I enjoy the pursuit. While it fills my time, it allows me the opportunity to create stories for my family and friends, enter writing contests and competitions, and continue to improve my abilities with the written word. Ultimately, this website was created for me to have a place to share my writings with my family and friends and hopefully the whole world; with a dream of becoming a published author.
-Keith E. Maynard