I have just finished writing my second book and I feel a great sense of accomplishment and joy.   I love to write as it allows me to say whatever I like and there is no one to disagree or argue with me.  This has given me a platform on which to express myself to my heart’s desire in the hope that someone will benefit from what I write.   I truly believe that anyone can write and write well.   If you can talk, you can write. Actually, I will amend that to say, if you can think, you can write.   I never intended to become a writer, it just happened, more or less out of necessity.   Let me give you some background.

I lived in Belize, Central America for 15 years, during which time I wrote many letters to family and friends.   Very often, in their replies, they commented that they really enjoyed my letters and thought I should consider writing.  I had no clue how to write, so I never tried, until…

The end of my first marriage was the catalyst that began my writing career. My husband went out to buy a loaf of bread and I didn’t hear from him for two years, after which time I had already moved into the next phase of my life that did not include him.   After he left, I began to write down all that I was feeling that ranged from shock, to anger and right through the gamut to relief that I was no longer married to him. I still did not know that I was a writer, but what I did know is how to write letters, so that is the genre I chose to begin my writing career.   Now this was before I ever had a computer or e-mail, so it was all done by hand on paper.

Once I tired of writing about my marriage, or the end of it, shall we say, I realized that living on an island in the Caribbean I had enumerable human interest stories right at my doorstep.  What I came to realize later though was that no matter where one is, there is always a story and everyone has one, no matter how normal they appear on the outside.

Thus began my first book, Dear Bev, which was comprised of letter after letter about anything that stuck my fancy.   I never published it as a book, but what I did accomplish was creating the habit of writing down significant ideas that were of interest to me. I decided that if I found them interesting, then there most likely would be someone else who would too.

Today, I have the added advantage of the computer, so I frequently send myself e-mails, record voice notes on my phone and I purchased a Sony voice recorder with voice recognition software that actually types what I say into the computer…oh joy!!!   Once I began doing this I noticed that ideas for articles came to me more frequently. I didn’t necessarily write the entire article right away, but the ideas were there and I could fill in the empty spaces when I had time.

After I gathered together all my articles and compiled them into a book, I discovered that others were interested in what I wrote and commented that they benefited from my efforts.   When I mention to people that they could write a book, many times they say, that they could never, but I feel that anyone has the ability, just start with what you know and then expand.   You might be surprised.