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My mother wrote poetry and encouraged me to write as well. She made a big fuss over the silly limericks and jingles I made up in our many hours together as a pre schooler. She would write them down for me and share them with family members. I was already interested in writing by the time I started school. While in elementary school, I decided to have a school newspaper and hand typed it myself one finger at a time on my mother's manual typewriter. By the time I was 10, my 4-H meeting reports were printed in the local paper, the Transcript Bulletin. By teenage years, I participated in things such as the school newspaper and school yearbook. My Senior year I took a journalism class. My writing had already been picked up in Regional and National 4-H magazines and went on to reach International scale by my Senior year. I call this my writing infancy
In spite of my early success as a youth, I lacked confidence to pursue writing for publication purposes for many years. However, I made endless voluntary contributions as I stayed home raising my five children. Someone was always needing something. I wrote all types of church and community programs including Primary programs, Ward Christmas programs, Puppet shows, Road Shows, Programs for the Handicapped, school awards night programs, 4-H programs, skits for scouts, and campfire programs. I often wrote new words to familiar tunes, or new poems as parodies to well known poems. Most of these were just thrown away after used. Occasionally, I jotted personal essays about the family when the urge hit. Few of these have survived as well.
When I returned to the work force after twenty years at home, I moved into an administration position for the Idaho Falls Public Schools and was sent to several managerment training conferences. These conferences stressed the importance of note and letter writing as an important managerial skill. I dedicated much time to notes and letters as had been suggested. When my emplyment moved to Ricks College, my confidence increased. Through Masters Degree training, I learned to write testing tools, case studies, and supplement manuals. The computer was coming into its own now, and I learned to do a Homepage on the Internet. It deplayed a section for personal reference but also a complete English Composition course. This Composition Course when printed hard copy was in essence my first published book. By 1996, my writing was being used by Ricks two-year college regularly, and when the Ricks College changed to BYU-Idaho, a four-year university in 2000, my Homepage course was retained. I had matured.
Between Infancy and Maturity are many small steps of growth. First comes the writing of small articles for narrowly circulated publications. Then comes the writing of special assignments to fulfill the many requests for idea-shares within the Department. Then comes the beginning of writing, publishing, and presentating at Regional conferences. Then comes the writing of longer more sophisticated compositions to fulfill the head of the Humanities Division requests. Somewhere sandwiched in the middle of all this, the skill of editing crops up, and a publisher makes contact requesting the writing of a special chapter in a text as an Editorial Board member. Then comes the editing for a friend's book going to publication and then another textbook publisher request. Then comes the requests for language lessons to be used at various places in the world for teaching ESL (English as a Second Language). Then comes the writing of articles for more widely ciruclated publications, and finally comes the writing of presentations for a large Interstate Conference for Teachers of English. I supposed having experienced all this, I can declare myself at least somewhat in the ranks of an author, presentor, and editor. One thing is for sure. Alfred Lord Tennyson had it right.
Examples of growing . . . .