How I Became A Writer
My writing has found a new audience lately. I have been writing more than half of my life. Lately, my work has gotten more profound and has touched more people than ever before. It is something that I have worked hard at for a very long time. My writing was not always the polished blog you are reading now.
Music has always been a huge part of my family. Ever since I could remember, my Uncle Roy had been playing in bands. He still does. I've always been his biggest fan. I have always looked up to anyone that has the courage to work hard at their dream. For me, it started with Uncle Roy. He wrote a song called “Over You” that has become a legend amongst family and friends. He wrote it in 1980 and I can’t remember a time when that song was not a part of my life. Even before I could read, I remember asking for and receiving a copy of the lyrics. I don’t know why I wanted them in writing. I couldn’t even read yet and I knew the lyrics by heart.
When I was 6, I began playing the drums and tried to copy the bands that I looked up to. By the time I was 12, I had the hits of my favorite bands down. Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, and Aerosmith were just a few. Aerosmith and Guns N’ Roses were gods to me and I looked up to everything they did. I read every article I could get my hands on, studied every note to every song. The album of major Influence to me then was “Appetite for Destruction”. In 1990, “Use Your Illusion I & II” had just come out and I listened to it non-stop. The other album to come out that year was Aerosmith’s “Pump” and it was a major score for them. They were all over MTV with 4 major singles. After the success of their video for “What It Takes” (which was just a making of reel), the band released a home video called “The Making Of Pump”. It was a documentary showing what it takes to make an album like that (<-- you see what I did there 😉). I was obsessed with watching the song-writing process. It inspired me to try to write.
I wrote my first song, if you could even call it that. I just wrote different lyrics to the tune of “Paradise City” and it was terrible.
By the time I got to high school, I tried really hard to write lyrics, hoping one day that I would meet someone to put music to them. I put all my lyrics into self-printed books and handed them out to anyone who would read them. Each year, I wrote and printed new ones. There was a little growth there but you could see that my influences were changing. This is where I have to give a shout out to Anthony DiPatri. He was the only one who really showed interest and supported my work. He would often ask me questions about my work to understand it better.
When I graduated high school, I felt there was no more audience. The only people that read my work were people in high school. Without readers, there wasn’t much of a point. I stopped writing for a long time.
I would write a piece here and there but never collected them together. When I got to college and had a project where I had to make a CD-ROM, I took all my books and put them in this project. I also collected and wrote some new things for the project. Because I went to school for Web Design, I built a website that was an on-line version of the CD-ROM. I hosted on a free website that is now long gone. That was the last time I looked at any of that material. My pen went dry.
When my wife was pregnant with my youngest daughter in 2010, we had a lot of doctors appointments, which meant a lot of time in waiting rooms. I began reading a blog that my uncle Rich Willhelm was writing called “The Dichotomy of the Dog”. The more I read, the more it inspired me write again. He talked me into posting to the same journaling website he was on. I began telling tales of different events going on in my life. As life began to get too busy and writer’s block came on, my posts were few and far between until I stopped all together.
Fast forward to the invention of Facebook. By this time, I had given up on the dream to be in a band and co-write with anyone. I stopped playing the drums and wandered through life not knowing what my next dream was. When I started on what would become known as social media, I’d occasionally post something I wrote based on how life was going. I wrote and gave the eulogy at my grandmother’s funeral in 2007. In 2013, as I was visiting my grandfather in a nursing home, I wrote a piece about him. Days later, I was reading it as his eulogy. His passing led me to be particularly literarily active through the following year. I was asked to write a eulogy for an aunt that passed for someone else to read.
At this point, my writing had been a tool that had been packed away and only brought out on occasion when I needed it, but for the most part, it was never used.
In 2019, a new dream was revealed to me. I began studying photography and building a brand. It was rough going at first. My photography skills needed much improving and I had to learn how to market myself. As a writer, I am more sensitive to things than most. Things affect me deeper than they should. I had to deal with my fear of rejection. I never requested anyone on Facebook because I was afraid they would not accept. Then I started my photography account. It took a long time for me to come to terms with that, to understand that because I AM that sensitive, that is what makes me a better writer. It took a lot for me to celebrate myself. I was uncomfortable with people giving me compliments because I didn’t know how to respond. I had to learn to overcome that if I wanted to promote myself and tell people they should look at my work.
Soon, as my photography began to improve, I started wanting to name my photos. Then I tried to write a little something to go with them. The more I wrote with my photos, the more people began to pay attention. I stopped and thought about it. That is when it hit me. THIS is what my purpose is. All those years of writing was just a warm up, something to hone my skill. At the time, I tried to figure out what I was honing it FOR. Here it was, it was now all so clear.
In September of 2021, I launched my official website. One of the features the website came with was a blog. I began writing and an audience soon followed.
I have had people tell me that my work has meant a lot to them, that it came at the perfect time that they needed it. They were going through something, they read my work and it spoke to them. Every time I hear that my work has made someone feel something, ANYTHING, good, bad, happy, angry, I love it all! Either way, my work provoked an emotion. Whatever that emotion may be, it made them FEEL something. THAT, to me is the most validating thing in the world.
It has been a long process to get where I am today. I am thankful for it all. If it were not for that process, I would not be where I am or who I am now. I believe that in your journey through life, you need to stop every now and again to look back and see how far you have come. Seeing that will give you the strength and hunger you need to keep moving on. There have been a lot of people along my path that have inspired and pushed me to keep moving forward. I am blessed to have them be a part of me. Each time someone tells me that my work touched them, it’s another person cheering me on to keep going. I personally invite you to join me on this journey as a keep this dream alive.
Until next time,
Thank you for reading!
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