The beginning of my writing journey began in the summer of 2006 with the first book I would ever write. It was a detective story, much like the Nancy Drew books I’d grown up reading, and it was inspired by my stepmother, who encouraged me to write a story of my own because I loved to read stories.

From there, I wrote a couple more mystery/detective stories, ones that my family would read a chapter a day around the dinner table until we finished the entire book. Then, I became more private with my writing – I didn’t want anyone to see it, read it, share it, anything. In high school, I would spend hours alone in my bedroom, writing stories in school notebooks, hiding my writing from everyone but my best friend, Bria.

I would continue to be shy about my writing all the way through college, despite creative writing classes that would encourage students to be courageous in sharing our words and thoughts, and less judgmental of ourselves and others. Even as a senior, reading what I wrote made my heart race, and my hands sweat and shake.

Don’t get me wrong – I still get like that. Even when sharing my writing with other friends I still shake, and my voice tends to quiver. But it happens less than it used to.

Now at twenty-four with a B.A. in English, it’s easy to be discouraged that my main occupation isn’t writing. That I haven’t been published yet when there have been people my age and without degrees who have been published. That other blogs have gotten more feedback, attention, and buzz than my own.

Some difficult situations in my life led me back to several things:

Journaling –  in my own journal and in my prayer journal.

Poetry/Spoken word – genres I had brushed off in high school and college, but now hold as one of the main ways I get my thoughts out.

Community – The importance of having writing buddies, and sharing your work, whether you think it’s trash or not. And also, encouraging/showcasing other writers’ work, and supporting them through it. It’s become less of a competition to me now, and more of a way for me to grow with others.

I didn’t see it while I was enduring the struggles and frustrations, but I can sort of see it now. The Lord had His hand through it all, and provided so many awesome opportunities for me…

Because of a local writer in my hometown, I became inspired to not just write every day, but to dust off the cobwebs from my personal blog, and actually get some content on there. A one-month challenge that would grow into two-, three-, four-months of writing/blogging every day (except Sundays), and would be a solid foundation for me and my writing. A safe haven for me to come back to when I become overwhelmed with other types of writing or projects.

Because of an amazing music producer who keeps up with my blog, and gave me a chance to read some of my work on his Instagram live, I built up more confidence to keep writing, sharing, and making something more out of my writing than just blogging.

Because of my family and friends, who pray for me and cheer me on as I work through all of this, I continue to seek God through this whole process, because without Him, I’d be completely alone in all this. I would have no direction whatsoever; He is my number one inspiration.

I have definitely grown, but that doesn’t mean I’m perfect at it; I’ve missed days, weeks, almost whole months of daily blogging due to other circumstances in my life. But I praise God for giving me the talent of writing, for allowing there to be growth in different writing genres, and that He has allowed inspiration in my life and in the lives of those who read what I have to say.

Even though my daily blogging journey began with “#JustStartWriting,” I began to realize that I wanted it to mean more than just me just starting to write every day. But that’s a story for another time…

Officially though, I want to say what this blog will contain…

Daily writing – I am back to blogging every day like I used to back in the very first #JustStartWriting days! After a whole year of wandering in different directions to find myself, I, well, found myself back here, writing my heart away! And I’m so excited to get back to it. I will do my very best to write a blog post every day, but I know that eventually as the year goes on, there may be a missed day or two!

Spoken word/poetry – Not only am I trying to get spoken word in an audio form, but I want it to be in the form in which it was birthed: words.

And yeah, that’s pretty much it! If anything else is added, I’ll make sure to update you.

Whoever you are reading this – thank you for stopping by, and being interested in the growth of my writing. I look forward to writing to you more to continue this wonderful journey.

Much love to you luvvies,

Mishy 🦋