Remember when being published was for professional writers only?  Except in those rare cases where an author wanted their work published so badly the author would go to a vanity press publishing house that charged the author to print and bind the book.

I’ve always thought I would enjoy writing fiction, but for years it was more thought than action.  One of my aims in putting together this blog is to encourage people in the Baby Boomer group to explore their creative side for the sake of the journey, not the destination.

A good friend of mine told me she’d like to try water painting but didn’t do it because she didn’t have the talent.  I’m still trying to talk her into taking a class or just get some paints and start having fun.

It’s about having fun with the process – no matter what the result is, you had fun and learned something new.   So I started writing with a local writer’s group.  We write from prompts that start us on a 20 or 30 minute writing session and then share what we’ve written with each other.  I love the process because knowing I don’t have to do a complete story, or over worry about whether I’m using proper grammar, lets me stop the Muse killing censoring most of us do.

I’m sharing a number of these exercises here – both the writing prompt and the mixture of fiction and autobiographical scribblings the prompt inspired in me.   I hope you enjoy them, but even more I hope they encourage you to go try something you’ve always wanted to try.