On getting back to writing

Just write. Write all day. Write as much as you can. These are all phrases I have been seeing a lot lately. It seem I'm seeing it in blogs, articles, and websites... I'm taking it as a sign from the higher powers that be to get to it. I am passing along the message.

I remember being on my high school newspaper staff, and later also in college briefly. So young. Scared and nervous. In high school my first assignment was to interview the principle. Yikes! I laugh now, but then I was sweating bullets. I knew I liked to write, but I didn't know what I wanted to do with it.

When I was in college, at first I declared an undecided major, then quickly moved to English. One day in the English hall I saw something that changed everything. There was an ad on a mutli-colored, many papered cork board -  on you know what I'm talking about college people. It advertised a contest. I was early for class so I decided to check it out. Remembering back, I think it said something about submitting a poem for a chance to be published. I thought, why not! I had never tried this before. So I wrote my first poem that evening.

At the time I was living in a dorm, and there wasn't much to do on a weeknight when you're broke and single. Gathering up all necessities: my English lit book, a thesaurus, a yellow legal pad, a pen, and my trusty copy of Shakespeare's Sonnets (my favorite). I didn't make a big deal out of it, and after awhile I had hammered out a few poems as I watched the free Showtime channel they gave us on campus. David Duchovny's Red Shoe Diaries was always a staple. I chose to go with sonnets. I loved it! It made me feel like I had accomplished something, and turned out to be therapeutic. Showing it to my English teacher was nerve-wracking, but she told me it was good, so I sent it in. BAM! A few weeks later I received a letter informing me my poem would be published. There were a few more instances after this that resulted in my poems being published, but I took a break from school for various reasons and my poem writing went with my schoolwork.

I knew then that I wanted to try and write a novel someday, but I would always end up talking myself out of it. Many years have gone by and I write occasionally for myself only. Recently I met some great people on Twitter that have inspired me to start writing again. Now here I am writing my first novel. I can't believe I didn't do this before, but now seems to be the right time for me. How did you start writing? Did you do it when you were young and continue, or were you a late bloomer like myself? I am curious to see what responses I receive. I hope you enjoyed my first post, I know I enjoyed writing it. :)