I remember well the day my little girl told me she was going to write a book. She had a notebook and pencil in her hands. I told her that was great, and I was excited to read it.
She sat at the table bowed her head toward the notebook and painstakingly started writing words in cursive. Great big words, using two rows of the notebook for each sentence, her toungue stuck out the side of her mouth while she concentrated.
I knew she was serious when she filled the entire notebook and told me book one of her series was complete, and she needed another notebook.
I had always dreamed that my kids would follow in my career path, and become web developers. It seems so fun and fulfilling to me, as well as relatively easy money for teens; how could they not love it?
Alas, no interest has been shown. That said, almost exactly a year ago our entire family went to WordCamp Chicago. Each of us went as attendees. My little girls each got their own schedule and worked through it, deciding what they wanted to learn about. My youngest, Sophia, tended toward design sessions, my eldest, Ema, toward content sessions.
I had built them each a WordPress site before WordCamp, taught them a tiny bit about html and CSS, and they each started blogging some. Ema started blogging lots about Zelda and Pokémon etc., Sophia more about life experiences.
One day Ema asked me if she could start a new book on her blog. I told her of course! Then she went away and started writing.
I remember well the day I realized my little girl had become a Writer. It was when she told me she had acquired an Editor. And it was someone I didn’t know.
Then she started collaborating with another young man on a second novel, writing two concurrently.
I wondered if perhaps this was a passing interest, something that she would tire of when something new and exciting came up. But then I began to see signs of the true Writer. The need to write, and the pain when the words won’t come. The angst over plot lines, character development; it was all there.
Someone once said “A Writer is someone who writes”. My little girl is a Writer.
This week she published an essay on HeroPress about the impact WordPress has had on her life. I don’t know if she’ll make a living by writing, but I’m pretty confident she’ll be a Writer for the rest of her life.
I’m proud of you Ema.
