From Aspiring Writer to Writer

I pondered to myself when I was writing my bio and by-lines and such, when I could say that I am a writer instead of an aspiring writer. I think the time has come.

I’ve come a long way since my first blog! I think I wrote my first blog just to see if I could hack it but now I think I need to keep at it; if not simply for the practice, then for the pure release of all the junk in my head.

I have created a my own website (still a work in progress), a Twitter, a Facebook profile and  fan page separate from my regular account, in order to connect with fellow ‘aspiring’ writers, authors, readers and freelancers. I consider it my alter ego since I’m using my pen name for these pages and none of my friends on my regular page have a clue who A.M. Horton is (yet). By day I am an Account Specialist for a multi-media merchandising, marketing, sales and distribution company, a soccer mom and a softball player; by night, I write. Now all I need is a costume, complete with the logo that I created, a cape and tights, a catch phrase and a side kick!

I have begun to dabble in the world of freelance content writing for various online companies. I submitted my very first article on Yahoo! Contributor Network on 5/31/13. It was just a little story of how I remodeled my bathroom into a tropical ocean-themed design. It was fun to write and included pictures of my effort (currently awaiting the results of that submission). I have signed up for several other sites; some I like, some I don’t, some I haven’t decided how I feel yet. One site that I do like is like an online portfolio, Contently, where I can keep track of all of my published content.

The most exciting new development is that I have enrolled in an online writing class. It’s called Beginning Writer’s Workshop, it is 2 days a week for 6 weeks and I think it will really help my writing since it starts with the basics. It’s interesting to see the diversity and skill level of all the students and all the different places that they come from. I have learned a lot in the just the first two classes. I have learned how to free write, which is just writing anything and everything that pops into your head and not editing, backspacing, crossing out or spellchecking for five minutes. It sounds easy enough, but do you know how hard it is for a self-proclaimed perfectionist to type and NOT hit the backspace button!? I’ve learned that ALL of my writing, good or bad, counts. Even my first blog, no matter how much I want to go and edit it and all those silly, sappy love poems that I wrote when I was a teenager that are tucked away somewhere alongside the first novel I tried to write. But the most important thing that I have learned thus far is, I don’t have to be recognized, accredited or published to call myself a writer. So,  

Lesson 1 Assignment 1: 

Admission (mainly to myself):
 

Hello, my name is Angela and I am a writer!

Diving in!

Hello and Welcome to my blog!
I have finally jumped onto the ol' blog wagon. Why not, all the cool kids are doing it. I think I am the last to conquer all the cool, hip, new age things in life. Take the CD player for instance. I am fairly certain that I was the last teenager on earth to own a CD player! Does anyone know in what year the first CD player was released? Well, I'll tell you, 1983. What year did I get one? 1999. It was one of those big, bulky, 5 disc changer boombox stereos. How many CDs did I have at the time? One. Same goes for the DVD player, somewhere around 2002, I think.
As an aspiring writer, I am embarking on a journey into the vast, wonderful and sometimes a little daunting, world of social media. I'm posting, pasting, texting, tagging, tweeting, blogging, banking, booking, linking, liking and every other new online verb you can think of that will soon be in the dictionary, if it is not already. I may even feel the need to make up some new ones of my own somewhere along the way, you never know.
I want to share some of my tips, tricks, resources and stories that I've discovered along the way, as well as any new ones I will most assuredly happen upon. Any feedback or tidbits you'd like to share would be most welcomed as well. It is my hope that by sharing my journey I will help and inspire all those out there who are walking in the same shoes, paddling the same boat, flying the same kite, barking up the same tree, you catch my drift, as me. Come and join me on my new adventure, won't you?
I plan to share some great apps and websites that I have found to be very helpful, such as:
dictionary.com
writersdigest.com
The Writer app and even word games like Words with Friends to help build skill and vocabulary and a little something I like to call, $100 Word of the Day, just to name a few.
It has been a life long dream of mine to be able to get my thoughts and emotions out of my head, down in black and white and share them with the world. So here I am, diving in!