You know you've made it when...

someone writes an academic paper about your writing, and uses words like "narrative transaction." I must admit, he's got it pegged: I write for an audience. My first blog, now defunct, was a fairly typical journal of my day-to-day life, but since that was in July and I did, essentially, nothing every day, even I got bored reading it. One day it occured to me that what makes someone want to continue reading a book or article or journal is an interesting voice or an interesting theme. Something has to be the "hook."

Also, I've long fancied myself a writer. I used to write a lot of poetry; before that, back in middle school, short stories. For the past few years, that creative energy has been channeled into curriculum development rather than writing, but doing the blog has reminded me how much I like writing. Lots of writers say, in interviews, that they've always known they wanted to be writers, and that they were writing little poems before they could stand up without holding on to something, and that they write for themselves first and only. If that works for them, great! But I've never been into the whole Emily Dickinson thing... (not dissing her poetry at all).