Beginning

I have written stories, poetry, even novels since I was four years old. Although I won lots of prizes growing up and my English teachers told me that I was gifted and were disappointed when I chose a career other than writing I never took my writing seriously. I knew that I needed to write because I always felt better when I was writing but that wasn't enough to overcome my inner critic. She told me that I was wasting my time, that there were too many writers in the world already and that what I wrote was without any merit.
For a long time I listened to her even though I still sometimes jotted stuff down and would have a phrase or an image emerge that insisted on being written. There were still periods when I wrote more consistently and worked at it. I even taught creative writing for a while and felt alive for the first time in years when discussing students' work and the craft of writing.
I hope to use steemit to 'publish' some of my work finally. When I looked at my folders and documents I discovered that I had a number of short stories and quite a few poems that were complete and that I was happy to put onto my account. I am excited about this even though very few people will ever see them. It feels right that they have an existence outside of my own life.
Anyway, I am excited and I haven't felt like that for a longtime about my own creativity.