A long time ago, when I was a young girl, I used my imagination to disappear from reality. Let me reassure you, I come from a wonderful, loving family – I honestly couldn’t have asked for more. An only child, I was happy to play with my imaginary friends when Mum was working, I had so many lion toys (hello The Lion King obsession) all with their own names and personalities, I was quite happy roaring about by myself.
Things started to get difficult when I moved to my second primary school; although I did have a few friends, for some reason I became a target for bullies. I honestly don’t know why these boys seemed to hate me so much, but it was horrible. Two particular things seemed to crop up regularly – the fact that I was born in Germany, and that I have a slightly crooked nose. My antagonisers swapped between calling me Hitler and Ski-ramp, although I tried to explain that a ski-ramp is more of a slope, without a great big bump in the middle, they wouldn’t listen.
Year 4 (so I’d be aged 7/8) was the worst. One traumatic memory I have was being surrounded by about 20 boys in a large circle, in the playground, as they literally threw sticks, pebbles and anything else they could at me. Every time I tried to make a break for freedom one of them would get in my way and push me back to the circle’s centre. This lasted 30 minutes. Half an hour of helplessness as these people rejoiced in hurting me, physically and emotionally. Now, even 20 years on I have tears in my eyes as I remember this day.
Eventually I was rescued, and I confessed what had been happening to my mother, who was devastated and spoke to the school, who helped put a stop to the bullying. But to be honest, although it never got to that level again, my primary school years were still pretty painful on the whole.
Reading and writing gave me an escape
So, what does all this have to do about writing? Well, reading and writing gave me an escape. I would write little stories about wizards, pirates or fairies who were free to fly about and live lives full of magic and wonder. I would sit at my desk whilst the bullies threw rulers at me, and instead of crying I would imagine I was a character in one of my stories – usually called Maria!
As a young teen experiencing what I thought was unrequited love for the first time, I buried my head in Shakespeare and poetry and used my heartache to write about how I felt. Honest, painful, genuine, teen angst.
In fact, throughout my life, especially when things haven’t quite gone to plan, I’ve always turned to writing. A lot of it won’t ever be published, because I choose to keep it private – but the act of writing, typing or scribbling away is a wondrous release for me. It’s a chance for me to reconnect with myself, to free my emotions and to gain control over any situation that has been bothering me.
That’s why writing lights me up. It’s an old, trusty friend, a companion of 28 years – and we’re just at the beginning.
My dream is to help other people discover the joy of writing, whether it’s for their own personal pleasure, to help their business grow or just to see their name in print, and cross one thing off their bucket list.
If you hope to get published one day, or want to develop your writing skills, I’d like to invite you to join me next week for my free webinar: ‘5 Steps to Getting Published’. You can sign up here.
I really hope to see you there!