Change of pace today. I usually leave you with one question, but today I have ten … TEN! So, get your interactive boots on. You must … simply MUST speak back to me today. If you don’t, I’ll cry and that really messes up my keyboard.
The inspiration for these brilliant questions (really, aren’t they blinding you?) came from an article I read discussing what degree of creativity is motivated by nature vs. nurture. This poll is all very scientific and the only acceptable excuse for not responding, is that you’re not a writer at all.
1. Were there many books in your childhood home?
2. Were you read to you as a child?
3. Are/were your parents avid readers?
4. Are there other writers in your family?
5. Have you always channeled your creativity into writing?
6. What other creative talents do you have?
7. Do you believe you were born to be a writer?
8. Do you have an MFA?
9. Do you write with the goal of publication?
10. Are you already published?
It’s going to be a happy dance day for Linda…no crying at the keyboard, afterall!
Hmmm, lots of questions. First off, I’m not published. Does that disqualify me from answering the rest? I have a BS in Human Development because I love people! [No MFA, but almost a BFA in Fine Arts in Art] Left studio art because I couldn’t hack not being around people! I’m probably am more of a speaker than a writer.
Mom was an avid mystery reader. I was read to as a child…but I didn’t sit still very well. I loved drawing cartoons, making up skits and pretending to be on TV when cooking, practicing the piano and doing other chores. Have journaled for years. Always been a letter writer. My mom’s side of the family is very creative: musicians, artists, dancers. My dad’s side is very gregarious. Both sides love to tell stories! I’m certainly a mix of both.
Not necessarily writing for publication yet. I’m very new to the writing life so blogging and writing for speaking engagements. Listening and learning from other writers.
Mari, I can certainly see that you have a mix of traits from both sides of your family! It would seem you’re a perfect example of the mix of nature and nurture, too.
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions AND for retweeting the link to my blog.
10 yes…
I love music and art to
Thanks for your response, Mireille. So, you’re creative in many ways. I wonder how many will answer that way?
1. Yes. Many books, but very few children’s books. My reading was of adult genre (some romance that may have been highly inappropriate for a six year old).
2. Yes. Until I learned to read.
3. Yes
4. No and Yes. My ex mother-in-law is a published author.
5. No. I used to channel in every way but.
6. None
7. Maybe
8. No. Until they bring me a literary professor who makes house calls and gives me all of his/her attention and dotes on me exclusively, then I shall remain on a self-teaching level.
9. Yes
10. Only if you count my small magazine piece. I’ve also been published in my dreams. I’m on the bestseller list and have Oprah leaving me text messages. I also live on a Hawaiian beachfront as a result of all my success.
Whether we admit it or not, don’t we all have your #10 dream?
1. Yes! Still are.
2. Yes.
3. Yes, but their taste in genres is questionable at best.
4. No.
5. Yes, but not exclusively.
6. Besides beckoning the lovely, and joke-telling, and making up song lyrics, and day dreaming in technicolor, and doodling, and lifting email to new heights… no.
7. I must have been. Why would anyone do it otherwise?
8. No, if by MFA you mean the degree. Another of my creative talents – hijacking acronyms.
9. Yes.
10. Yes, but not a book-sized publication.
What does it mean, Dr. Linda?
I’m not even going to touch your #8. Oh, wait, does that reveal what acronym I thought of? Darn you, Tony Soprano!
1. My parents kept books (fiction and nonfiction, children’s and adult) or magazines in every room. According to my dad, they even placed books in my crib.
2. My dad read to me for the first couple years of my life. As soon as I learned to read for myself, he stopped.
3. I doubt my parents would call themselves avid readers. My dad (concerned for his reputation) refused to walk into a library until my teenaged years; although, he always gave my mom a list of books to check out for him. My mom reads magazines and whatever books someone leaves lying around. She acts like she prefers reading for work.
4. My grandfather is writing his memoirs. On the other side of my family, one of my aunts and one of her sons enjoy writing.
5. Since I was five- or six-years-old, I’ve attempted to write fiction. Around that time, I also started learning performance arts (acting and singing) and the fun of drawing and painting.
6. See above for creative interests. Talent is not implied.
7. No, I don’t believe the universe is that organized. I believe I was born with the potential to write.
8. No MFA. I earned an AA studying Sociology.
9. Yes and no. I doubt anyone will want to publish my current main project, the YA Sci-fi novel, and that’s fine with me. That novel is practice, of sorts, for another Sci-fi novel.
10. Not in any meaningful way.
Ann, are you saying you learned to read at age 2, or even 3?!!!
No, problem with your detailed answers. I enjoyed them.
I don’t know. No one seems to remember me going through a “pretend reading” stage. As soon as I could talk, I was regurgitating what I’d read.
Crikey. I must like to talk about myself. Sorry for the long response.
oooh, I love surveys!
1. yes
2. yes
3. yes
4. yes
5. yes
6. does eating count as a creative talent?
7. yes
8. no
9. yes
10. yes (short stories)
Will you be compiling the results? Can we expect multi-color charts?
Concerning your answer to #6, I’d like to think it does, or at least enhances creativity because I gained 20 pounds writing this novel. And now that I’ve said that publicly, I have no choice but to keep dieting.
So far, I’m afraid to compile the results. I might have to come to the conclusion I should retire my keyboard.
1. Were there many books in your childhood home? Children’s books-yes. Adult books-no.
2. Were you read to as a child? Uh… sometimes yeah. Not often though.
3. Are/were your parents avid readers? No.
4. Are there other writers in your family? Not really.
5. Have you always channeled your creativity into writing? No.
6. What other creative talents do you have? I also sew, paint, and fence (the sword kind of fencing). I enjoy scrapbooking. I work out daily.
7. Do you believe you were born to be a writer? Yes. I used to dig papers out of the garbage, staple them together, and make them into little story books. I had an obsessive problem. It has never gone away.
8. Do you have an MFA? Isn’t that a bad word in texting language? If you mean Master of Fine Arts, no. I’m not that pompous–even if I had one, I wouldn’t brag about it. I ever rich enough to get a masters. Loved college. Got a BA. Then the $$$ ran out.
9. Do you write with the goal of publication? Of course. Absolutely yes.
10. Are you already published? Nope.
Fun survey. Thanks for letting me participate. I’m running one of my own at my blog. Probably bad etiquette to plug my own blog, so I won’t.
mfogelsong, thanks for participating. You should link your name to your blog, that way you’re always “plugging” without being obvious.
1. Yes!
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. no
5. no
6. photography, piano (sort of)
7. no
8. no
9. yes
10. no
I consider being such a sweet, bubbly, people person one of your talents, too.
True or false, multiple choice, or essay perhaps?
1. Books in the house? Probably more in mine than anywhere else. Otherwise, print, yes, but more magazines than books. Grandmother loved Zane Grey. Later I read one, but that was enough. Yet I loved to read myself. Where that came from – no clue.
2. Read to? Nope.
3. Avid readers? Not much; like I said, more magazines.
4. Other writers in the family? No.
5. Only writing? No, I read more than wrote early on, did more of painting and drawing initially. During college discovered some knack for making pictures with words instead of paint. Over time that’s the way I’ve leaned.
6. Other talents? As said above, but seldom exercised. Maybe when I get old?
7. Born to write? Ha! Now there’s an essay I won’t begin. Could say it this way – one day I asked the air what should I do? Air said one word to me – write. I was of a mood to take air seriously, so I do. Simple as that. Expression is its own purpose and reward. And I don’t mean anything grand. It is more a very personal intent.
8. MFA? Nope. Self-taught for the most. Suppose I’m rather ill behaved, unkempt, as a writer. But neither do I learn alone, certainly.
9. Publication as a goal? Define publication. But in the common sense, no. But being public, yes, that matters to me, personally. It would seem empty to me just writing in a hole. And I do poetry, not novels, so websites are workable and appropriate venues from my point of view.
10. Already published? Just a bit. In on-line magazines. And by the by, old fashioned of me I suppose, but that art and craft of letter writing also counts to me, even if to an audience of one. And that is a joy to me.
Thanks Linda. A little playtime in the sandbox can be fun!
Interesting answers, Neil. Some are close to my own.
And Linda, your answers might be?…
1. Were there many books in your childhood home?
YES
2. Were you read to you as a child?
SOMETIMES
3. Are/were your parents avid readers?
NO
4. Are there other writers in your family?
YES
5. Have you always channeled your creativity into writing?
YESYESYES
6. What other creative talents do you have?
ARTIST, GRAPHIC DESIGNER, ACTRESS, SONGSTRESS
7. Do you believe you were born to be a writer?
ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY
8. Do you have an MFA?
NO
9. Do you write with the goal of publication?
SOMETIMES. CURRENTLY, YES.
10. Are you already published?
I’VE WRITTEN FOR LOCAL MAGAZINES. I HAVE A BOOK AND A PLAY IN MY HEAD, AS WELL AS 3 CHILDREN’S STORIES BEING WRITTEN FOR PUBLICATION.
Thanks for asking. Hope this breaks the block for you. Have a blessed day!!
Welcome back, Mary, and thanks for participating.
4 and 8. no
all others. yes.
6. hmm. t hat depends on how you define talent.
I define it your way.
Great questions, Linda.
1. Were there many books in your childhood home? Yes, but all I can remember are encyclopedias.
2. Were you read to you as a child? Yes, a couple of my favorites: Too Many Mittens and The Fat Cat
3. Are/were your parents avid readers? My dad, yes. My mother loved to paint.
4. Are there other writers in your family? I’ve heard rumor of such!
5. Have you always channeled your creativity into writing? No, not always. But yes, more recently I focus more on writing.
6. What other creative talents do you have? I dabble in knitting, I’ve tried painting, once in a while I make jewelry. Am I talented? Depends on who you ask.
7. Do you believe you were born to be a writer? y.e.s.
8. Do you have an MFA? No.
9. Do you write with the goal of publication? y.e.s.
10. Are you already published? Yes! Alltopia Antholozine’s Harvest issue.
Thanks for participating, Christ. I’ve been to your place reading your flash. Excellent!
# 1 – I had read my entire local library by the time I was in sixth grade….but to put this in perspective….I grew up in the sticks….it was a pretty small library…. :0)
#6 Photography, painting, making gorgeous gardens that look like they’ve always been there even when they’re new……I’m really good at trimming trees…..I can cook (both in and out of the kitchen, hem hem, if you know what I mean)
Let’s see what else…..
….oh, sometimes I’m funny… (not now of course, but sometimes)
:0)
And when you were seven you started making a dent in the adult section, right?