Bett Norris

Writing has always been a mysterious process for me.  For most of my life, it has also been a secret habit.  The most accessible of all the arts, it is the one about which almost everyone thinks, "I can do that."  Look at a painting, go to an opera or a ballet, and not many people leave thinking that's something they could do.  Most accept, whether or not they appreciate ballet or opera, that it takes years of training and hard work to reach the level they've just witnessed. 

Freshman composition was the last class I took about writing.  My instructor, Atlanta Ashby (that's her real name; look it up) taught me one thing: omit needless words.  It was written in red on every paper I submitted.  Back then, full of passionate intensity, I was sure I needed them all.  Ms. Ashby called me her little enigma, and read my papers to the class as cautionary tales about what not to do.

After dreaming all my life about getting a degree in English, I left that department like a spurned lover, and majored in history.

I've read a few books about writing, a few more about getting published.  But for the most part, I just kept writing, in journals, on cocktail napkins in bars (really) and kept my secret.  I wrote 4 novels this way.

Then I read a remarkable novel by a truly remarkable writer, Cynn Chadwick, who just happens to teach creative writing.  Cat Rising is about someone who is standing on the threshold of a new life, afraid to walk through the doors that are opening for her.  Cat has just written a book, you see, and her life is about to change, and she's not sure she wants it to change, yet.  It is a very touching and funny book.  It certainly moved me in a way that nothing else has.  It compelled me to write to the author, and to confess my secret.  It was time to find out if my secret passion could be an avocation.  It was time to find out if I was good enough.

With Ms. Chadwick's coaching, advice, encouragement, and sometimes even stronger "get off your ass and do it" admonishments, I came out as a writer.  Whew.  That was scary, and hard.

How am I doing so far?

Visit Cynn Chadwick at  http://www.cynnchadwick.wordpress.com/