Where The Writing Leads

Congratulations to Kathleen Burkinshaw! You won a book of your choice from my last blog, Your Book is Out...Scary Words. Just go to www.arliebooks.com, select a book and send me an email...sandra@arliebooks.com.

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When the writing bug hit me, I had in mind writing for children; books to inspire and entertain. Never in my wildest dreams did I think about writing for adults; parents, teachers, general audiences. It wasn't on my agenda. I never gave it a thought.

And then one day my telephone range. It was a woman, an Army Reservist, a stranger just returned from the Persian Gulf War. She wanted me to write her memoirs, her life-changing experience serving in Iraq. She had to talk me into it. I was a children's author, after all.

Another time I met an editor for a Home Improvement magazine who asked me to write an article about radon. Radon? Really? "You want this non-science minded writer to pen an article about radon?" Crazy as I am, I said "yes." I found experts in the field, talked to folks who had to mitigate radon from their homes, and wrote the article.

A good friend who is also a writer, wrote a story about a school and then was approached to write a book about fly-fishing. She knew nothing about fly-fishing but she said, "yes." Months after the book came out, she was asked to write an article for a trout magazine.

As writers, we need to be open to whatever opportunities come our way. We never know where the writing will lead.

Have you been asked to write something that surprised you? Something you knew nothing about? Did you say, "yes?"