In The Beginning - or - lets start a few years back

So how did this fixation with writing begin, you ask.  Or perhaps you didn't, but I I'll going to share anyway.  If I didn't, this would be a very short post.

Writing is contrary to many of my normal strengths and tendencies.  Not that I consider myself non-creative, I think of myself a creative spirit trapped in a lazy mans body.  I lack what most writers need to have to be successful- the ability to spell, knowledge as to whether my participle is dangling or not, and truthfully I'm not a delayed gratification type of guy.  Writing is like- "Hey I am in a mood for an apple pie.  I think I'll go out an plant an apple tree." It's a long process and, if you can find an audience, they are reading it after you've moved on to something else.

About a year ago, when trying to figure out what this whole Facebook thing was about, I reconnected with a high school friend who invited me to join an online "flash fiction" writing group.  Flash fiction are very short stories, that depending on who is defining them, are less than either 500 or 1000 words.  

For a number of years I hadn't done anything creative and so I thought, sure why not and joined the group.  Each month there was a theme.  Each month I, submitted a story, sometimes two, and people would say "that's really good.".  But everyone was pretty much saying that about every story posted.

But I wanted to know if what I was writing was really good or not.  So I joined a local writing group and got some good feedback on two stories that I had written.  (Looking back the stories blew chunks, but the feedback moved me forward.)

Anyway, a year later I am still writing.  I haven't had anything published yet, but I'm still trying.  In the past year I have written eighteen short stories, bought two grammar books (who would have ever thought I would be buying grammar books after I graduated high school) and have turned into the "hey can you read this and tell me what you think" guy as I push my latest draft into their hands.

I really haven't given up on instant gratification.