Path to Writing

By Kelly Bridgewater

          I wanted to share my path to writing, as a way to introduce myself. 
      My father handed me a journal when I was eight years old and told me to write my thoughts and emotions, either good or bad. As a young girl, I only wrote in the journal when I felt I was treated wrong by my parents. As an immature little woman, I wrote in big, red letters about “hating my parents.” Being angry, I blanketed those pages with hurtful words and wasted space to write important things.

            When I turned thirteen years old, I received True Friends by Robin Jones Gunn. An avid reader of The Baby-sitters Club and Sweet Valley High, I never knew about Christian fiction. My father drove me to the closest Christian bookstore and introduced me to the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I was in love. I wanted to enter Narnia. This started my journey on becoming a writer.  

            My best friend, Robin Allgire, and I played for hours in her side yard, using our imaginations. We created houses and invisible lands out of nothing. After returning home, I recreated the action in my journals. I enjoyed remembering the movement of the games we played.

            During high school, I signed up to write for the school’s newspaper and took upper level creative writing classes. I couldn’t wait to write. Either fiction or non-fiction. I did not care. I just wanted my name on a piece of writing that I poured my heart and soul into.

            In college, I declared creative writing as my minor and English as my major. I loved taking classes and being assigned to read, discuss, and write about different writers.

            But my heart kept tugging toward fiction writing. I proceed to graduate school and earned my MA in Writing after completing a creative thesis in May 2012. Since high school, I wrote Christian fiction, which was not always received well by the secular instructors.

            In 2013, I took a chance and attended the ACFW conference. I had an appointment with Ronie Kendig who said, “I had the voice of a suspense writer with clear and concise writing.” My heart jumped for joy. The road to writing has not always been easy, but God keeps telling me to write.

What is your path to writing? How does God affirm your choice to be a writer?

  Kelly Bridgewater holds a B.S. in English and a M.A. in Writing from Indiana State University on the completion of a creative thesis titled Fleeting Impressions, which consisted of six original short stories. She has been published in the Indiana State University Literary Journal, Allusions, with her stories titled “Moving On” and “Life Changing Second.” In fall 2011, she presented her essay, Northanger Abbey: Structurally a Gothic Novel, at the Midwestern American Society of 18^th Century Studies Conference. Kelly’s writing explores the ideas of good prevailing over evil in suspense. Kelly and her husband reside with their three boys and two dogs.