Time for Writing

This week, in a moment of frustration with not having enough time to write, I was kicking myself for not taking writing seriously earlier in life. I mean what did I do with all of my free time before I had kids? At the time I thought I was soooo busy, but I didn't know what busy was. I could have written a dozen novels with all of that time. So, why didn't I start?

It wasn't that I didn't have the interest. I showed an interest in writing starting in grade school.(My first novel, written in grade 5, was called Thirteen going on Thirty. Isn't that a movie title? I think someone owes me some royalties LOL). And even when I was in University and should have been reading about abnormal psychology I was making up characters and stories in my head. So why didn't I write them down? I think to seriously start a novel, there has to be a need within you. For me, that need was the need to feel smart again. I was on maternity leave with my first child, and after 6 months of being out of the workplace I called my husband at work and complained that I needed to feel smart again. I needed to use my brain for something other than changing diapers and amusing a baby. He suggested that since I always wanted to write a book that I should take a writing course. That suggestion changed my life (bless his heart). Since the first night of my Romance Writing course, I haven't lost the desire to finish my novel. Of course there have been times when life has interfered, but even when I didn't have the time to write, the desire still burned.

And now, as I'm nearing the completion of my first draft (after 4 years *gasp*), I've already got ideas swirling in my head for my next ms, but I resist the urge to start it. Even though the need driving the desire has changed (now not only do I want to become published so that I can write from home and not have to send my kids to daycare, but I also love to write--it's addictive!), the desire is still there burning just as intensely as when I wrote my first character sketch.

What was the need that drove you to start writing? What keeps you going?