The Catholic Writers Guild

It’s never too late!

I didn’t start writing until I was fifty-two. I loved reading religious magazines and while I was reading I thought to myself, I would have phrased this that way or I would have written about this. Finally, one day, I put pen to paper, or rather hands to keyboard and wrote a story about a little known saint and how she influenced me. With no real hope that it would actually be published, I paid the postage and sent it off to one of my favorite magazines. I was shocked when not only that story but a second story was published. The editor contacted me and asked if I would contribute a monthly story about little known women saints. I was shocked, Why am I telling you this? Because only you can decide if you are a writer. It is a profession, but it is also a calling.

Do you have something to say or share?

I didn’t have any education in writing, so I decided to join a writer’s group at my local B&N. Walking in, I was taken aback. The writers in the group had lofty degrees in Literature and English. When I finally got up the courage to share one of my stories with the group, two women mocked me for a misspelled word and a number of grammar errors. I was so humiliated that I got up and walked away crying. The head of the group followed me as I tried to lose myself in the aisles of books. He was a professor at Princeton and a published author. Stopping me, he said words that I will never forget as long as I live. He said: “Many writers know the craft, but they have nothing to say. You have important things to say, and you can learn the craft.”  

Do you let others intimidate you?

Needless to say, I returned to the group and never let anyone intimidate me again. This blog is about learning the craft. How to put your thoughts on paper and get published. Trust that if you have something to say you can learn the craft. When I wanted to help the sick, I had to learn how to be a nurse. When I started to write I learned how to do it. If God has given you something to say, then it is your responsibility to learn the craft. 

Do you know that you’re one of a kind?

This bi-monthly blog will be about how to write. Maybe you have a basic idea of the story you want to tell or the audience you want to reach. Perhaps, you have a story rolling around in your head. But why you? Why couldn’t someone else tell this story? Because each writer is as unique as each person. No one has the exact experiences, knowledge, feelings, or imagination that you do. No one has your VOICE. I didn’t know my voice for years. I dreamed of being a great novelist. That didn’t turn out to be my voice and adults were not my audience. God gave me a different voice. He gave me a voice for children and my success came when I discovered that. What is the writer’s voice? Sometimes, even the writer doesn’t know. It may take years to find and develop but, believe me, you have one. A special voice that you and your future readers are on an adventure to discover. In our next blog, we will start with how to find your unique and special voice. 

Karen Boyce

Karen Kelly Boyce lives on a farm in N.J. with her retired husband. She is a mother and grandmother. She is the author of “The Sisters of the Last Straw” series published by Tan Books. You can see her work and learn more about her on her website: www,kkboyce.com