Dramarama

When I was 20, I took a writing class at Chaffey College, and a teacher told me my fiction writing was too romantic and melodramatic. 

His comment destroyed me. I didn't write another piece for years. 

At 50, looking back, I wish I knew then, what I know now. 

Everyone's voice has value. If you're dramatic, be dramatic, it's who I was and who I am. I grew up reading Harlequins.

As a kid, I would always imagine writing sequels to my favorite books. I imagined myself into stories. As a young adult, I wrote poems full of angst.

That younger voice is what I try to recapture now. Of course, I temper the drama with comedy and tragedy. But that romantic and dramatic side is still in me. It's what makes me who I am. 

My husband will sometimes say I'm a ham or a drama queen, and I am. But I'm also a writer and it was merging my writing and my performance side that really helped me elevate my readings and feel comfortable on stage and doing a video podcast and public speaking.

So my end thought is this, be you. Do you. I am romantic. And dramatic. Always. That's where the magic is friends.