Ability to Storytell Part I

By Kelly Bridgewater

What motivates you to write?

A familiar question with a familiar answer. Some say a certain person. Some say a certain event in their past shoved them into storytelling,

BUT . . .

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I want to share my creative path to wanting to write.

When I was a little girl, I had an overactive imagination, which I passed onto my oldest who is fifteen years old. I loved playing with my Barbie's, Polly Pocket, and anything else to spark my imagination on a daily basis. I could play for hours, and I mean hours at a time with my Barbie's. My mother used to wonder how I could play for hours talking to toys that didn't talk back.

As I played outside, I would draw an imaginary house on the driveway in our front yard. Our driveway sloped upwards, so I would outline a couch with end tables and make a kitchen, but as you went up higher, you went to the bedroom and bathroom. Now the house looked like you were looking down from the sky, so you could see a circle inside a square and notice it was a lamp on an end table. I would play in my "house" with my best friend, Robin.

I also had an imaginary friend named Jessica, who was the nicest person I knew. We would ride our bikes together and run laps around the neighborhood and yard just for fun. Jessica would go away when I entered the house, but she hung out a lot with me when I roamed the neighborhood. 

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My friend, Robin, and I would always play in her side yard, using our imaginations. We were always twins separated at birth. She would always go to the poorer family and have an attitude; whereas, I would go the wealthier family and be snobby. We used a tree as our horses by bouncing the tree branch up and down. The house across the street had the perfect "stair-stepping" tree, so we would climb his tree and hang out in the top for hours. (Back then, neighbors allowed those type of things. He wasn't worried. We were having fun.) When Robin's family upgraded and received a pool, we would spend hours playing mermaids and who could hold their breath under the water the longest.

What would you do as a child to feed your imagination? Please, come back next week where I share the second part to my writing journey. I would love to have a discussion with you guys about the creative things you did as a child. Don't allow me to think I was the only one that did this!!!