Blog #1 Hi My Name is Lisa M. Russell and I am a Writer

My name is Lisa and I am a writer. I remember the first time I said that to anyone. I was buying something at Goodys. I just knew the checkout lady was going to start laughing and say, “Yeah right. What do you really do?”

Writing kind of chased me down and made me submit. Writing is a calling. Who would choose to stare at a blank screen until "drops of blood" poured out. For years, I hid behind all the excuses:

“I failed English 101 the first time.”

“ I have too many red marks on my paper to be a writer.”

The people closest to you are not always encouraging:

“It’s just a pipe dream. You will never make any money doing it.” (After I showed my first check from LifeWay Publishers for lessons I wrote, my husband stopped discouraging me)

“Mom, you are not really a writer, you do not have your name on a book cover.” (When I do write that book, it will be dedicated to my youngest son Samuel who said this to me.)

There were people along the way who unknowingly encourage. Carmen Acevedo was a senior English major at Shorter College when I was a freshman. She was an interesting character back then with her odd hats and perpetual optimism. I remember following her to the third floor of Cooper dorm asking her, “What is good writing?” She said something that has stayed with me for almost 30 years, “Good writing is when you can say something really intelligent – in a simple way.” (forgive the paraphrase – it has been almost 30 years) She encouraged me for years with that simple yet profound statement.She never knew that or remembered the exchange when I told her this year.

There was a Conference I went to for church that was teaching us how to teach creative lessons. My assignment was to re-write the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abindigo from the Book of Daniel. I decided to write it in USA TODAY style. When I read my assignment, people were really quiet. I felt I had made a fool of myself, I wasn’t a writer. I asked to stay after class; the conference leader told me if I wasn’t a writer, I should be. The reason the class was quiet is because they were stunned, “You had them on the edge of their seats.” I took it to heart and began writing short devotionals. I got my first writing assignment for LifeWay Publishers and a check for 300.00. I wrote for LifeWay for many years writing young adult and adult curriculum in Nashville, TN.

I mostly write for online content sources like ehow, Suite 101 and I am the Atlanta Writing Careers Examiner. I get to promote Georgia Writers and authors I am doing book marketing for on these sites. The pay is terrible, but the experience is great. I do book design, graphic design, web design and marking for authors and press in addition to my job at Georgia Writers (where I do much of the same).

I love creative non-fiction. There are ideas floating around my head and scraps of paper with ideas all over my desk. I have not given myself permission to write those things as I am so busy trying to make money doing freelance and my day job at GWA. I think getting into the MAPW program, this course and our professor is the push I need to pull out those paper scraps and pull it together. What choice do I have? I am a writer.