Awards, grants, and publications are offered to emerging writers, but what do writers emerge from? Grammar lessons and emo music? Are writers hatched in MFA programs, transformed into soup before erupting out of cocoon and chrysalis, licked into form as bear cubs were once believed to be? Do writers emerge by writing themselves into the view of editors, judges, and publishers? Is it similar to a debutante’s introduction to society? Is there a secret curtsy?
How did you emerge as a writer? What is your origin story? What genre does it fit? Myth or rom com or horror? If a mystery, who died? Do you have a body and a villain in your creation story?
First of all though, have you emerged? When will you? What or who will tell you that you have? Is there a yardstick involved? Where do you go next?
Write a short story or poem answering any of these questions, or none. Make it up as you go.
