Ravenous Wednesday with Trinity Blacio!

Happy Ravenous Wednesday, everyone, and welcome to our favorite U.K. website and RR's home away from home, Un:bound! Pull up a chair, pillow, couch, or patch of floor, put in your order for a drink! Specialty of the day is mojitos 'cause I have a hankering for 'em. But don't worry. If you're not a fan of mojitos, I've got you covered.

Today's guest is Trinity Blacio and her post is a particularly interesting and inspirational one to me. I love true stories about people overcoming the odds to accomplish their dreams and this is a great example of someone who has done just that. Trinity joined the Ravenous Romance family with a short story in the Threesomes Anthology and we are very happy to have her on Un:Bound today!

Writing With A Handicap

By Trinity Blacio

Hello my name is Trinity Blacio and I’m an author with Ravenous Romance. Today I’m going to explain what I must go through when I write my stories.

All my life I’ve had problems with school. Don’t get me wrong, there were subjects I loved and could whiz through. Example: reading, history, writing and band. If I was given a book and it held my interest I would have it read in two days tops no matter what the length.

But when it came to rules, grammar, math, and science, forget it! One day I would understand what the teacher said, but the next week it would be gone and I’d flunk the test over such material. Give me story problems, and I’d get lost. To this day I still have problems with grammar rules, which seem to change every time I turn around.

Right now I have about 25 different stories waiting to be written, but they sit on hold because of the editing process and how long it takes me to edit a story. Mind you I’m not complaining. I want to write so I have no choice but to take my time and work around my handicap. What handicap you ask?

Here is a list of things that plague me while I’m writing and editing:

Continuing to misspell words, frequently spells the same word differently in a single piece of writing. (Ha, I never could spell and it doesn’t help when Word doesn’t put in the right usage of the word.)

Trouble summarizing. (Writing a synopsis, uggg!)

Weak memory skills. (Oh, this one is a pain! My friend shows me how to do one thing, and I understand it for that day, but come the next day, I’m doing the same thing again! And I don’t even realize I’ve done it.)

Difficulty adjusting to new settings. (Now imagine how hard this is when trying to write a new fantasy world in my stories.)

Works slowly. (I’ve been slowly editing one story now for over 3 months!)

Either pays too little attention to details or focuses on them too much. (I can write a scene that will take up to four pages, but on another scene two paragraphs!)

Poor grasp of abstract concepts. (Have you ever tried to read the new MSL grammar rule book? Well, I did! Actually took a class for it. To this day I still don’t remember three-fourths of the rules.)

Now, combine all this with one story. The characters, the settings, the plots, the telling vs. showing, head jumping and so much more are a little of what every writer deals with. Do you wonder why I even write if I have a handicap? Because the stories are screaming to come out! I love to write and read. If I didn’t do both, I’d go crazy. In a way, writing and reading are my ways to relieve stress, to get away.

So the next time you pick up a book, just think how long it took for that author to write it for your enjoyment. But also know we do this because we love to do it.

I end this with a small true story. During my eleventh grade year, I lived with my father and step-mom in Minnesota. Throughout this year my father would tell me, ‘You’ll be lucky if you finish high school let alone go to college.’ Needless to say I did drop out of high school, but I went back and worked hard until I received my GED, then later an Associates in psychology and social work, a Bachelors in psychology.

From the beginning I’ve had people tell me I couldn’t write. Guess what? I’ve done it, I’m still doing it, and I will continue to do it. Never count me out.

Trinity Blacio

www.trinityblacio.com