I mulled over what to write about for this post all night last night and all morning. There are so many great W's out there, including my favorite of all, Writing. But I decided to go with an equally as writerly post instead. Words.

We all love words. We wouldn't be here if we didn't. We love reading them. We love writing them. We love rolling them over and over in our minds. We love the way they feel on our tongues. We love words.

So, my question is: do you remember when your love affair with words began?

As for me, I've always loved words. I read books constantly when I was a kid. By the time I was eleven, I had my nose stuck in VC Andrews novels (and if you know anything about VC Andrews, you know those books weren't written for eleven-year-olds). That's about the time my Language Arts teacher, Mrs. McDaniel, told me I had a knack for writing. The following year, in middle school, Mrs. Potter said the same thing. And that was it for me. From then on, I embraced the gift my beloved teachers told me I had.

I spent around 5 years focusing on writing lyrics. I wanted to be a singer. Or, at the very least, a songwriter. I loved crafting lyrics and dreaming up melodies. But I only ever learned to play the violin and it was extremely difficult to write music to go with my lyrics on a violin.

When I was about 15, I became addicted to Harlequin Romance novels. After about a year of devouring hundreds of them, I decided to try my hand at writing one. My first attempt was clumsy and dramatic but I knew from the beginning that it was love. Fiction stole my heart and I haven't looked back ever since. Although, hopefully, my writing has improved a lot since then!

What about you? When did you first fall in love with words? Did you have a teacher or parent or friend tell you you were talented? What other forms of writing have you tried?