A Dream of Her Own: June Writing Theme by Deborah Lytton

My discovery of my heart’s desire to become a writer came later in life than many of the other writers I know.  My epiphany moment was during an improvisational acting class at The Groundlings in Los Angeles.  I had been a professional actress for many years, and I was studying at The Groundlings to hone my comedy skills.  One of the classes I took there was called the Writing Lab.  In this class, I was expected to write my own comedy sketches and then perform them.  It was the first time I had really concentrated on telling a story with words.  And I found the experience liberating and exciting.  

Interestingly, it was also during that acting class that I did some real soul searching and discovered that I no longer wanted to pursue a career as an actress.  I had been working professionally in that world since the age of six, so it was a really big decision that somehow came very easily.  It was time to open my heart to other possibilities.  It was in letting go of one dream that I was able to make room for another.   I LOVED writing.  It touched my soul in a way that nothing else did, and I knew I had to continue writing. 

After that, I began studying the craft of writing and working on numerous screenplays both for television and film.  None of them actually sold, but I learned so much about the discipline of writing—and how much commitment it takes to finish a story.  I began exploring other types of writing—short stories, novels, magazine articles.  I began to think about what I really wanted to say and to whom I wanted to say it.  

I fell in love with books at a very young age—and it was those same books that inspired me to try writing novels for middle graders.  My first manuscript was a book about a girl and a horse.  It was called “A Dream of Her Own” and I think it is a fitting title to describe my journey to becoming a writer.  It took a long time to get here—but it was worth the wait.