Outside the classroom, many teachers have grading and meetings that they have to spend their time on, but there are some who spend their time doing different things. For English teacher Jenn Fruhwirth, she spends her time writing.
“I won a writing competition in fourth grade, so I guess I’ve been writing since I was very little,” Fruhwirth said.
Most of her writing is done in the morning, but she isn’t alone in this process.
“I am a member of the 5:30 a.m. Writing Club. We are a group of predominantly women writers who get up before their families and work on their writing,” Fruhwirth said. “We encourage each other to write every day.”
Over her time with writing, Fruhwirth has experienced some speed bumps in the way of keeping up with this.
“Now that my kids are all adults, I seem to have more free time,” Fruhwirth said. “Getting up early is my biggest challenge.”
Writing in her free time has also helped her with teaching her classes.
“Well, I know almost every grammar rule ever invented by heart, because I had to look them up so many times in my life,” Fruhwirth said. “Also, my spelling has greatly improved over the years.”
Even though she might not have published any of her work, it does not stop her from continuing writing, which mostly consists of suspense and psychological thriller stories.
“I get my ideas from films, mostly. I’ve always loved suspense movies, and I like to write those types of stories,” Fruhwirth said. “I also get ideas from journaling and character mapping.”
At the moment, she is in the midst of one of these stories.
“I’m writing a suspense novella called ‘Lost Time,’” Fruhwirth said. “It is a psychological thriller about a woman who realizes she has inexplicably been missing days at a time and she doesn’t know what happens during that time.”
Though writing may be time-consuming, Fruhwirth feels that there are rewards to writing your own story.
“Writing is something I love to do. I am lucky enough to have time and training to do it,” Fruhwirth said. “It pays off in excitement. I get so excited when a story or character comes together.”
She also has some words to share with any future writers
“If you want to be a writer (or improve your writing), my advice: Write. Every single day,” Fruhwirth said. “Write journals, notes, letters, stories, poems, etc. It doesn’t matter what you write, just write.”
