Writers Tricks of the Trade VOLUME 8, ISSUE 4 | Page 34

M Y L IFE A S A D ISABLED W RITER
E RIKA A BBOT
E DITORS N OTE : I first met Erika Abbot when she attended a workshop I
presented in Los Angeles. When I offered her my hand for a handshake,
she extended her left hand and said, “I’m disabled.” I was very im-
pressed with this young lady and wanted to interview her for Writers
Tricks of the Trade. When I received her information, I decided to publish it just as it was
written. Erika takes you inside the life of a writer with Cerebral Palsy—a writer who does
not let CP define her or stop her from reaching her goals.
I
don’t remember how old I was when
first started writing. Honestly, I can’t
remember a time when I wasn’t. I
have always called myself a strategic
writer. Part of that, I’m sure has to do
with the fact that I’m learning disabled,
could never speak as quickly as the other
children in the class.
The other reason I’m sure had some-
thing to do with my Epilepsy. The very
hours I was supposed to be awake, I felt
like a zombie. One of the aspects that I
always loved about writing was that I
could be whoever I wanted. I wasn’t the
“girl who had no country.”
As a girl growing up in a small town of
less than 40,000, I ended up founding and
being the princess of the disabled posse.
The reason I was qualified was that I was
minimally disabled. I was born with cere-
bral palsy—ok, everyone, close your eyes.
Imagine that you can only use your left
hand when typing. You have no aid from
your right hand, because it’s in a fist.
That’s exactly the way I’ve typed for
my entire life. Being a Generation X-er,
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE
that need wouldn’t even come until col-
lege.
I was always on the search for words.
That’s one of the many reasons I remem-
ber feeling safest when my teachers
forced us to write in a journal for ten
minutes a day in class. No grades, just us
writing about whatever we wanted.
One day I was Dear Abby, the next I
was a screenwriter. As a girl, I was ex-
tremely lucky. I had many people in my
life who helped me realize what “story-
telling” was. My mother, the actress, my
aunt, the film editor, my father the story-
teller in our family, all showed me differ-
ent ways of “writing”. I’m not sure that it
ever entered my consciousness, since this
was the family I grew up in. I simply
thought “Oh, this is how everyone learns
about writing.” Obviously, I didn’t know
how wrong I was until I entered college.
It was clear that my thinking, at least
to me, was always “just a little bit outside
the box.” That probably has something to
do with the fact that I’m learning disa-
bled; so could never organize my
P AGE 29
W INTER 2019