20 Years of Writing Friday, November 30, 2012

I started a new first-job at the beginning of November and the multiple changes in schedule combined with the thrill of finally having something new to learn with first-job, prevented me from having the energy to put towards writing. So, my NaNoWriMo project, like so many others, fell before it truly got started. That said, I’m not at all dismayed or discouraged.

As I lay in bed this afternoon, now that I’m on a more vampiric schedule, I somehow started to consider that there was virtually I’ve done “for the last 20 years” because I’d thought I simply wasn’t old enough to have had anything to do from age 8. The moment I realized, however, that 20 years ago, I was eight years old and in the third grade, I remembered that my third grade teacher used to force us to write short stories with our spelling words so that we could learn them better. This was the same teacher who, after I wrote a poem with our spelling words, decided to read my poem aloud to the class, causing me to run from the class and stand outside the door until she had completed the poem to avoid the awe and stares from my classmates.

That trauma notwithstanding, it was through these short stories that I learned to enjoy creating written stories. In the third grade, I created my very first true character; first in the sense that he was the first character for whom I’d thought about for more than one week’s worth of spelling words. I wrote several stories about this character, many of which were never intended to be presented for a grade, and I remember writing about him into the summer and into the fourth and fifth grades as well. The setting for this character provided me with a basis for what would become my second attempt at a novel, Evan, and the third, Alex, which got me in a rhythm of being perpetually in the midst of some writing project.

At age 8, I first started to write stories and it occurred to me only today that I’ve been writing for 20 years. I love just saying it over and over again: I’ve been writing for 20 years. 🙂

So, anyway, I’ve not looked at James of Avradel since I last wrote about it, but I’ve finally been kicked into gear for completing Damen. Everything works out and, despite some ups and downs every day. Life is good.

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NaNoWriMo Day 1 – James of Avradel Friday, November 2, 2012

So, last night, shortly before midnight, I made up my mind to really craft a story from nothing so I could have something completely fresh for this writing excursion. Without being able to draw from characters or circumstance in Damen or Jill or even Evan, I stared at my laptop screen for several minutes before I decided to tell myself a story. And, so I started to just speak aloud to myself, “Once upon a time…there was a boy…who had a…magic…hat.” and so began this new story.

I spent close to 30 minutes writing whatever came out of my mouth until I had created the notes for a simple story and, while the overall message of this new tale is rather dark and a bit depressing, as a lot of my writing is want to be, I can’t help but be amused at what happens when I just let my imagination go.

This evening, I’ve written the first installment of my 30-day 50K non-project related novel writing and I have to say, I’m just tickled at what I’ve produced. With just some bare bones notes, I’ve created this magical world that’s complete with it’s own geography and gods and dragons and I only started on this at around 10:45 at night, finishing just a few minutes after midnight. In any other setting, I would have thrown out all of this before I’d even figured out a name for the boy or certainly at the moment I’d decided that “once upon a time” some boy had a magic hat of all things, but since this isn’t supposed to be some grand masterpiece to be studied long after I’m gone, I’m having such fun just letting my imagination do what it wants.

If I want there to be forests that grow in every colour – Bam! It’s done. If I want the ground to be gold and speckled with the blood of the “fallen” – Kazzam! I’ve got it. I can honestly say, I’ve not had quite this much fun writing a story since I was eight years old.