Inspired To Write
Growing up, I loved writing. I’d come up with a premise, invent summer characters, get them in interesting situations, and then see how they got out of it. The words would flow from my fingers as if the characters and story itself were alive and guiding me. I wasn’t so much the writer as the conduit for the story to escape into our world.
At some point, I stopped writing. It might have been after I submitted a story to a science fiction magazine and it was rejected. I didn’t handle it well and to shield myself from future rejection I figured that writing wasn’t as important a thing to do.
Over the years, I’ve caught the writing bug off and on, but never for too long. Recently, though, I’ve gotten hooked on writig again and it’s thanks to JSL.
JSL, like me at a young age, loves writing. He also loves drawing and will write/illustrate his own books. I was inspired by him and decided to write one of two stories that have been kicking around my brain for a few decades. Unfortunately, those stories are going to be extremely long tales and I figured that – much like stretching before you exercise – I should start on a shorter tale. Once I had the smaller story under my belt, I could take on the longer story.
Luckily, one of my tales was ripe for side stories featuring different characters. Not only did I not have to invent a new world, but I could make this short story a lead in to my larger tale.
In the past, my writing was limited by my computer time. I could bring a notebook with me but I write better on a computer than with pen and paper. Luckily, technology has advanced and I can use Google Docs to compose my story. I can make quick edits on my smartphone while waiting or whenever a story idea strikesinterested component of writing is editing your own works. You write some text, revise it, change it a dozen times, and then take it out entirely because something else flows a lot better. One of the best ways to do this is to read your work aloud. Luckily, when JSL heard I was writing a story, he begged me to read it to him. Reading him the story helped me to fine tune my words.
At this point, my story is getting pretty long. I originally figured it would be ten pages tops, but my “character gets into the main situation” section took a good eight pages alone. Now he’ll need to deal with it before I can even think about a resolution. At this point, it might be up to fifty pages when I’m done.
As far as publishing goes, a lot has changed since my college days of submitting to a magazine. I could release the whole thing online for free or I could publish a portion and charge for the rest of the tale. Self publishing had never been easier.
Has anyone else written stories before? What process do you use when writing? How do you publish your works?
It’s no secret that our family loves Star Wars. I’ve been a Star Wars geek for as long as I can remember. Some of my first actions, upon discovering the Internet, was to join a Star Wars Usenet group.
