You probably want to know why I write and how I got started, right? Well, my parents are avid readers, and they did their best to share their love of reading with me. They read to me every night for years. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, but there was always a spare dollar if we stumbled upon a used book store while out. We always made sure to set a little aside each month, too, for a trip just for books. We couldn’t afford a whole lot, but we’d get at least a few each.
As I got older it wasn’t just reading I was enchanted with. It was telling stories. I loved making up my own worlds, creating my own characters. My first love was fantasy, my second horror, and my third was science fiction. It’s probably obvious those genres stand out to me, but anything interesting was-and is-fair game. Still, I have fond memories of old collections of Edgar Allen Poe’s work, or the old Star Trek novels that graced my dad’s shelves. I went through multiple copies of The Hobbit as a kid, as well as various other fantasy books that could be found for no more than a quarter at most used book stores. Over my life I’ve easily read hundreds (if not thousands) of books.
What I’ve always come back to, however, was telling stories as well as reading and listening. I was excellent at starting them. Finishing them, however, was something completely different. It took a long time to figure out how to get not just from A to B, but all the way to Z. I’m currently fine tuning my process, but it’s getting easier. My first book took eight years. My second, so far, has taken less than two years. In the meantime I’ve finished quite a few short stories, some of which I’ve self published. I’m currently working on a new story right now while the second book waits for the next step.
For me, storytelling is more than sharing the wildly fantastical ideas I’ve come up with over the years. It helps me reframe narratives to give me a sense of peace, of control. My life hasn’t been an easy one, and telling stories helps me deal with things by giving me a chance to succeed, through my heroes. I can take old, pent up feelings, and put a fresh coat of paint on them so things don’t seem as dire. And if I manage to entertain people along the way, all the better.