Last year I discovered that writing is fun. Which is ironic as I look at my past history. My parents kept asking me what I wanted to do from age 16 to 18. Normal questions from parents but as a usual teenager I had no idea and the pressure was getting to me.
I never thought past the desire to date any boy I fancied at the time. So I started asking myself this question as college seemed to loom closer and closer and then one day after reading a book that made my cry at the end I thought what a great thing it would be to bring the same level of enjoyment to one person. And I realized. Wow, I want to be a writer.
So after that announcement my parents found the university that, at the time, had the best reputation for writers. And off went my application to University of Iowa. I figured I had chosen correctly; I had a great imagination, I was a voracious reader so I knew you needed characters and plot and I was going to get schooled in the basics.
Lo, that was not to be. The University of Iowa had 3 types of writing classes, expository writing (how to write essays or work papers), creative writing (English requirement not for those who want to be professional writers) and fiction writing (for those serious about writing).
The fiction writing course you could take as many times as you wanted because it was taught by teaching assistants as a group class submission and critique format. So a bunch of wannabe writers showed each other their work and criticized it under the watchful guidance of someone who was trying to get their own work published.
After about two classes where my science fiction works completely baffled the corn-fed Iowans I realized a few things. One, this format was not teaching me the basics that I obviously needed. Two, college was wasting my parent’s money. And three, I wanted to get out into the real world and live. So I left Iowa and returned to L.A. where I worked, lived and pretended to be a wannabe writer for about 8 years.
Then circumstances left me unemployed and for six months I focused on being a writer, spending hours and days writing a short story and actually submitting it for publication. It was nicely rejected and once again I was left realizing several things. One, writing is hard! Two, writing does not pay well until you’re famous. Three, the competition on the bookshelves in my genre is horrific. And finally four, I’m so lazy I would rather spend the time reading what other people wrote than write anything myself.
So how did I get to the opening statement in my life? My fantasy life. I learned early that you cannot read and drive. So what do I do to occupy my mind with while I sit in lovely L.A. traffic? I fantasize. Looking back I have always done this. I take a minor character in a t.v. show, book or series and I put myself in their life. When I was twelve I did it with Star Trek (Checkov), a few years ago I did it with Lord of the Rings (Faramir), when I was single I did it with Hercules (Ares…dark, hot and dominant…hmmm, yummy) the list goes on and on.
Then recently I went to a SF (science fiction) convention and was introduced to what they call FanFic. This is fiction written by fans about another author’s world. Some fans publish this work on websites and other places and the author has to be open to the whole concept of FanFic. I realized what I do in my mind is just like FanFic, and so at the age of 45 I thought I would actually write down one of the running scenarios in my head. And wow. It was great!
Not only was it fun, I thought the work was pretty good. I realized I’m good at scenes and dialogue, minor conflict and story flow. What I’ve never been too good at is creating characters from scratch. Oh look, use someone else’s world and characters, add someone based a bit on me and viola, Fanfic., purely for my own enjoyment. And I really did enjoy this. So I kept at it thinking…Who knows, maybe if I get inspired I can create my own world and characters. By then I’ll have all the practice to actually make a go of it. Maybe by 50 or 55.
Through all that, my friend Gina kept insisting I start a blog because my stories were so shocking funny and shocking interesting but I told her I was so busy that I had to have 30 blogs under my belt before I could ever start that…just so I wouldn’t have to spend too much time thinking about what to post. HA! Now I “draft” several posts per day and pop them up in case I’m out of town…like recently in Oklahoma.
But the reason for the caveat was because as most of you know (hello? Are you out there America?) I’ve taken my writing past the fan fic and into my own fic. I managed to create a character and wrote 2 novels about her (could do a third) and maybe she’ll get published. Then I took a hint from that Twilight writer and started looking at my dreams. Well, I dream every night so I have PLEEEEENTY of stuff to take from. I have one book idea down and a 3-book series down and soon (maybe, Hey! Stop pushing!) I’ll get them outlined, researched and written.
So I’m much further in this new career than I ever thought I would be. I still use fan fic to practice on because this whole experience is an incredible learning curve! But when they ask how I got started…well I’ll have it already laid out and I can just say, “Dude, read the blog!”
Oh and comment, dammit, so I know you read it and can stop bitching asking if you’ve read the blog.