My Story – Post #1

For Aspiring writers….

I promised I’d post a series of chats on how I did what I did and achieved where I am today, so here’s the first one post on that. I’ll call it My Story. Real original, right?   So here goes with My Story Post #1:

I have always written. I can’t remember when I haven’t written. I remember using my mother’s typewriter back in about 1977 to type a space story. Don’t know wh…at happened to it; I don’t even remember the name. But it kind of kicked it off for me.  But the typewriter was old and I couldn’t type fast enough, so I switched over to spiral-bound notebooks and began writing long hand. I still have most of those notebooks with soooo many amateur stories in them.  Maybe one day I’ll pull them out and see if there’s anything worth salvaging. I would jot down anything that came to mind no matter how crazy or outlandish, mostly because that’s what writing is – it’s imagination, pure and simple.

 There’s also a saying – write about what you have experienced. It’s not an entirely accurate saying. Do you thing Medieval writers or fantasy/sci fi writers have actually experienced other planets or Medieval battles? Of course not. Fiction writing is ALL about the imagination! But there is one thing we DO know – we educate ourselves thoroughly before we write anything. I will spend days and weeks researching before I start a book. Even if I never lived it, at least I know enough about it to be accurate. I’m sure Sci Fi writers educate themselves on scientific accuracy. You have to; readers are extremely intelligent and, in my case, I want to make sure I know exactly what I’m talking about before I write about a battle or historic event. Even if I do take liberties with history, I make sure to preface of finish the novel with what, exactly, I made up so the reader knows. But my time period is so fascinating I don’t even really elaborate much – truth is sometimes much stranger, and cooler, than fiction!

So the point of this post is this – if you want to write, whatever it is, just DO IT. If you have crazy ideas, jot them down. But if you’re writing Historical Fiction, make sure you at least educate yourself on what, exactly, you’re going to be writing about. I think this holds true for ANY fiction – making up stories is great, but have some reality to it.  If it’s so crazy and wild, people won’t relate to it well.  That’s what fiction writing is – your imagination tempered with some realism or reality.  For example, set your story in Los Angeles (a relatable place) but make it in the past or in the future. Throw in crazy characters and events you make up. Or revolve your characters around a real event. Cool!!

I hope Nike doesn’t sue me for using their tag line, but they said it best. Just do it.