Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Writing My Own Adventure


I love reading a good, well thought-out fiction book. I love stories. I enjoy the character development, how characters can intertwine and plots come together. I love catching those small little "details" the author throws in to see if you're paying attention. I love it when you can tell the author really "knows" their character and can show you who they are. I love plots that are more than what they appear. Stories that have multiple sides to be discovered.

When I was young I wanted to write a book! Didn't we all? Or is that just me? A book where I created and controlled my characters and how the story unfolded. A story that I gave twists and turns and surprises!

And somehow that writing bug never left, it just got buried under the weight of the world and self-doubt.

I think I will dust this old brain off and let my imagination run loose. I will write my own adventure, the adventure that my mind has been writing for years, only it never made it into words. A story with the sights and smells that lift my heart and with the excitement of a child making a discovery. I want to spend the rest of my life writing my story. And no one may ever read it, but it will have a life of its own - in my mind. I'm not writing it to be published, it will stay in the closed pages of my notebook, but it's something I need to do.

Today, while the kids napped, I took my notebook and went outside. I started spilling out the details of my story, brainstorming the nuts and bolts of my story. I loved every minute of it. And I was in no hurry, there was no deadline and no one to impress. It was MY story. I hammered out small details of one section that was rattling around in my mind. I put it to paper and the rattling stopped. It couldn't be more than a paragraph or so of the story, but the details were decided upon. Not even written about - because that will come later - just brainstormed. Scribbles here and there, connected with arrows. Ideas circled and crossed out. But my story was swirling into ... itself.

And I only got 15-20 minutes to think about "my" story, but it was a rewarding 20 minutes.

3 comments:

AndreAnna said...

That's so great!

Anonymous said...

I've always loved fiction... in fact, I stick to the youth fiction section in the library most of the time because a lot of it is well written and imaginative and just plain fun to read. Sadly, though, I've only ever been good at writing non-fiction. Maybe someday I'll have a story to write and it'll come out, but so far I settle for reading other people's.

Anonymous said...

Good for you! I'm sure the journey will be fun, wherever it leads.