So,
I'm a writer. I write a lot of things on a lot of subjects. Whether
it be about a shopping trip, a book I read or something that
happened to me and I just need to rant. But I am also a lover of
fiction, that's how I started on this lovely journey, now turning my
passion for writing into a career.
I remember I wrote my first short story when I was around 7 years old. It was mostly plagiarized from a story I read already, but I put my own adaptations in it. Damn, I was proud. I went around showing it to all my friends, my parents, even my bully of an older brother. They all loved it, including my older brother (who's still a bully, by the way). My mom put it on the fridge and whenever someone would come over she'd brag about it. She always encouraged me to write more, but to use some of my own ideas. So I did. From that point on I wrote short stories, poems and kept a diary mostly about my crush on my cute, redheaded neighbour named Michael. (Who was also my first kiss, behind the bike shed during a game of truth or dare)
I didn't embark on my first larger-scale project until I was about 13 years old. It was a really crappy teen romance-type deal mixed with a little bit of action. I still have it on my computer, sometimes I look through it and realize how much my writing style has evolved and grown. I also noticed my patience has grown and my need to develop a story rather than string a bunch of seemingly random events together. In my early longer projects I had that teenaged lust for romance, I wanted to get to the good stuff, the "I love yous" and "I can't live without yous" and those hot, steamy kisses. All that meant is that my stories would progress too quickly, missing juicy relationship and character development. It was, well, literary shit to put it bluntly. But it was a stepping stone, an exercise to prepare me for a better understanding of plot development. Pushing my thirteen-year-old self through writing eleven chapters of that garbage taught me persistence. I think originally my goal was to get the attention, get people to read my work, although back then I would have never admitted it.
About a year after I started writing seriously, my goals changed. I was what some may call a "troubled teen" but weren't we all? I was in that angsty, "no one understands me" stage where I'd dress in all black, dyed my hair black and wore a lot of eye makeup. I would get in trouble at school, at home and run away just for attention, that kind of bullshit. It seems so stupid now, but back then it was very real to me, so writing became an escape. My life sucked, so I would write about someone else's life that didn't suck. Even now writing is an escape for me, even though my life is pretty rad. Sometimes life can get a little monotonous as we all know, so why not write about some fictional life that's full of catastrophe, triumph, a blazing romance or maybe a completely different world full of fantasy? The options are endless!
When I have a rough day, there are two things that I choose between to blow off steam, that's kill virtual things on XBox or write. I usually pick writing, because I can decide exactly what happens. Writing requires a significant amount of emotion while killing bandits in Skyrim does not, thus activating those emotions locked inside you from that rough day. If you had a customer that royally pissed you off, write a dialogue of a lovers' spat or something and use that anger to inspire the writing, put that anger into words on a page (or word processor). Say your boyfriend broke up with you and you just want to curl up in a ball and cry, write about it! Write about a fictional character's great loss and mourn with them. It is possible to make yourself cry from your own writing, by the way. Writing is a great tool to distract yourself and calm those emotions so you can think clearly and come at your real-life issues in a calm and logical way.
That, my friends, is why I love writing fiction.
I remember I wrote my first short story when I was around 7 years old. It was mostly plagiarized from a story I read already, but I put my own adaptations in it. Damn, I was proud. I went around showing it to all my friends, my parents, even my bully of an older brother. They all loved it, including my older brother (who's still a bully, by the way). My mom put it on the fridge and whenever someone would come over she'd brag about it. She always encouraged me to write more, but to use some of my own ideas. So I did. From that point on I wrote short stories, poems and kept a diary mostly about my crush on my cute, redheaded neighbour named Michael. (Who was also my first kiss, behind the bike shed during a game of truth or dare)
I didn't embark on my first larger-scale project until I was about 13 years old. It was a really crappy teen romance-type deal mixed with a little bit of action. I still have it on my computer, sometimes I look through it and realize how much my writing style has evolved and grown. I also noticed my patience has grown and my need to develop a story rather than string a bunch of seemingly random events together. In my early longer projects I had that teenaged lust for romance, I wanted to get to the good stuff, the "I love yous" and "I can't live without yous" and those hot, steamy kisses. All that meant is that my stories would progress too quickly, missing juicy relationship and character development. It was, well, literary shit to put it bluntly. But it was a stepping stone, an exercise to prepare me for a better understanding of plot development. Pushing my thirteen-year-old self through writing eleven chapters of that garbage taught me persistence. I think originally my goal was to get the attention, get people to read my work, although back then I would have never admitted it.
About a year after I started writing seriously, my goals changed. I was what some may call a "troubled teen" but weren't we all? I was in that angsty, "no one understands me" stage where I'd dress in all black, dyed my hair black and wore a lot of eye makeup. I would get in trouble at school, at home and run away just for attention, that kind of bullshit. It seems so stupid now, but back then it was very real to me, so writing became an escape. My life sucked, so I would write about someone else's life that didn't suck. Even now writing is an escape for me, even though my life is pretty rad. Sometimes life can get a little monotonous as we all know, so why not write about some fictional life that's full of catastrophe, triumph, a blazing romance or maybe a completely different world full of fantasy? The options are endless!
When I have a rough day, there are two things that I choose between to blow off steam, that's kill virtual things on XBox or write. I usually pick writing, because I can decide exactly what happens. Writing requires a significant amount of emotion while killing bandits in Skyrim does not, thus activating those emotions locked inside you from that rough day. If you had a customer that royally pissed you off, write a dialogue of a lovers' spat or something and use that anger to inspire the writing, put that anger into words on a page (or word processor). Say your boyfriend broke up with you and you just want to curl up in a ball and cry, write about it! Write about a fictional character's great loss and mourn with them. It is possible to make yourself cry from your own writing, by the way. Writing is a great tool to distract yourself and calm those emotions so you can think clearly and come at your real-life issues in a calm and logical way.
That, my friends, is why I love writing fiction.
Love,
Katie
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