Where do Stories Come From?

I’ve always had an over-active imagination; it’s both a blessing and a curse. A curse because it’s led to more than my fair share of nightmares over the years (especially when I was younger), and a blessing because it has gifted me more than my fair share of stories.

As I said somewhere in my last post, I write mainly to tell stories and these stories just occur to me usually during night dreaming or day dreaming.

Stairway of Dreams by Josephine Wall – http://www.josephinewall.co.uk

 Sometimes it starts with an idea for an overall plot. Other times it will grow from the idea for a character. The majority of the time, however, it starts with a single scene and from there characters and an overall plot emerge. Considering I mainly write novel-length pieces, that’s one mighty oak from the smallest of acorns.

 
Obligatory illustration of acorn into tree

The downside to this is that I can suffer from both writer’s block and idea block. The opposite can also happen; I have so many ideas that before I can properly start the first one, another one has taken over. I’ve lost count of the number of novels I’ve started and never finished, especially  during my teenage years (though it’s probably for the best none of those were finished). I try to be more stern with myself now…With varying levels of success.

How do you all get your ideas? Do they come to you in dreams? Or does reality inspire you more?

We Write for Reasons

What’s one of the first questions you get asked when you tell people you’re a writer?

“Why?”

Why do you write? Why do I write? Why does anyone write? Well, I’ve met a fair few writers having studied it at university and I found that they usually fit into one (or more) of the following reasons:

1 – I have a message to spread!

Writing is a more effective method of sharing an idea than randomly yelling into a megaphone – fact!

Whether it’s an experience you feel the need to share or an idea that you think people need to know about, this was probably the most common reason I’ve come across. When I was younger I thought this was supremely arrogant; what makes you so certain that your knowledge is significant enough to need to be shared with the world? Now, of course, I can see that having a message to share is a massive part of why everyone writes; even for those like me where it’s not my primary reason it is still part of it.

2 – …And writing is the most convenient medium to spread it!

This is not such a good reason but I include it because I have encountered it before and, when I was younger, it applied to me. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a comic book artist but couldn’t draw for toffee. I was already writing prose at that
point so focusing completely on writing to share my stories wasn’t exactly a stretch but I do sometimes wonder if I would have had the chance to fall in love with writing if I did have a talent for art.

3 – I want to win the Nobel Prize in Literature!

Super accurate representation of the Nobel Prize medal.

In other words, you want to be the best gosh darn writer that ever was! Of course we all want to be good writers and not have people compare our writing to that of thirteen year old fanfiction writers (and I say that having once been a thirteen year
old fanfiction writer), but there are some who are all about the words. They want to write to a literary standard, they want people to read their work and their first words to be “that was amazingly written!” rather than “that was an amazing story!”

Which leads me on to…

4 – I have a story to tell/I want to entertain!

Like Shakespeare (who didn’t realise he was a genius)

Usually, the books that are written to entertain are looked down on; people read them but don’t take them seriously because of the writing. The De Vinci Code, Twilight, the Harry Potter series: each of these were not written with the intention of being great literary triumphs, they were written to tell a story and entertain and there’s nothing wrong with that. At least I don’t think there is.

5 – If I don’t write I’ll die!

The faster you write the less likely you are to die – fact!

Okay, an exaggeration but for many writers writing is something that we need to do. I know I certainly start to feel strange if I don’t write at least a little something each day. Writing is a massive part of me and of any serious/passionate writer.

Not an exhausted list, I’m sure. Call it a “Top 5”. Do you see yourself in any of these statements? Let me know ^^

And So It Begins…

This is an accurate representation of me

Every journey has its first step and every blog has its first post. Both are often hard to undertake and not the most exciting part of the story. But oh well!

This shall be my hub for what I hope will be the beginning of a proper writing career for me. I started when I was 14 writing fanfiction and now, here I am, over a decade later, still writing and hoping to make something of it; aren’t we all?