Back to the Basics

Confession: I almost forgot to blog tonight. What's wrong with me?

Reading:

• "L. DeBard and Aliette: A Love Story," by Lauren Groff
  
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
  

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Hitches a Ride" - 1,245 words (Estimated completion 14%)
• "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold" - Outline 100%
  

Revising:

• "The Revenant"
• "Cora and the Sea" - Third draft 50%

In times (like this) that my willpower to write is low, I find it helpful to remind myself what it is about writing that I like.

First and foremost, I love to read. I don't actually remember ever learning to read. Oh, I remember being taught to read, in kindergarten by my first teacher, and earlier by my parents. But I already knew how, and was just learning new words.

In particular, I remember getting a new book on the condition that I read it aloud to my parents. Years later, I learned the full story. It seems that my parents had been reading books aloud to me before bedtime, and I would sit on their laps and look at the pictures. At one point, they were tired and tried to skip a page, or would skip over lines of text. "That's not what it says!" I would tell them, and make them read it in full.

This made them wonder, so they asked me to read these books to them, and I did. But they weren't sure whether I was reading, or just repeating something I had memorized. So they bought me a new book, and I demonstrated my ability to read. I was three, by the way.

I think developing the skill so early made it innate, and as I grew older, I developed that ability to the point that I was reading faster than anyone else in my class. Because of that, I could lose myself in a story and experience it in real time, as it were. Reading was never boring, because I read too fast to let it be boring.

The other element to my love for writing comes from loving to tell stories. I remember, again as a child, that I would play a game with my mom. "What do you think he's doing?" she would ask. "What about her?" And we would make up stories about the people we saw around us. A simple thing, but it got me to thinking creatively early on.

I am an only child, and I had to entertain myself for large portions of my time. I did this through making up stories as well, usually involving my toys in some way, but not always. I designed elaborate machines and systems of tunnels and all sorts of things.

I loved to read, and loved to make up stories. Writing is the natural combination of these two desires. Writing is my way of sharing stories with others, using the skills I've learned from a lifetime of reading.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 5
  
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 2
• Pending: 2