The Storyteller

There was a single sentence that my Grandpa would hear from me every single day when I was a little girl, standing in front of his chair with a photo album in my tiny little hands and looking up at him with wonder-filled eyes; "Grandpa, will you tell me the stories about the pictures?"

I never wanted to simply look at this photo album with him, or just ask "who's that?" Rather, I would sit there, wanting to know everything about everyone in that album, their stories, when the picture was taken, where it was taken, every little detail I could get. With the greatest of patience and lots of love he had for me, my Grandpa would sit me down on his lap and go over every single picture with me, telling me each story with great care, over and over again, every single day. The only reason it ever stopped was because I had worn out the very spine of the photo album and the pictures were beginning to fall apart.

Even still, after that, there were still stories to be shared. We shared a lot of walks together, a lot of family get togethers swapping old memories with others, and, when I was a teenager, my Grandpa hand wrote out for me what life had been like for his own father, a man who had come to America at the age of four from Norway with the rest of his family, who grew up in South Dakota during the dust bowl -- something I got to type out (after having my Mom translate his handwriting, which we joked was much more like scribbles) and present back to him, that is now, even seven years after his passing, still sitting in his filing cabinet, being kept safe and sound for years down the line.

It was because of him, I think, that I first began to tell my own stories. As soon as I was able to pick up and pencil and knew how to write, I was creating my own worlds with their own stories. Some were very much fanfictions that I laugh to myself about how seriously I wrote each and every one, in my head believing they were the greatest works. One was a series I even drew for that was supposed to be about my childhood dogs, but as superheroes. Others I don't remember as clearly, but there had always been a start for a new one about every other day, as my brain could never stop going and going -- a notion that my heart doctor told me around the time I was eight or nine, and said my heart couldn't keep up with the speed at which my brain was going.

This continued and evolved well into my teen years and now into my twenties. I always had characters and plots and new stories to tell, whether it be fanfiction or original works. I'd write out chapters during class rather than notes because some classes were easier to get things memorized from lectures or I'd finish up early with my notetaking. I'd cram them all into notebook after notebook, new stories, new ideas, some that have taken a bit of a backburner in my life.

Senior year of high school was when it all got a bit more serious. One of my friends, who now a days is my boyfriend, had come up with a story idea he had wanted to collaborate with me on. A potential webcomic that would be this great big fantasy story, that we worked and reworked and eventually shelved. Then, with our two other best friends, we worked on a concept for an animated series, one we were really passionate about, but have since shelved to later rework. Now, we're working on our third project, a rather large and hefty one, that we're hoping to start posting by either the end of this year or sometime early next year (fingers crossed, of course).

We learned a lot from those earlier projects. We learned how to openly communicate our ideas, how to properly structure out and plan out story timelines, how to be patient with our projects and when to take breaks, and even how to look at our prior works and figure out where we went wrong, what we need to fix, and what elements we can breathe new life into with our current project.

I've spent practically my entire life trying to find ways to craft my stories, to find the best mediums, perspectives and more to truly give them justice when I tell them. When I share a story, I want to have it perfected and given the care I believe it deserves, not just because it's my passion, and not just because I think I could have a shot at telling some great stories that are worthy of making it my career, but because I want to honor my Grandpa. He was who inspired me, he was who believed in me beyond any shadow of a doubt and who helped navigate me on this path, and I want to make him proud.

So, I've put a lot more focus and passion back into writing and storytelling. I'm pushing myself to make this my career, and I've been planning out, for a while now, how I'd wish to do that, in different steps.

1.) The "Big Project".

Anyone who knows my boyfriend and I know how important this particular story is for us, and how much we are pushing forward into the development of it. As it is a very lengthy project, we hope that it'll be something that we can get to be very successful over time, and find new ways to kind of boost support from it. We're going to have a Patreon that's set up around the launch date of the first few chapters with different tiers so people can support us anyway they choose, from no cost at all to a couple bucks a month or to however much the largest tier will be, with access to getting chapters early or exclusive short stories involved as some of the rewards. I'm also looking into other "fun" ways to create more ways to have some monetary value to it, from book collections that can be bought to fun merch or even a cookbook based on recipes from all around the universe the project is set in!

2.) Short Story Collections

In my spare time, I always find myself daydreaming up new stories, new worlds to be explored and new characters to develop. All things that, when I have the time, try to delve into a little bit further and write out. I think a fun way would be through varying short story collections to publish out, all unifying either around similar prompts or themes or genres. It would not only be a great way to flex and test my creativity just a bit more, but also as a good way to potentially start finding a way to make some income with my passion as well.

3.) History Collections

As a little girl, I grew up with the history channel on for about 85% of the day at my Grandparents house. Through my Grandpa and through this, I found I had another passion; history itself. I want to delve into different historical events, the lives of different historical figures, and tell their stories by really going into the details, the contexts surrounding their lives or the events that happened, and to truly find a way to inspire others to learn the same.

One series I'd really want to do on as well would be about comic book writers from back in the day, those who gave us the very superheroes we all grew up on. There is some fascinating history behind the creation of different characters -- such as why Superman may have been created as a bulletproof man, or the varying court cases between his creators and DC Comics; Bill Finger, one of Batmans' creators that, for many years, went without credit or recognition as his creator; or Gardner Fox, who I believe is nowhere near talked about enough, even though he created the very first team of superheroes, and is also the reason we have a multiverse in DC Comics.

I'd also want to discuss varying "Her Stories" of women in history that aren't as well discussed and their contributions to the world, and also to take a deeper dive into LGBTQ+ history, as, though we know there's a larger history dating back millennia, the earliest many talk about starts at the Stonewall Riots.

I believe history is one of the most important things we as a society can learn from and understand, to better our own future, and to honor some of those who helped do good for this world. And there are so many tales of heartbreak, tragedy, hope, adventure, love and so much more that are worth sharing with others.

I'd want to be able to write out these stories and share them with others, with hopefully some monetary support that could come with it as well.

And these are only just the start of my ideas.

Storytelling is, and always will be my passion that I want to share with the world, no matter what medium I do it -- be it on here, in fictional or nonfictional contexts, in various forms such as novels or webcomics or animations, etc. I will always be growing and changing with my works, but the passion will always be there. And I want to continue sharing it on for years and years to come.