A Druid and an Elf Walk in a Tavern

The spark of an idea came to me one day when I was working. I had never written for my own enjoyment before, and I found myself imagining the characters my wife and I had played for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign going on adventures of their own. Once I got home, I pulled out the computer and started typing away until I had a full chapter, that I titled “A Druid and an Elf Walk in a Tavern”.

I wrote a few lines every day before leaving for work, thought about what I wanted to do while I was away, then wrote some more as soon as I got home. I soon ended up with a book, then I did the next logical thing; I started writing the sequel, then the next sequel.

At some point in between writing these stories, I came across Vocal and the first challenge I would enter, titled ‘The Runaway Train’, for which my entry was ‘Old Number 139’. The challenges have given me varying levels of interest since I joined, but that first one was important to me, if only because it led to my participation in several others.

Not long after, I finished writing my first draft for my first book, I asked a friend to help me review my first work, and got many pointers, such as being more descriptive of surroundings, or moods. Other useful pointers came both from my friend and from reviewing my own work, such as describing body language to let readers know how characters feel. I had a habit of creating run-on sentences and using words such as ‘began’, or ‘started’ every few paragraphs when a character initiated an action.

It has been nearly two years since I started on this writing journey, after not having written a thing save for inspection documents for work. I don’t know where this will lead me, but I aim to continue improving and maybe even get published on day.