And so it began...

My first attempts at writing consisted of a few mainly short stories whilst I was still at school. I hated writing because the physical effort of pushing pencil or ball point through the surface of a sheet of paper was hardly ever considered an enjoyable exercise by anyone. I mean after all, writing or copying line after line of anything was the kind of chore that even the teachers recognised as good way to punish those who got sentenced to do time in detention when ever a school rule got broken or a teacher got pissed off with something you did.

Of course that chore of writing created within a lot of students a dislike for those subjects that subjected one to use a pencil or pen a lot. Subjects like 'English' which was supposed to teach you how to write in proper English in the first place? Even mathematics became synonymous with punishment due to all the pen pushing involved. The irony is that I am considered very good at pencil sketching by those who have seen my work. But this discipline requires a different way of using a pencil with much more freedom and flow which I did enjoy.

Thankfully once some bright spark came up with a word processor which soon made the physicality of writing become a bit of a misnomer and one could concentrate on what they wanted to say rather than put up with the annoying ache that the pen or pencil was causing the fingers or the wrist, until you get to the point when you just say, "ah f**k it! The end!"

The ease with which one could put words down made all the difference which ment the next thing I wrote of note once I had left school was a novel. I didn't even know where the story was going neither did I care, I just wrote and wrote. Before long in less than two weeks I had written a short novel of over thirty six thousand words. That's when I realised that I actually did enjoy writing, especially by the 'seat of my pants' as they call it. As I had mentioned earlier, I didn't know where this story was going but I was intrigued to find out how it would end and that is what kept me glued to my computer screen punching out words.

Ideas would come to mind as I typed out my manuscript, ideas that didn't seem to have place nor point in the overall story but I added them in anyway considering it wasn't a big chore anymore to remove them later on or to modify them. (Certainly easier than even a typewriter could do.) As the story progressed their reason for being soon became apparent. I felt as though my subconscious had come to the fore and had taken over as if consciously I was just along to do the typing.

When I finally finished the story I was so proud of myself that I had achieved something I never thought that I ever would. I had thought about writing a novel once or twice in the past but the thought of doing it the old way using pen and paper (or typewriter) only turned me right off it. I didn't even know what to write about to begin with. But once I sat down at a computer keyboard after having already taught myself the basics of word processing, copy, paste, cut, etc due to computers gradually becoming a new and important tool at most work places at the time I was away.

To get my story started I just invented a very distressing situation for anyone to be in and let my mind and hands do the rest explaining how my characters got into that situation then how they eventually managed to resolve it.

Those ideas that popped into my head along the way turned out to be small problems that occured while trying to resolve the bigger problem. Which added extra flavour to the story as it progressed and allowed the characters to grow by time the story reached its end. I felt a bit like a god over the little world I had created. I could go back in time and re-write events so that I could arrive at a certain point later on in the story. I could even decide who lived and who died. This is the point at which you kinda understand what being a creative god is like because each character good or not so good required you to put some thought and effort into having them come into being. Then causing them to come to an end can make you feel a little grief in having to do so. If you have raised fish from sprats in an aquarium the feeling is similar, you might start off with twenty or thirty baby fish but if you lose one or two along the way to bringing them up to adulthood it can be a big disappointment.

I had always heard the saying that a story just needs three ingredients...a begining, a middle and an end. My experience taught me that this isn't exactly correct. I had learnt that a story does indeed require three main components that even the writers of childrens stories follow....the first, introduce your character/s, secondly, throw a problem at them and the rest of the story is whether or not they overcome that problem. Adult stories just throw more problems at the characters to add more complexity to the story. Everything else is mostly technical details.

We all deal with problems in our lives we are familiar with problems this is why problems interest us. Looking at how others deal with problems that they face also interests us especially if we can learn from them how to deal with similar types of problems that maybe affecting ourselves. Or to sit back in the comfort that luckily we don't have to face the problems that these others may have to. That is the basics of telling a story. You may want to start with the problem before introducing the characters thats entirely up to you.

Yes I was so proud of the story I wrote that I sent out a synopsis of the story to a couple of literary agents and was fortunate enough to be offered the backing of both agencies. I chose the more prestigious one of the two based in N.Y. As part of the deal, I had to get my manuscript edited by an accredited professional editor. Which I did...thats when I learned the hardest lessons. Those little technical details that I spoke of earlier, proved to be very important skills when expecting to impress both an editor and publisher. Having not have anyone other than the literary agent actually read the manuscript before sending it off to the editor I soon realised how much I needed to learn about writing itself once the manuscript came back covered with recommendations by the editor on how to better write the story. It was worse than getting a low grade in school with a letter to your parents about how much you wasted the teachers time. Except it felt like that letter had been printed in the school news paper for everyone to see before being sent out.

Even though you feel as though you had just been trolled you have to try and swallow your pride, climb out of that grave you wished you could hide in and keep reminding yourself that your work is just one in hundreds out there that have gone through this kind of scrutiny. To try not to see the editors comments as insults but as a way to improve your work and any further work that you hope to produce using the editors report as a guide. This taught me to change the way that I wrote as I write any future works. Coming up with a good story is one thing, writing it in a way that it appeals to readers is another thing. Like being told the same joke by two separate people, one who made you laugh by the way they expressed themselves and the other who made you wonder where the funny bit was? Admittedly when I re-read my story from the editors perspective it did read to me as if I suffered with dyslexia. In my haste to get to the point that I wanted to make, my sentence structures were back to front. Yes Madam editor, Yoda from star wars taught me how to write.

There are a lot of things I do differently now. One main thing I do now is to get a voice reader on the computer read it aloud as I go back through the editing stages. You can re-read your story in your head a hundred times and still miss that missing word because your mind will subconsciously put it in there. Or catch those words that I might have typed in twice etc. I also try to keep in mind how others might perceive the way that I have unintentionally put something. Which is why it's great to have actual people read your work, someone with actual feelings. People who will tell you, "that parts a bit harsh," or "you lost me a bit there. Can you explain it another way?" When texting first became a fad I suspect that many arguments arose because people wrote how they spoke but without the vocal intonations that we use whilst talking to show the meaning behind what we said. Which I would say gave rise to abbreviations like 'Lol' to show that the message was meant to be interpreted a certain way.

eg, 'You can't have too much'...meaning...'It's the sort of thing that you can have a lot of with no ill effects, so don't worry about over doing it.' But instead gets misinterpreted as, 'Be careful, don't have too much.'

Anyway, to all those who have chosen to put thought to paper I wish you all the best and good luck in your endeavours.