How It All Begins

As a writer I put a lot of what I think, feel, see and believe into my writing. I watch people, listen to what they say and open my mind to the possibilities.

When I walk in the woods and breath deep taking in the scent of pine needles, or when I climb a ladder into an attic filled with dust that makes me sneeze. I smile knowing these are just a couple of experiences that I am filing away in the recesses of my mind until one day they are pulled out and used in a story.

There are times that something will cause me to feel fear, anger and sadness. I think about how I react to those and try to understand why it effected me so much. What a character feels and why they feel it will totally make the reader relate and want to continue to read on.

When love warms my heart with a simple touch from someone I care about, or am given a look that only the two of us share, I think about how lucky I am to be feeling the way I do and want to express it in stories through my characters.

Every experience I go through as I live life gives me fuel for thought when I create plots, characters and settings, all of these things can be used in settings such as my own back yard, or it can take place in some far off land in my imagination.

Words float around in my mind continuously forming characters, plots and places. Until one day it all comes together and suddenly my muse is urging me, forcing me to write everything down. The muse doesn't care if it is night or day, or if I have to get up early for work. All that matters is that the words get written down and in doing so the story takes on a life of its own.

At the end when last word is typed, I smile in satisfaction seeing a story of my creation written down.

Now for the editing ...

Editing ... well, that is a another story.

Working on a short story and getting to know the characters.

I've been trying to work on a short story between working and family things. I have the plot done, I'm just filling in the detail and I'm learning about my characters. I've got the basics down for them as well, but now I must get to know my characters in detail. I find when I do that that the story takes on a whole new meaning and it begins to take me on a whole new journey, because my characters do things, say things and think things based on their history and the things they have experienced.

This is one of the reasons I love writing fiction. There are no boundaries.

The Hero

The hero in my story is Jason Warner. He is 27 years old, was in the army, but got out after his tour was over and now resides with his sister in a small town in the south somewhere. I'm thinking Georgia or Florida somewhere. He is a protector of the people he loves and will always go out on a limb when needed.

Not much to go on yet, but at least it is a start.