Support for Indie Authors discussion

What was the spark that lit your writing fire? Why write? What inspired you? I've seen a lot of people state that they've always wanted to be a writer. "Ever since I can remember..." It's a bit of a cliché it seems in bios. But that tells me nothing really. WHY have you always wanted to write?

I mean, when I was a kid, I wanted to be an architect. Why? Because a guy holding a set of blueprints for a building just really looked cool. I mean, he's DESIGNED a building! And it's being BUILT! I want to do that!

Then there was my cowboy phase. Why was I into it? Because a great uncle of mine in Oklahoma actually had been a cowboy. I used to play with the whip he used to drive horses pulling a wagon. I knew these people, real cowboys...and the little city brat I lived next to at the time had told me cowboys were a myth! What an a-hole. I was gonna be a cowboy!

Someone in another thread said they used writing as a fill-in for when they were not doing visual arts. Cool. There's the spark: they needed some creative endeavor to fill in down time from being an artist.

Well, the spark for me was visual art. And indirectly, music.

See, I started writing because of some early paintings and sketches I did. And those early pictures were a direct outgrowth of the music I used to listen to.

I was a very sporadic reader as a child. I remember my father reading to me and my younger brother. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming was a favorite. But I don't remember reading a lot until I was 13. Bored from hanging around my grandparent's place one summer in Oklahoma, I went to the library and picked up The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. Wow! I devoured all the Kurt Vonnegut I could find, reading like 9 books of his that summer. Then I stopped reading for the longest time. I later got Tolkien fever for a while, then stopped reading again.

I spent more time listening to music than reading. In my prog rock fan stage I'd listen to bands like Yes for hours, gazing at the amazing album cover art by Roger Dean. The cover of Tales from Topographic Oceans got me reading Erich von Däniken (crazy ancient alien stuff).

And then I started copying Roger Dean's album covers, painting in water color and acrylics. After getting somewhat proficient in that I started doing my own designs rather than copying.

For some reason I did a series of drawings and a few paintings that all included the same character but in different Sci-Fi/Fantasy settings. I had no clue who the character was or what was going on in the scenes; my goal was only to capture a mood and present an intriguing and mysterious snapshot. They were illustrations, in a way, of a story as yet untold.

After doing half a dozen of them, I started inventing the story behind the pictures.

Decades later those stories still echoed in my mind. They had never really left me. My art had changed, then dried up and faded away. My music tastes had changed and I had begun making music myself...that too eventually faded. But the stories remained vibrant and alluring. I tried my hand at setting the story of those pictures into prose--tried it many times--but the story was too big for me, too mature.

I still haven't written that one, but all this sparked my interest. I began reading a lot. Science Fiction, cosmology and physics for the layperson, mythology, lots more SF. And other stories came out, and are still coming out.

So...yeah...what about you? What's your real spark?

Huh. My story, while pretty different, kind of centers around the same themes aa yours, Micah.

I really did start writing at a young age, but somewhere around grade school, people kept telling me I could grow up to be the president or an astronaut. I could not wrap my head around the fact that this was encouragement and thought that these were my only job options. I was really keen on the idea of being an astronaut, but in junior high, that dream died with the terrifying reality of the Challenger tragedy. Also, by then I had enough common sense to figure out that whole encouragement to be my best thing.

So I decided to be a rock star instead. I was already a decent singer in choir, so I bought a cheap electric guitar and a case of Aquanet hairspray. Turns out I was really bad at both guitar and looking like a hair metal goddess during my awkward phase.

But...
During that time, I came to realize that I was far more comfortable with the creative than the logical. I dabbled in visual arts, theater, and continued singing with the school choir, but I also began to write stories again. Turns out, that was what came naturally and I resigned myself to the quite, pipe smoking, cabin in the woods, intellectual lifestyle and gave up my dreams of sold out stadium tours, parties, tour bus shenanigans, and other debauchery I was too young to fully understand.

In college I studied lit, became super pretentious, and planned to write books that would usher in a new literary generation.

In my thirties, I remembered how much fun being an awkward scifi nerd was and started writing fun stuff again. Eventually, I even finished writing a whole novel. And now, nine books later, I can't seem to stop.;)

I hate writing! And if you had asked my teachers in high school if I would ever be an author, they would have laughed you out of the school. But since I hurt myself at work, where I worked as a certified nurses assistant, I found myself stuck at home with nothing to do except watch TV.
Honestly, I hate TV I think it's a waste of time. And I'd much rather read books, but at the time I had read through everything I had two dozen times and didn't feel like reading through them a dozen more.
And the crap on TV just wasn't interesting. so I switched to an MMO for a while, World of Warcraft if you're wondering, and it reminded me just how much I enjoy settings like that.
But being add makes for short attention span, and I turned to other pursuits. That's when I picked up writing. I just felt I could tell a better story then what was trying to entertain me.

Nice one, Christina...I only hope you never abandoned the love of Aquanet.

;D

I never wanted to be an astronaut (somehow I knew instinctively that it would require way too much work!), but I'm almost as comfortable with the logical as the creative. Despite flunking out of Engineering in college, I ended up earning a living as a database analyst. And--music and logic combined--I still dabble a bit in DIY music electronics projects (slowly building my own analog music synthesizers).

Here is an answer you never will hear again.

I started to write out of spite.

I had a fight with my boyfriend who had a grandiose dream about being a famous writer. In all the time we were together though he hadn't even written enough to fill up a greeting card.

I told him if he wanted to be a writer, he needed to write.

He told me that you just can't 'start' to write something. You need to plan.

I told him to start planning then!

He told me that he already had a plan, but for the last chapter of book 2.

I told him to start writing that then. That he could go back and write more after, just to start.

He said that you just can't start to write in the 'middle' of a book series.

I told him that you can. Famous authors have done that before. Lots of them.

He shrugged me off and left in a huge huff. What did I know? I didn't want to be a famous author with my own book series.

Oh yeah, well I will show you! (I said)

Then I stayed up until 3am in the morning writing a novel from an idea I had on a post it note. I got 5 chapters done in one spite filled anger fest. I was in an odd mood at the time, a bit 'repressed' perhaps, which is why it became naughty.

We broke up the next day, and I didn't tell him I had started to write. (But he did find out much later, so spite accomplished!)

Before then I had written a few overly complicated Dungeons & Dragons Campaign settings (even a 500+ page one with custom rules my friends and I still use) and some video game design documents. Oddly, I did't consider that 'writing' until after my novel was in the works and I looked back and was all like 'well duh, I have been writing non-competitively since like grade 4. Why didn't I take creative writing in Grade 12?'.

Riley wrote: "I hate writing!"

So what you're saying is that necessity isn't the mother of invention, but rather boredom.

Works for me!

Micah wrote: "Riley wrote: "I hate writing!"

So what you're saying is that necessity isn't the mother of invention, but rather boredom.

Works for me!"

Even still, if it weren't for these newfangled electronics, I don't know if I would be writing. My hands cramp like a mother f***er when I try to write with pen and paper.

I was the host of a gaming clan's site, and we had some stories written by players archived and on our site for reading. I said to myself, 'I can do at least this good,' so I set out to write an eight-paged short story to add to the collection. I never found an exit strategy. It grew and grew, and now I have one novel, with two more planned. My involvement in gaming and the site has long-past.
Morris

I wrote my first novel accidentally.

I used to love writing short stories and poetry, then I grew up, got married, got a real job, etc., etc. and the writing fell by the wayside.

A friend told me she and her friends stayed in shape by forming an online fantasy writing club. She invited me to join. You could be a vampire or a vampire hunter, you send in an email, someone reads it and adds to it ... sounded like some good practice.

So I sat down and began my first email, as a vampire, 'cause it sounded much more fun. An hour later it was a short story, four hours later I'd copied it over to 'Word' and was calling it chapter 1.

Never ended up sending any emails or joining the club.

Mike wrote: "I wrote my first novel accidentally."

By Accident? I Love it!

I understand though completely with what happened after. My idea started as a quick little short story and it became a three part fantasy novel series overnight.

C.B. wrote: "Mike wrote: "I wrote my first novel accidentally."

By Accident? I Love it!

I understand though completely with what happened after. My idea started as a quick little short story and it became a t..."

Yeah, it was always so intimidating to START a novel, I thought I would need 8 million spreadsheets with character development charts and a freakin' plot-o-matic 3000 to start a book.

But once you actually write those first words and start to see the characters interacting in your head ... before you know it you have 100 pages and you don't really remember how you got there.

Mike wrote: "Yeah, it was always so intimidating to START a novel, I thought I would need 8 million spreadsheets with character development charts and a freakin' plot-o-matic 3000 to start a book. "

I had constructed an 8 million page spreadsheet with a built in plot-o-matic 3000 after a week. That is just how I write though.

I love spreadsheets. I think they are neat.

I work with spreadsheets every day, I've developed an allergy to them I think.

But I can see the benefit when writing a 3 part fantasy series

Micah wrote: "Nice one, Christina...I only hope you never abandoned the love of Aquanet."

Sorry, but Grunge came next and it seems I was made for flat hair, flannel shirts, and jeans that could double as a survival tent. ;)

Who in his right mind writes a 18.000 word first draft on a bleeding 4" Android phone using a notes App?
I do! I wrote most of Everyone Dies At The End on my phone, because my tower decided to crap out >.> I think I would have liked it better after awhile, if it weren't for fat fingers on a tiny keyboard.

Christina wrote: "Sorry, but Grunge came next and it seems I was made for flat hair, flannel shirts, and jeans that could do..."

Big hair's coming back. [If not it will. Even flares came back in style.]

Mike wrote: "I wrote my first novel accidentally."

I'm picturing that scene...

[INTERIOR: MIKE'S STUDY. MIKE SITS BEFORE HIS PC]

Mike: Dammit!

Mike's Wife [calling from another room]: Mike? You OK?

Mike [after pause]: Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine.

Mike's Wife: Do you need some help?

Mike: No. Don't worry, honey, it's nothing.

Mike's Wife: What, did you break something? Cut yourself?

Mike: No, it's just...

Mike's Wife: Mike?

Mike: It's nothing, don't worry. I just, uh...accidentally wrote a novel...

Mike's Wife: ...What the...

Morris wrote: "My involvement in gaming and the site has long-past."

The party has ended but the story goes ever on. Like it.

It may seem strange coming from a sci-fi writer, but when I was six (when I started writing), I was an avid reader of the classic works of Beatrix Potter, and when her books made me smile, I knew I had to try to pass that smile onto others.

These days, I attribute my decision to write as a way to turn negative feelings of loss of someone I loved into the positive energy that puts words on the page. I guess I've had a number of these losses in my life, so that idea figures strongly into my writing.

On the other hand, there is great joy to be had when a character says something I wrote off the cuff that is so totally them it's hilarious.

As a bottom line, the joy of being able to journey in a concentrated way into an imaginary place and later on be a tour guide of that place for others is very satisfying.

Micah wrote: "Mike wrote: "I wrote my first novel accidentally."

I'm picturing that scene...

[INTERIOR: MIKE'S STUDY. MIKE SITS BEFORE HIS PC]

Mike: Dammit!

Mike's Wife [calling from another room]: Mike? You..."

hehe.

Throw in a bowl of Doritos and a few cans of Pepsi and you aren't far off.

Mike wrote: "C.B. wrote: " I thought I would need 8 million spreadsheets."

First novel I finished I only had one spreadsheet. But I had an outline and a document with names of characters and spaceships that I'd keep to document their meanings.

The outline was at the chapter level and on the spreadsheet I estimated the word count by chapter.

I wanted to finish the book in a year but I didn't know how fast I actually wrote. So the spreadsheet just tracked how many words I wrote every day and how many hours I had put in. Using that data and the estimated word count by chapter I was able to see if I was on, behind, or ahead of schedule. That actually came in handy in planning my life. If I was ahead of schedule, I allowed myself some non-writing time.

Finished the first draft in 8 months instead of 12, despite the fact that the final word count was like 25% bigger than I had anticipated.

What I learned from that experience:
1) Spreadsheets can help you stay motivated and on track.
2) However, outlines are ridiculous. I ended up changing the outline to fit what I wrote more often than I changed what I wrote to fit the outline.
3) I suck at estimating word count.
4) Intensive writing schedules are draining as all hell.
5) Finishing your first draft is barely 1/5th of the writing process. The hard part starts once that draft is done.
6) My first finished novel even after all the above (plus over 2 years of editing) needs to be completely re-written. Good ideas. Bad execution.
7) Screw all the planning, I'll wing it from now on!

Rob wrote: "I'm pretty sure that by telling you guys this, you're all going to think I'm as nutty as a cashew cake ;-)"

Personally, cashew cake has never been nutty enough for me. I loved your background story!

Oh and...cashew cake...sounds amazing!

Micah wrote: "The outline was at the chapter level and on the spreadsheet I estimated the word count by chapter."

I used my spreadsheet (Just the one but with many pages) to keep on track. I kept writing outlines for the story, and then ignoring them completely when better ideas happened. I am a plan by the seat of my pants kind of writer. The outlines were useful for foreshadowing and chapter name planning, so I did like that.

My spreadsheet was mostly for tracking. I had set rules that I really needed to follow, so I needed to be able to reference them otherwise I would forget or make up something new that didn't fit within the guidelines!

I know a spreadsheet for a different project would not be as complex.

I had tabs for
1. Characters, NPCs, Fairies, and Monsters with names
2. Character Equipment and Items (amazing how fast you change gear in video games)
3. Character Classes + Skills (There are set classes and I needed to know exactly what they could do in the rules)
4. World Locations
5. Items mentioned and what they do
6. Plot outline / word estimate (mostly ignored)
Then about 6 more as the books progressed, certain charts and the like that needed to be tracked.

I would have ripped out my hair without the spreadsheet and therefore immortalized them in the novels by making one of the C Type personalities use them to track book stats.

Side Note: Cashew Cake IS amazing.

I had events with certain timings in them. In my chapter on Luna, I had a post being built under impending attack and I kept a running spreadsheet of who was on duty, how many shift of techs/soldiers were running, how long, how long it took for each trip of supplies and parts/men to arrive from earth, etc... It was a madhouse until I got the spreadsheet. I counted down the time until a certain event. Like one of my headers...
July 16, 1970; Zero Six Thirty Zulu

I also had a master chronology of events that had my character's history and timeline, and one with a political, scientific, technical and significant military events. If you are trying to relate to fact and history, you'd better get a spreadsheeet.

The best example of keeping it straight I ever saw was Tony Hillerman's "Finding Moon", where he tells his story but flashes real newpaper reports of what is going on during the setting of the final days of the Vietnam War.

Morris

I started writing to escape a bad relationship. I was stuck in a relationship that I desperately wanted out of, but I didn't have the slightest clue how to do that.
I started writing as a way to take my mind out of the situation. I couldn’t get out physically, so writing became my mental savior. I felt like I couldn't tell anyone about what was happening to me, so I would go to work, return home and start writing.
At first, I wrote about things I wish I could do, most of them impossible like superhuman strength or having the ability to be invisible. Then, I started developing characters and found I like creating the stories. I always wrote about strong female characters that weren’t afraid to take charge and kick-butt; characters that would have taken my relationship woes and ate them as a snack. After three years and a lot badly written rough manuscripts (I had no idea that that was what they were at the time,) it seemed I started developing some of the character traits and strengths I had created in my writings. I eventually found enough strength to get out of the relationship and never looked back.
It would be ten years later before I decided to share some of the stories I was creating during one of the toughest times in my life - my first book is set to release on my birthday: July 25, 2015.

Michele wrote: "I started writing to escape a bad relationship. I was stuck in a relationship that I desperately wanted out of, but I didn't have the slightest clue how to do that.
I started writing as a way to t..."

Very glad to see that you got out and something positive came of it. :)

Michele wrote: "I started writing to escape a bad relationship. I was stuck in a relationship that I desperately wanted out of, but I didn't have the slightest clue how to do that..."

Yeah, cheers for that! It's great to hear about creativity helping people overcome adversity.

Michele wrote: "I always wrote about strong female characters that weren’t afraid to take charge and kick-butt..."

Whereas. I tend to gravitate toward male characters who aren't in control of their own situation. But that's probably part self-criticism and a lot of Kurt Vonnegut influence.

I grew up in a home with thousands of books and no TV. My parents and two older brothers were all voracious readers. I didn’t have much use for reading as a kid -- I much preferred to draw and paint; dreamed of making a living as an artist -- and I hated writing. Hated it. My worst-ever personal hell was having a job where I needed to write.

My older brother created games -- awesome games, usually with a historical bent. (He also once turned in a term paper written in cuneiform on clay tablets.) They were my just about my favorite form of recreation and I bugged him to play them a lot, especially in the summer. The summer I was 12, I was bugging and he was busy, so he reached into his closet (closets in my house were for books, not clothes), handed me a book and told to go read it. The cover looked intriguing enough (it was by Frank Frazetta) so I acquiesced.

Inside, I discovered blood, gore and nekkid women. This transformed my notions of reading a bit. I went back and got more books from my brother, in much the same vein and some not so much (The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath and The King of Elfland’s Daughter among them.) I thought they were pretty cool.

Then that fall, in 8th-grade English, we were assigned to write a short story. I was not thrilled. But said story was supposed to embrace a theme, and in my case -- I think the teacher assigned this to me -- it was the color red. (Not sure what he was thinking, as asking a 13-yr-old boy to write anything featuring red yields predictable results.)

Anyway, I wrote story about a red-haired woman dressed in scarlet clothes riding a roan horse through an autumn forest to engage in a duel. You can guess how that ended.

Thus did I learn two things: first, it was pretty easy and kinda fun; second, it got me much praise and a good grade. So I revised my opinion about writing, and I acquired a new personal hell: physics. Hated physics. Nothing worse than physics . . .
: D

Good to know I wasn't the only one who really got into reading during adolescence. I was around twelve when I started to sink my teeth into reading, but I always hear people talk about how they practically devoured the written word at ages as young as seven.

Cliche as it is to say, I've always been creating stories as far back as I can remember (and using my Star Wars and My Little Pony toys to act the stories out), but I didn't decide to become a writer until I was eleven. It's kind of a funny story. At the time, I didn't have a lot of interest in reading, even though I was apparently quite good at storytelling (a story I wrote for... I think it was third grade, ended up in the local highschool's literary magazine... although for some reason they didn't print the story's ending :/ I was a bit ticked about that).

Anyway, so our school was having a career day in which we were to dress up in a manner that would represent the career of our choice. I didn't know what to go as since I had no set idea of what I wanted to be (I had considered marine biologist and even jockey, although my now six feet in height would have made the latter impossible). My mom suggested I go as a writer by dressing up as a cliche reporter (Fedora hat with a pencil tucked behind my ear) and I shrugged and said, "okay."

And that suggestion, a suggestion made because I didn't know what to go as for career day, stuck with me like glue. Despite being indifferent toward the idea of being a writer, and not being all that into reading at the time, once that idea got in my head it stayed, because it was the means by which I could finally do something with all the story ideas crowding my head.

Although I did toy with the idea of being a movie writer/director at one point before finally settling on being a writer.

Michele wrote: "I started writing to escape a bad relationship. I was stuck in a relationship that I desperately wanted out of, but I didn't have the slightest clue how to do that.
I started writing as a way to t..."

That's awesome :D

Everyone has their own styles and quirks when writing. I usually get an idea of where I want it to go, but it doesn't always listen to me. So many times I've wanted my characters to do a specific action and I could see them in my head giving me the finger and saying 'You nuts? You go into the dark freakin' room where the strange noise is, I'll stand out here and write about it!' So a lot of my book was a surprise for me too. I kept a few notes, because it was a vampire book so I needed to keep an eye on ages and things like that, but mostly the characters told me their stories and I just transcribed it, if that makes any sense.

Well... I think I'm the one with the boring answer, since yes, 'I've always wanted to become an author', mostly because my dad was one. :-) And I've dabbled in writing all my life, but it isn't until now I actually have the patience to finish a novel. Some people mature later than others, it seems. :-)

And C.B., your story is great. And of course you can 'just start'. Good thing you broke up with him. ;-)

Owen: love your story too. And I think that first assignment of yours was a really good one. :-)

Wow, Michele! You have lots of strength to go through such a thing. I'm happy that you managed to break free. <3

A.E. wrote: "Well... I think I'm the one with the boring answer, since yes, 'I've always wanted to become an author', mostly because my dad was one. :-) And I've dabbled in writing all my life, but it isn't unt..."

Thanks! Sometimes I wish I'd kept it. Other times, I think I'm glad I didn't. The idea sort of found it's way into another short story many years later.

I didn't want to be a writer when I was little, I wanted to be a reader. I was only three when I demanded to be told what the letters of the headlines in Dad's newspaper were (I especially liked the 'zigzaggy' ones - N, M, A, Z, V, W). My Dad complied, and I could read before I went to Kindergarten.

I loved letters and printed words. Obviously I wasn't reading anything difficult back then, but picture books without words in them were rubbish in my eyes. I just loved how letters made sounds, and sounds made words, and words made stories.

My parents were a bit baffled by this. They did read books, but not on a grand scale. However, my Dad worked in broadcasting, and knew someone who worked on a national radio programme that regularly reviewed children's and YA books on air. They always got sent piles of new and not-yet-published ARCs by publishers in the hopes of getting on the programme. Thus, every two weeks I got a whole bag of new books that hadn't made the cut, and I amassed hundreds of books in my room and on the attic. I was constantly reading.

I once caused a kidnapping-scare when I was invited to a birthday party, and the other child's parents suddenly noticed I had gone missing from the garden. They looked everywhere, called my parents (who drove over to look for me), and nearly called the police. I was found sitting on the floor in the living room between the sofa and the armchair, so engrossed in a book I had found that I hadn't noticed the panicked excitement around me.

When I grew up and had my own apartment and my own job, I proceeded to fill all the space I had with books again. They just accumulated. I bought books like other people buy shoes or clothes or chocolate. I can actually read while walking down the street (peripheral vision for the win!)

But it never really occurred to me to write for the sake of writing. The essays I had to write in school were always good("What I did in my summer holidays", anyone?), but that was because I was reading so much. I knew from example how to spell and how to punctuate and how to string words together.

I didn't start writing until I was in my mid-thirties and found myself unemployed and broke. No money for new books, no money to go and hang out a cafés, no money to even take the bus into town, but so much time on my hands.

I googled "How to earn money from home" and as my unemployment stretched on "How to start your own business from scratch". Only I had no idea what my business could be. Knitting baby clothes? Drop-shipping chinese DVDs? Trading with second-hand books? Google came up with "content writing".

I thought that sounded like something I could try (since I don't know knitting). I wrote a few stories, then translated some public domain texts into German, until I thought I could try writing a book.

I had written 40k words by the time I found a new steady dayjob, and it was so much fun. I really have no idea why I never tried that before. The book is not finished yet, but eventually it will be. And then I'll not only be a reader, I'll be a writer, too.

Yay Kat! :D

I became a writer because I had to. I don't know any other way to explain it.

Kat wrote: "I didn't want to be a writer when I was little, I wanted to be a reader. I was only three when I demanded to be told what the letters of the headlines in Dad's newspaper were (I especially liked th..."

Wonderful! Love the kidnapping scare part! And I think you already are a writer. When you finish your book, what you'll be is published.

I had fogotten about my previous writings. I wrote a short story and presented to my friends when I was 19, but never published. Later when I was 25, I co-wrote and published a 30 page booklet, which is still being distributed by a church ministry today. But, the spark that lit a desire to do this as a profession was as I stated earlier.

Morris

What spark lit my fire? I think I can blame A Dog Called Himself. I read this book when I was eight years old and knew then that I wanted to tell stories. I don't think I could believe that people made a living out of writing, I still haven't reached that goal yet but every word is a step on the journey.

Some really great stories on here, so many diverse backgrounds all focused on one thing. Writing.

Fro me I believe we all have a purpose in life and I blame Zebra books for me becoming a writer.

I'd always been a reader, and yes I started reading regularly when I was seven. At the time I was confined to bed for over six months, the result of a bad reaction to a vaccination or something of that nature. By the end of the first month of watching a little black and white TV that could only receive four channels, and that my dad had put in my room for me, I needed something more.

It started with comics.

The usual Superman and Batman types of stories. My Dad had always nurtured our inquisitive nature so when I asked for comics with more bite he gladly provided me with Weird Tales, Tales from the Crypt, Creepy, that sort of fare. I recall one story in particular that to this day still haunts me.

It involved a hunter who came across another man about the kill a woman. He saved the woman and took her home with him, only to learn she was a ghoul. After the death of their child at the hands of the ghoul his wife leaves him and the ghoul tries to take his wife's place. I felt the horror this character felt as the ghoul stood at his bed side wearing his wife's nightgown. He had no other choice but to put an end to this creatures miserable existence and we find ourselves at the beginning of the story with the hero about to kill the woman when another hunter shoots him to save her.

Within a month I had exhausted both current and available back issues so I turned to books. Moby dick, Treasure Island, to start. By the time I was able to move around on my own I had developed a strong reading habit that followed me the rest of my life.

Of course it got dark.

I read The Exorcist with the book hidden in my geography book while I was in high school. I was spending my entire allowance on books through the school's book buying program. I read Johnny Get Your Gun when I was in the tenth grade, along with a slew of other lesser known titles that have since faded into obscurity. It was about this time I started toying with the idea of trying my hand at writing. There was no one thing that sparked this, it was something that had slowly grown over time.

Ideas were percolating through my brain.

I'd already failed as a movie producer. I had shot a little 8mm movie with my brother and sister about an alien spaceship crash landing in the woods behind my house. It got me into hot water with my mom when she discovered the space ship was a wooden frame wrapped in aluminum foil I'd been filching from the kitchen, and the rags wrapped around my little brother were a set of her good sheets.

But two things that happened in my junior year killed my budding enthusiasm for writing. In current events we were tasked with writing a story, a task I deliciously sunk my hands into. I was going to write about a person approaching a haunted house. I thought it was pretty good, but the teacher failed me, and publicly humiliated me when I read the story aloud. I'd written it in third person omnipotent, at the time I didn't know what that was, but I'd used it instinctively because I wanted to show the thought processes of both the person approaching the house, and the ghost that inhabited it, and how their thoughts mirrored one another. I was told in front of the class that I'd better stick to reading cause I sure couldn't write.

The second instance happened with my English teacher. I knew then that I wanted to write, but I was only fifteen and wasn't sure how to go about doing it, if that makes any kind of sense. There was no internet, and the local library had a pretty sparse reference section, so I tuned to my English teacher for advice. I sucked at English. I expressed a desire to write and she laughed. Then she realized I was serious and tried to cover up. But it was too late.

After graduation I joined the military and as a single kid with no dependents my entire paycheck belonged to me, and I used it to buy books, in addition to beer and illegal substances that shall remain nameless. After I got out I struggled for eight years as I relearned how to be a civilian. But through everything that notion that I wanted to write remained with me. I continued to read, always on the lookout for horror, and Zebra Books seemed to fit the bill.

It was 1991, I was married, divorced, and living with my current wife when I purchased a Zebra Book whose title currently escapes me. It was the worst story I had ever read. The narrative hopped all over the place, and the conclusion came out of far left field and while I was reading it I was thinking to myself, if they would have done it this way, the story would have been better.

That was when I realized writing was what I was meant to do. That very day I sat down and actively began pursuing a career in writing. But I was stubborn, still am to a point, I wanted to succeed on raw talent alone. It doesn't work and it's taken me years to learn things a course in creative writing would have shown me had I not been so damned stubborn.

I always loved reading as a child but NEVER poetry, just wasn't interested. Then back in the 90's at uni I HAD to read poetry for some of my courses and I became hooked. I joined a poetry society and as I wanted to join in I had to have a go at writing - I haven't stopped :)

Richard wrote: "I was told in front of the class that I'd better stick to reading cause I sure couldn't write."

That was no teacher. That was a bored and disgruntled child minder who made a poor career choice. I'm sorry you had to go through that and even more sorry that this is not uncommon.

Richard wrote: "But two things that happened in my junior year killed my budding enthusiasm for writing...I was told in front of the class that I'd better stick to reading cause I sure couldn't write...my English teacher. I knew then that I wanted to write...I expressed a desire to write and she laughed..."

Poignant lessons there. Very interesting story.

I've heard is said that everyone starts out creative, and at some point has the creativity sucked out of them. Society is really odd that way: it celebrates massively successful (financially success)creative people, yet simultaneously works as hard as possible to kill creativity in our youth, as well as completely devaluing all the arts.

When budgets get tight, what's the first thing to get defunded? The Arts.

My own English teachers in HS on the whole ignored me. I didn't exactly try to stand out. But one in particular picked me as her punching bag. Not because of what I wrote or how I acted in class, but rather because she had taught my older brother and there was bad blood between them. She deflected her animosity toward my brother onto me, despite the fact that my older brother and I are very different people...and were very different in HS. I didn't let her problems faze me, but I knew no matter what I did it wouldn't change things.

In college, though, I do particularly remember one grad student who made a big impact on me. It was English 101, first semester, freshman year. Class was at 8 AM. We had an ongoing assignment to write for an hour a week in a journal. Didn't matter what we wrote. You just had to put in the time. Write anything.

One week I woke up and realized I hadn't written anything. So I grabbed my journal and started writing something like...

Oh, crap! I just woke up realized I've written NOTHING in my journal! I'll have to do this on the fly, then. Right, no time to waste...gotta get dressed!"

The rest of it I wrote as I walked to breakfast, as I was in line at the cafeteria, as I was stuffing my face, as I trekked across campus...all the way up until I got into class and handed it to the grad student who was teaching the class. My handwriting, naturally, was extremely varied...shaky and uncertain while I was walking, thin and scratchy when I was jotting things down while sitting.

I actually had a lot of fun doing it.

When I got the journal back after it was graded, teacher drew me aside all excited. She practically begged me to consider writing seriously. I mean It was only a few words of encouragement, but her earnest enthusiasm impressed me and kind of took me aback. I discounted her idea, but I think her words always echoed in my subconscious.

So sometimes a few honest words of encouragement are more powerful than years of being put down by full time "teachers." I guess words matter most when they're said from the heart.

Why did I start writing? To be honest, I don't know. One day, in 1975, I just started writing.

Those first stories were essentially Space: 1999 fanfiction. They were terrible but I enjoyed myself. (Thankfully, all copies were lost.) I started writing seriously in 1977, after seeing Star Wars.

Thing is, I wasn't enjoying myself anymore. I was creating my own characters and coming up with my own plot lines and it wasn't fun. It was starting to feel like work. I would've stopped if it weren't for my tenth grade English teacher. If not for her support and encouragement, I'd be doing something else with my time right now.

A.E. wrote: "And C.B., your story is great. And of course you can 'just start'. Good thing you broke up with him. ;-)"

My original intent was to show him that you 'could' just start something, by starting something myself. :)

I can tell myself that now as a rationalization, but no I really did it at that time for spite.

There is only so many days you can be told by someone that 'They are going to make a cake tomorrow' before you just get too hungry for cake and make one yourself! (Apparently it is about 6 months).

These are all great stories!

I've been writing since I was in First grade. . .so 7-ish? It all started with a pencil point being picked up by an eagle and taken back to its nest.

I was never encouraged to write. Quite the opposite. I was told that I'd never make it as a writer. It was too difficult a career choice. Stick to what I could do: be an English teacher.

All of that just made me realize how much I loved to write. I don't know if I have talent. I just know that I love it and I don't want to stop.

Micah wrote: "I've heard is said that everyone starts out creative, and at some point has the creativity sucked out of them. ..."

Thanks Micah. My youngest son is a good example of this. He's in his thirties now but when he was about eleven he could draw anything he saw. I tried to encourage him, but at the time he was living with his mother and she pretty much undid everything I tried to instill in him.

Michael wrote: "I would've stopped if it weren't for my tenth grade English teacher. If not for her support and encouragement, I'd be doing something else with my time right now. "

So it is her fault we are not enjoying The Fantastic Michael and His Amazing Tap-Dancing Wiener Dog Show right now?!

Okay everyone, get the pitchforks!

Micah wrote: "So...yeah...what about you? What's your real spark?"

I hated writing when I was a child. Hated it! But, my teachers felt I had some kind of talent. I had a story published in a local newspaper when I was in the third grade. Something about a magic pencil. I don't remember, now. My fifth grade teacher kept all my writing assignments and told me I could not have them back until I graduated high school. She still has them.

I, too, felt I had a talent for writing. I still do. And I know that sound arrogant, but the reality is we all have a talent for something. For me, it's writing. But, I didn't like it.

I wanted to entertain, though. And I wanted to do something creative. I had dreams of being an actor or an artist.

In the sixth grade my best friend suggested we write a book. He was always coming up with odd ideas for us to do and I usually just went along with it. We had a good time writing the story, but when we tried to read it aloud to the class we realized we were the only ones that thought the story was entertaining. Everyone, including the teacher, seemed bored with it.

I didn't really write much after that during my years in junior high and high school, other than the occasional sarcastic poem or parody of rock songs. One my my favorites was a parody of The Stray Cats "Sexy (& Seventeen)" but we (a friend that co-wrote it with me) came up with "Sexy (& Seventy-Four)".

She's sexy and seventy-four
My little old lady whore

We also wrote a poem for the biology teacher called "Ode to a Dog Breath". He loved it. (He had a great sense of humor).

I took a creative writing class in my Senior year because I thought it would be an easy course. In one assignment we had to write about our lives ten, twenty, thirty, forty and fifty years in the future. In mine I wrote myself as a successful cartoonist. The teacher handed it back with a note saying, "instead of a cartoonist, why don't you consider writing?" Didn't matter. By this point I was determined that I would be the next Berkley Breathed or Bill Murray.

My drama coach in college was a snob and didn't like me, convincing me I could not act. I will never forget when I told him Bill Murray was my idol. He sniffed and sneered and said, "Figures" and walked away. I was an art major, but didn't like it much. I am terrible with pottery and paint. I just wanted to draw, but that was not an option. But, to give myself something to do, I started writing a werewolf story. It was stupid and I never finished it.

Some years later after I had given up on being famous for anything and settled for being a baker, I was a great reader. I read lots of Stephen King at the time (not really a fan these days) and Agatha Christie. Then I found John Irving and something in his writing sparked my interest. I started thinking, "I could do this."

So, I wrote a novel called "The Runaway Hotel". But, it was really just for myself and people I was close to. I had no intention of publishing it. Then it became lost. A few years later I tried to rewrite it but, it never seemed as good as the original had been.

After that, I always had at least one writing project going. Novels about Bigfoot, haunted theme parks, superheros, bored husbands having online affairs... all kinds of stuff. I never got serious about publishing as I felt nothing I wrote would be interesting to a publisher. I tended to not write in a traditional way or follow any real rules. I also didn't like the idea of a publisher having control over my characters or stories. I just wrote and wrote and wrote and had fun with it. Sometimes I would share stories with girlfriends or friends, but did not really want to publish.

A little over a year ago I bought a Kindle and found that people were actually publishing stuff directly to Amazon. Yes! A way I could get published without having to listen to some publisher about how to change my stories and make them more marketable!

So, in the proverbial nutshell that's my history. As for the spark? I guess it's just the creative outlet, a way to express myself, a way to get ideas and characters out of my brain and onto paper / a computer screen and watch them play with one another. I love the craft of taking an idea and molding it into a story. Now I have the added kick of finding out someone read and enjoyed a story I wrote.

C.B. wrote: "His Amazing Tap-Dancing Wiener Dog Show..."

Having 3 wiener dogs myself, I'd love to see THAT! :P

I just popped in to say I read all your stories guys and loved how different they are. Thanks for sharing!

C.B. wrote: "I told him if he wanted to be a writer, he needed to write... I told him to start planning then!... I told him to start writing that then. That he could go back and write more after, just to start... I told him that you can. Famous authors have done that before. Lots of them."

He should have listened. Lots of words of wisdom there.