Support for Indie Authors discussion

Micah, firstly, thank you for starting a thread like this. I've tried to start similar threads on other sites BUT... the community just isn't there. Everyone here seems to have genuine passion for the art, but I digress.

Although, I'd dabbled with poetry and lyrics in my awkward, angsty-teen years, (the wife STILL accuses me of angsty-teendom) what TRULY inspired me to pursue writing stories was my experience with one Stephen King's The Stand: unedited and uncut. During that read, I recall growing deathly ill, swollen neck glands, the whole bit. Doctors ran a battery of tests, including blood work, but were baffled and, ultimately, useless. I ended up missing two full weeks of school with said mystery illness. OBVIOUSLY, I recovered; I'm not writing from the grave here. In the weeks that followed, my mind kept returning to the most likely, and implausible source of that illness; all my symptoms matched Stephen King's super-flu to a T. Once I came to terms with that, I just KNEW I had to hone my writing skills as well. Rest assured, I generally lean toward the side of good with my own writings... mostly.

Firstly, you're welcome.

Secondly:
Eric wrote: "the most likely, and implausible source of that illness; all my symptoms matched Stephen King's super-flu to a T..."

That should have inspired you to become a lawyer, not a writer!

<--- Sick puppy on the side of righteousness? :p

Micah wrote: "That should have inspired you to become a lawyer, not a writer! "

I always enjoyed reading. Through much of my high school years, I also liked writing. Everything ceased in college. Then one day as I was going through a depression I read Peter and Wendy and it helped. I always did enjoy tales of Neverland. It wasn't until a year later, still struggling through my depression that I began to turn a dream into a story. It was so therapeutic that I haven't stopped writing since.

Mine was a mid-life crisis of sorts -- if turning 50 can be considered mid-life. :-) I'd attempted serious writing when in my 20's, which resulted in no published stories and no finished novels. It turned out that the self-discipline I'd acquired over the years made all the difference.

I've always had a writing ambition since Middle School however had three problems. Grammar, spelling and typing. On fourteenth birthday parents gave me an electric typewriter and I used this to feel many waste baskets. Then computers were invented. Thanking words spell check and on screen editing I published first book "ghost Hunting Texas a Field Guide" in 2009. I have published eight tech books and now finishing my first novel. Nano taught me to turn off the inner editor on First Drafts and develop a regular writing habit.

Micah wrote: "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 ..."

I wanted to be a writer my entire life, since I was a young child, because books at the library looked really cool. I couldn't read them yet, but I checked them out anyway, because they looked cool. That's it. It's that simple. And later, when I learned how to read, my passion for storytelling only grew.

April

I was the complete cliché. My whole life I knew I wanted to write. Before I knew how to read I would take books and stare at them and try to figure them out. My mother even has this picture of me at two years old; I'm surrounded by toys and dolls and the only things in my hands are a pen and a storybook!

I've read ever since I learned how to read. I was reading chapter books (mostly Lemony Snicket and R.L. Stine) by six years old, and I was writing little stories on my mother's old Windows 98 computer ever since I learned how to open Word in elementary school.

Some kids begged their parents to take them to state fairs or carnivals. I would beg my mom to take me to the yearly book fairs and author appearances at the state university. It became a tradition, and I still go now, even though I'm well outside of the target audience of most of the books.

Now, even with college, family obligations, relationships and work, I still have a passion for writing and reading!

Weirdly, I never had any strong ambition to be a writer growing up (and in the technical sense, even though I've written books and write every day I have a hard time labeling myself as a writer.)
I wrote stories and poems in elementary school, and read books voraciously, but growing up I always wanted to be a visual artist. I really remember a lot of negativity, like teachers criticizing my subject matter, and my mom getting really upset with a poem I wrote; I overheard her talking with my dad behind closed doors about how much it disturbed her. It made me not want to write anymore. Plus, my sister was the real writer in the family; she got an English degree and everything, while I studied fine art and animation. I fell out of the habit of reading books outside of anatomy and design textbooks for a while too.
I think the kick in the pants that made me want to try writing was the screenwriting class I took in college as an elective; the teacher was really impressed with my finished project and said she wanted to give me some phone numbers for people I could shop it around to. Unfortunately, it was my last semester, and even though I tried repeatedly to get in contact with her about those numbers, I couldn't get a hold of her. And then I kind of forgot about writing for a little while until I got the bright idea of adapting the script into a novel, which wasn't great, but my friends liked it, so it gave me a little confidence, and convinced me I should try writing again.
So, a few years ago, I tried again with a different novel using the characters from my screenplay with a tighter story, and decided to self-publish it. And ever since then I've been writing whenever I can, coming up with stories I want to tell, participating in writing groups and stuff like Nanowrimo (which I use as a sort of downtime to mess with ideas I never got around to actually starting the rest of the year.) But I think on some level I still consider myself an artist rather than a writer.

I guess I didn't really think of writing as a choice when I was younger. I don't think I ever pondered the lives of those who wrote all the books I spent my free time reading. I've always been a reader. I wrote poems and stories in my [grade school] classes, but never thought of them as anything more than assignments.

I didn't start writing until after I graduated high school and moved away from home. I got [more] into reading fantasy books and playing video games, and ideas started to form in my mind that I felt like I needed to get out. Sometimes I was inspired by the way it felt to walk up the stairs wearing a certain pair of shoes, others by the silence in the apartment when I was alone.

That little spark was given a little more fuel when I had my son, and got a Kindle so I could read while nursing/rocking the little one without losing my place (have you tried reading a book completely one handed? It's hard!). I devoured books, and discovered several I absolutely loved. Little ideas still came to me as they had been before, and I continued to make little notes of them.

I have to credit my creative writing course in college with my most recent addition of fuel to the writing-fire. It helped me re-discover my love of poetry, and got me to thinking about all those little ideas I have saved in random places on my computer. (I really need to organize those.)

Now? My inspiration comes from other authors, other writers, who share their struggles and their victories and let me know I'm not alone in my efforts. Oh, and a big part of it comes from the people running around in my head, banging on my brain, begging for escape.

I'm still a fledgling. A writer but not yet an author. It will be a big celebration when I finish a first draft of a completed MS, and you all will be well-informed of it ;-)