My History as a Writer

How Long Have I Been Writing?

I’ve been writing for my entire life.

Alright, not my whole life, but most of it. Prior to being able to spell, I told stories through pictures that I would draw. Smiling broadly, I would tell myself a complete story over the course of dozens of hours of drawing.

The moment I learned how to form letters and parse together words I began writing the stories I used to draw. With time, those stories became chapters of books. I just kept adding more and more stories as time went on because it was my passion.

Time went on and I filled up plenty of notebooks and scribbled on more than a few odd pieces of paper. For one reason or another, I kept just about all of these and I am now piecing them together to formulate into the books I am writing now.

In short, I love writing and I intend to do it until I die.

…Which should be a long time from now, since I’m just 21 right now!

Why Do I Write?

In short? I love it.

I love writing because it allows me to see a story that has yet to exist in the real world. I get to tell a tale that is unlike every other one out there while still having similarities to others. It’s strange to see something like that, but it’s a great feeling.

I like to write stories that may start out bad, but end with a happily ever after of sorts. (Yeah, that might be a bit of a spoiler alert.) I do not believe that stories can end with suffering because all things can and do work together for good.

Some peoples’ stories may end poorly, but the broader story cannot. It will not. Goodness always wins in any worthwhile tale. That’s why we are conditioned with stories early on that finish with “and they all lived happily ever after.” With a positive ending, I hope to inspire my readers to overcome nay obstacle.

This is why I write science fiction. By writing about the future I write about what is to come. I am not rehashing an ancient tale, I am telling a new one. I am showing my readers a world that can be better and brighter than ours is today.

In my opinion, that is the duty of an author. We serve to empower and inspire, anything short of that is stealing from our readers. I want to show my readers that no matter how dark a story gets, good can come from it.

How Do I Write?

It wasn’t until I heard from several of my readers that I realized one of the big ways I write. For me, it just sort of happened.

As it turns out, I tell a lot of my stories through emotion.

At first, I was shocked to hear this. Why? Well, most people would say that I am a very unemotional person. People only see me when I’m happy because that’s what I am. I don’t let myself get and stay sad because I’ve been there and done that.

But, those dark emotions are never fully gone. I draw them out of the deepest of my wells of emotion and I spill them out on my page. I’ve lost people very close to me, friends and family alike. My best friend committed suicide. I’ve been cheated. Lied to. Attacked. Had my life threatened far too many times. I’ve gone hungry, I’ve gone without food for many days on end. I’ve shivered high on a mountain searching for lost hikers. I’ve sweat gallons as I worked to the bone in near-boiling heat.

And then I write. As I write, my characters end up facing most of the things I have faced. Thanks to my experience I can draw that out and shed some light on what they are going through in ways that few others can. I can drag my readers through the most painful gravel of emotions to get them to feel exactly what I felt all those years ago.

And I’ve heard time and time again how much they liked it.

Beyond the emotions, I try to pull up images of where my characters are and where they are going. As it turns out, this is not my current strong suit, like emotions are, but I like to think I do alright! As I write today I am doing all I can to expand on writing better for telling my readers about where they are reading.

I also spend plenty of time plotting where my characters will be going. I also plot out lots of other stories in order to save time down the road so I can publish even more books.

When I’m not doing that, I plot out world-building things. I think about the different cultures and sub-cultures of the societies I build. I lay out a complex history of all the people groups I can. I build family trees and backstories to both my main characters and some of the least written about characters.

What Am I Writing Now?

Right now I am struggling through Book Four of The Limit of Infinity.

No, I am not hung up on plot, I’m hung up on the emotions.

It pains me deeply to write certain parts and it can be harder than anything to force myself back through some of my darkest days. There are memories I pull back up that have woken me up at night in a cold sweat. Memories that cause my heart to skip a beat as terror grips the breath right out of my chest. Writing can be grueling and it isn’t because of writer’s block!

I’m also working on a few other books, including a completely unrelated children’s book that I am really enjoying. Book six of The Battle for Allegra and also Accolade are both getting worked on as I go too. I like having quite a few books going at once as I write, and I also read about a half dozen books at a time too! I’m just crazy like that though, I don’t recommend doing that if it sounds too daunting!

Thanks for the read, I hope y’all enjoyed it! Please be sure to drop a comment below with your thoughts on this!