Where I've Come From on My Writer's Journey

I've been writing fiction since I was a child, inspired by the thousands of wonderful books (and their authors*) that I devoured, flying from cover to cover, book to book.

I never got to take a course in creative writing. I just knew writing was fun, and I loved to do it.

When I was in middle school (Go Cards!) and high school (Go Vikes!), I was fairly prolific and wrote pages upon pages of adventure stories, starring my friends in quirky situations. I wrote about calculators, people's shoes, penguins learning to cook, purple monkeys, shrunken apple heads, and much more nonsense that I don't care to admit to these days.

I even won a handful of writing contests. They don't mean anything to anyone now, but I'll always recall them with a little pride.

It was easier back then. I remember summer afternoons jamming out pages of dialogue, single-spaced in the smallest font possible, laughing to myself as I got my unsuspecting friends in and out of bizarre situations. I didn't overthink every word.

My audience consisted of my friends, so I didn't understand the concept of character development. I didn't need it -- everyone knew the characters in my stories and what they were like.

And, GUILTY, almost all of my stories were left unfinished. I even titled one of the stories "The Unfinished Story of..." because I knew I'd never finish it, even from the start. Either I didn't know when (or how) to end a story, or as it often happened, I started writing with enthusiasm, only for that enthusiasm to peter out as I got more involved in schoolwork.

When I began thinking seriously about a writing career, I knew I would have to stop leaving stories unfinished. As far as I know, most people don't like to be left hanging, wondering if their books are missing the last few pages. Thus, The Fracture of a Dream started off with an ending, and I planned the major events and timeline clearly before I began writing.

Details changed as I began the actual writing process, of course, but having the structure of a planned plot has allowed me to write the story out of order and leave parts unwritten when the details were not yet clear to me. It's worked out very well for me, and I completely intend to model future writing projects on this one.

Ren D.

*No authors were harmed in my childhood quest to read the entire library. Lest you think I'm a cannibal, I didn't actually devour any authors -- just their inspiring ideas!

What WOULD the People at Google Think?

I'm often alone for the holidays. I try not to let it bother me because I really enjoy solitude when I have it. I do, honestly. However, I still feel a little sad when people post photos of their smiling families gathered around the dinner table or their glittering holiday decorations that look straight out of Martha Stewart’s magazine.

The plus side (I think?) is that people run off to share these days with their families, so the chatter on Facebook, Twitter, and so on is virtually nonexistent. Without others to distract me, I can focus on my novel-in-progress, The Fracture of a Dream.

Toward that end, I spent this Christmas Eve researching brain trauma, comas, and amnesia. (Am I allowed to call it an amnesia love story? Probably not, as it goes far beyond that label.)

It occurred to me that if anyone at Google were to keep track of my search terms and examine them individually (instead of in aggregate), I would certainly look like a hypochondriac or psychopath.

That's the writing life, I presume! May all your search terms raise eyebrows and forever remain interesting, fellow writers. Happy holidays!

Ren D.

Where Does an Aspiring Writer Even Start?

If you're like me, you've got stories you want to tell. Cool ideas. Fantastic characters. Dreams of being the next (fill in the blank here). You've eyed the spot on the bookstore shelves where your novels, impressively thick with glossy covers, will sit, waiting for your bright-eyed fans to grab in excitement. You've practiced your autograph, just like so.

Maybe, like me, you've wanted to take part in NaNoWriMo for years but were never able to make the time. (November is crunch time for many students, plus it's right before the holidays, so it is reasonably one of worst times to commit to writing about 1,500 words a day.)

Maybe you've actually taken part in it, and like me, faltered after a few days of writing here and there. Some days it's easy to get to that required word count. Other days, the words just aren't there.

Where is the best place to start, though?

Here's what I think.

While writing The Fracture of a Dream, I started with the end. Specifically, I knew how the story would end, and I wrote the final scene, the final words. As I continued writing the rest of the novel, the story developed and the characters evolved. I had to edit the end once or twice, yes. However, its current incarnation remains faithfully close to the original.

By starting with the end, it allowed me to pitch the characters in the correct trajectories throughout the story, already knowing what would happen to them. It gave me a clear direction in which to proceed.

I'd absolutely advise something like this for anyone starting out.

Ren D.