Why I Write

Shamelessly stealing the idea from Jenne Moua's blog ...

There are actually two answers to the question, the short version and the long version.  I'll give the short version first.

A few years ago, I was in a pretty serious wreck and ended up with three bones dislocated in one wrist and two in the other.  My car was crashed beyond repair and a few more feet and the engine would've been in the front seat with me.   It took me a few days to come out of shock and realize that I was wasting my life doing something I hated instead of what I wanted to do.  I went online that night (and with a little help, since I couldn't type), signed back up for college, signed up for FAFSA, and mailed off a letter requesting my high school to send a transcript.  A month and a half later, I was sitting in a school room.  I also found my old USB drive with all my stories and poems and started polishing them up.  And here I am now..

The long version..

My writing creativity began in 4th grade, back when students were required to answer a writing prompt mid-year AND at the end of the year, to help establish whether they passed or failed.  Instead of writing about the prompt - which I think had something to do about a favorite spot, I wrote a story about a brother and sister going fishing.  The teacher passed me only after she had a conference with my parents about my lack of following directions.

Fast forward to middle school, about 3 or 4 years later.  I pretty much walked around with a whole story playing out in my head about an elite fighting force (my very own Justice League) that saved the world from evil on a daily basis.  They've never actually gone away... they're still there, and their lives have only grown more fascinating.   As much as I'm sure they would love to be written about, more characters have joined them, completely ripped straight out of an anime that I watched while growing up.

On to high school, and a friend introduced me to a "game" that was little more than a graphical chat where people typed in their roleplay, and you just had to imagine.  I adored the game, and my fellow gamers and I went on many adventures.  During this time, I wrote a couple fanfics, for both the anime series The Slayers and for the game.  At 18, I also began working on my very own original, titled Crystal Flow.

Crystal Flow has been torn up, tossed out, deleted, rewritten, and revised over the span of 14 years.  It's never really left me, but along with the great feedback I have received on what was written, I also received a lot of criticism.  I am normally all for criticism, because it's how I learn to do better, but the criticism that came was from a) my then boyfriend that considered it the stupidest thing he'd ever heard and b) a very good friend that informed me that the dialogue was dumb because it wasn't perfect English.

Instead of turning my back on the comments, I turned my back on my book, figuring I'd never be able to write anything that anyone liked.  Years later, my ex that had thought it was stupid, apologized and admitted he hadn't actually read it.  He was jealous I was writing instead of spending time with him.  Someone also snatched a poem I had written and sent it in to a magazine with my information.  The magazine sent me back a response and a bunch of paperwork to fill out, but they wanted to publish my poem!

I was happy, but I still couldn't get back in to the mindset of writing.  My brain was working hard to sabotage my muse, and it succeeded for the most part.  Then I had my wreck, realized that you shouldn't spend your life in misery, and the only way I would be happy was if I was writing.

And there you have it.  Why you should never ask a writer a question.  :)