Have you ever thought about writing?
Writing comes in many forms. Letter writing, for example, was marvellous. Unfortunately it’s gone out of style with the advent of email. Which is a shame because I loved getting a letter from a friend, and treasure my cache of letters from years ago.
Journalling is another form. So good for downloading your brain when it’s on full spin!
I wrote for pleasure before I decided to have a go at being a writer. Some of my friends may remember my club newsletters and my sporting tour books. Others may remember silly news articles I wrote about funny occurrences. It was exciting when my Letters to the Editor were published. And my emails to politicians are works of art!
But writing stories is a little different.
There’s the story and then there’s the telling of the story.
What I mean by this is that you firstly need a story worth telling, and then you have to tell it in a way that keeps the reader engaged. Perhaps it’s a pace, or a mood, or an angle. Perhaps it’s the style of language, or the way the story is set out.
Short stories are where I started out. They’re a good way to try out different ways of telling stories. Have fun with it! I once wrote a story between two characters using plain and italics to denote their different points of view without using any words outside of their internal and external dialogue, and I wrote another in real time without any he said, she said. In this way I land the reader in the middle of the scene rather as an observer.
Writing my first compendium of short stories took a year. Writing The Feminist EarthMother PartyGirl took five months. In between there were all sorts of misadventures – books started and not finished because they ran out of steam, a novel that got out of hand and went way too long, too many ideas and too little time to see them to fruition.
But the journey is a wonderful one, no matter the outcome. You can have a go, too. It’s fun! As the old saying goes, write like nobody’s reading!
Joni Page 