My writing story

A few years ago, I was in a tough place. Dead end job at a company that seemed bent on destroying my very essence, piece by piece. I’ve always escaped into fiction and suddenly, I began to see inspiration everywhere. How I could rewrite a situation, reshape the events, effect a different outcome.

I began texting these ideas to my sister. One fateful day, my text to her had a typo, ‘mew story idea.’ Her immediate response ‘coke kitties.’ You see, the movie Cocaine Bear had just been released. Her quick humor and use of a current affairs theme made me laugh.

Suddenly, an entire short story popped into my head. I told her as much, she asked a question, and I felt compelled to write it. Over the next few days, during my free time, I wrote in a frenzy. I didn’t bother with proper punctuation or spelling. I even skipped writing a few short scenes, merely inserting a placeholder. (Insert x scene here.) I just had to get the bulk of the story captured.

It was probably one of silliest things I had ever written. But I had to share it with my sister. I even told a work friend about the text exchange that kicked it all off. She wanted to read my story too. They both braved all of the shortcomings.

Since I’d never imagined anything would come of the story, I hadn’t bothered to correct anything. They loved it anyway. They even encouraged me to take the story further, write what happened next. My lack of confidence in myself caused me to discard the notion.

Surely they were just stroking my ego, trying to give me hope when my life seemed hopeless. But the next night, I woke from a dead sleep, a new story swirling through my brain. It was midnight and I had work the next day. I tried to go back to sleep but my brain wouldn’t allow it.

If I didn’t capture the words and images swirling around me, I would’t be allowed to sleep. So I grabbed my phone and opened the notes app. That’s where I used to capture all my ideas and do all my writing.

I wrote for three hours that night. Slighty less of a frenzy, more attention to structure and form. Until I completed the scene. I didn’t have a title yet so I just called it ‘Midnight Story,’ because that was when I had begun.

That scene quickly grew into my first full length novel. Every few chapters, I would send out an update to my sister and work friend. I dubbed them the early reader’s club. From there, I just kept writing. Collecting story ideas of things I wanted to write next. I expanded the early readers club.

My sister, with a financial assist from my parents, got me a tablet to make writing easier and faster, a significant upgrade from the notes app on my phone. She loaded it with apps that she hoped would fan the spark that was growing inside me into a raging fire. With the release of my newest novel, Payne’s Promise, I’d like to think she succeeded.