I’ve been making up stories for as long as I can remember. I was never one to tell tall tales, but making up stories and creating something from what was available is a skill I’ve had almost as long as I’ve been alive.
I guess it started because I was a lonely kid in my kindergarten years. I went to a kindergarten where I was the only black kid, so I spent a lot of time with my imaginary friends, in our imaginary world, where we conquer civilizations, travel through time and space, have highly intellectual conversations with mugs earthen. tea (my imaginary friends were extremely intelligent) and generally a good time was had by all. Thus the first condition was established for the imagination to flourish; time and space to let it run free – one should not be afraid to spend time in one’s head, if one hopes to create something.
The fun thing I find about writers is that they tend to be experts at everything. I hope it is to have the wide imagination to be able to absorb any subject and do it well. Diana Gabaldon has a bachelor’s degree in zoology, a master’s degree in marine biology, and a doctorate in ecology*. She writes about… well, it’s hard to put what she writes into one box. Maria Doria Russell has a BA in Cultural Anthropology, an MA in Social Anthropology, and a Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology*. She has written two books about a Jesuit and his companions who discover a new world. JK Rowling studied French at university and worked in various capacities, including as an English teacher.
Writing takes years to do well. Your head has to be in the right place for the words to flow, and sometimes, after years of putting your heart and soul on paper (or a Word document, as the case may be), no one wants to read it! ! Self-confidence is crucial if one wants to be successful in any writing endeavor. If you don’t believe in your work, believe me, no one else will.
Sometimes you can open a new Word document, save it as ‘whatever the name of the story’, and it stays blank like that for a long time. happens, don’t let that put you off. what you have to do is start. after all, if it’s not perfect, that’s what ‘edit’ was invented for.
*Obtained from the writers’ autobiographies in the back of their books.
