Once Upon a Time: True Stories of an Aspiring Writer

Prologue

I'm sitting in creative writing class in college—the last of several writing classes I'll take here. This one is seminar style. The goal for each piece is to have read it coming in, and then we'd give that writer feedback while they said nothing, simply sitting there and absorbing the new ideas.

It's an unusually cold April day, and cloudy. The lights are bright on my eyeballs, but it also helps me focus on the writing in front of me, as we all are doing in our little circle.

Today it's my turn to be critiqued. I've just gone out of my comfort zone and written something that it a little different. It has elements of a thriller and there is a crazy plot twist: one character doesn't exist. 

There is silence, but then one older fellow speaks up. He compliments me on my grammar. Yeah, grammar. Apparently nobody has anything nice to say about the actual prose.

Well, some do. When I get the copies back, some people have some harsh words. And people wonder why I wasn't a big class participator!

I fight back tears. What is the problem with me? Everyone else had some nice positive words for their pieces—words that are on craft, not grammar. But for me, either people were too embarrassed to compliment it (I did have some "nice story" comments written on the physical copies) or didn't want to. Likewise, I was one of the few people who didn't participate in our discussions before class started and nobody seemed to notice or care.

And it wasn't like I didn't struggle with people throughout...well, some of my life. I guess that's just what we writers are like sometimes.

So I reminded myself of all the other accomplishments and others yet to come. Getting a poem published in the literary magazine that I wrote in a class I shared with my love interest at the time. Getting "favorited" on my Calvin and Hobbes fan fiction (and told I made readers cry!) and getting even more follows on my sequel fan fiction piece. Being told that my papers were the best in the class on some occasions.

A writer's hobby is never easy.

But I'd liked doing it forever.

*********

People always said that because I was an English major, I would write the next great American novel. It was a tremendous amount of pressure, really, assuming that you're going to write this great book because you're an English major. What route should I take? Should I make a simple story that's meant to be analyzed, like Hemingway? Should I write a period romance with fancy words, like Austen? Or should I write a book about teen vampires because that's what seems to sell nowadays? Oh, wait, that's kids with cancer now. Sorry.

Another issue was motivation. I started writing in first grade and never finished anything. I would get bored, quit, and work on something else. I recently threw away piles and piles of journals with 3-page stories that were never continued. I had pages of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, Furbies, teen love tragedies, and more all to be destined for the computer recycling bin and never to become anything important. 

Even the short story can be a daunting task. My freshman year of college, I was determined to get that story idea down about that Hispanic girl who gets invited to a party and sees how she is disadvantaged and stereotyped. Again, bored (and thoroughly revised, after realizing how problematic it was). But that's not to say I quit everything. The story about the girl who runs away from home and had a breakdown? Done. Unless you were hoping for the ending, anyway. The story about a girl who travels back in time and gets stuck in middle school? Done. Except I think there's a paragraph missing on page six... Ugh!

So I came up with the idea to write about my life. Not that anyone would care about it since I'm not a celebrity, but this is a story I might actually finish because it's fun to write. Everyone has their life story out nowadays. Again, mostly celebrities, but many people really. Writing about one's life is fast-paced and interesting and you don't have to invent plots. Plus, when you include parts of your own writing, some of the work is already done for you! High-fives to myself in elementary school for doing such good work.

This book is about my life and the things that have inspired my writing. I've also included some short pieces I've written. Hopefully by reading it, you can find inspiration in the little places too. Along the way, I hope you discover how one's life can translate into an ongoing story. Maybe it doesn't have a smooth beginning-and-end plot, but we are characters in the book of life, and the story never stops. I'm like the Seinfeld of writing---seemingly this is a book about nothing, but in actuality it's about where a creator gets their inspiration. In my case, though, it's not always comedy. Sometimes it's tragedy. Sometimes it's about things that I thought were tragic at the time but are actually comedy.

It's been a long process writing it. It's still not done at the time I write this. It started on an evening several years ago, when I decided to churn out the story of my popularity quest in high school. It's trying to remember details and going back to add them. And then there's the fact that I realize I keep coming back to middle school moments, even if the chapter takes place in college, and gazing at the screen in horror: Oh, no. I'm one of those people who peaked in middle school. Either way, it's been a fun passion project. 

This story isn't just about my life. It's about inspiration. It's even an exercise in storytelling in itself. Whatever you get out of it, I hope that you can find the inspiration to tell your own story.