Fiction

One of the funniest things that sometimes happens when people realize you can write is there are those people who want to tell you what you should write about. Usually it has to do with something they are interested in, generally not even fiction related. They are willing to tell you all about it to fill in the gaps.

On the other hand there is another reaction. Since many people can put pen to paper and form a coherent sentences, they don’t see why it’s a big deal, and wonder why you haven’t written more, faster, and about a better subject. Then the questions start coming about making money selling books.

The last reaction is the one where they look at you as if you have lost your mind. You write about fairytales? Not even for kids, but for adults? Who would read something like that? They think I waste my talent.

A writer has to write the stories in their head. They can’t shove it aside to write something else. It isn’t a ball you can bounce out of the way. I always have stories building, shifting, changing in my thoughts. Getting a story out and on paper is a fabulous project, cleansing, freeing, cathartic. It is essential and indulgent and it requires the writer to be selfish and self focused. Fiction is all about weaving threads together according to a preset rule book and very different from nonfiction.