I’m not a famous writer. I’m not well known. I go my own way as I see fit. There are a few things I’m “supposed to do” that I don’t do as a writer:
- Attend writer groups.
- Hang out with other writers.
- Talk about my writing. How boring is that?
- Get feedback. I’m not that interested in feedback. I just say I am to be polite.
- Read all types of “writing ideas” and tips on how to write, what to write, or how to come up with inspiration. I went down that road and it fucked me up.
- Outline and plan and plot the story. I just write the damn thing.
- I don’t follow the “rules of writing” (there aren’t any on my planet) because they are nonsense. They annoy the shit out of me.
- I don’t rewrite. I write and submit/publish my first draft. When I have tried to rewrite, the work never got done. I’ll scan it a few times, looking for typo’s or awkward sentences. That’s about it.
- Try to learn how to write. Not possible. You learn by doing it and figuring it out yourself.
I started to write this story based on a very simple and quick thing I saw in the news. It was the London riots back in 2011. I was online a lot at that time – Google Plus, which has since been ruined by Google – and this was all over my stream for days.
I wondered what I would do if that started to happen here in my city. I figured I’d get a gun and sit on the porch and wait. Then I thought if I would protect anyone and that’s how Lena popped into my head.
Guns scare me, but I’m much more prone to protect someone else, so I’d probably do that if riots started happening here.
I believe that all inspiration comes from within and that all fiction has some degree of truth in it. Could be my truth, or your truth, or some truth from a drunk trying to bum money out of me.
Somewhere out there, Lena and Eli exist in some form. I know this to be true. That’s my truth and that’s all I need. I saw the two of them, sitting on a porch with guns, drinking beer and waiting for the assholes to come down the street and cause trouble.
It was as clear in my mind as much as this monitor is in front of me. I let them tell me their story. I listened, struggled, and made it much more complicated than it ever needed to be.
Once I knocked off my nonsense, I got to work and finished the story that I had started years before.
That’s my new thing – finishing what I started and getting it out there and hope for the best.
To me, this story is about two women who had nothing in common, each with their own demons, who somehow found a way to tame them together.
The story of two women who can’t be more dissimilar and yet form a friendship that defies all the odds until the day death drove them apart.
I capped it out at 15,000 words, but it could easily be longer. Maybe I’ll do that someday.
But for now, I want people to read it and take something from it. I write for me, first, and then for anyone who wants to read it. I write the stories I want to read and put it out into the cosmic universe and go onto the next one.
I hope you’ll check it out and never give me your feedback. Seriously. Unless you like it. You can tell me that.
Here’s the link for my site. $2.00 a month is all. Skip a cup of coffee this month and toss it over to me. You’ll not regret it.
idisagreecompletely 