'song and writing

[shadesong]

I started writing as therapy in fifth grade; I submitted something for the first time in late November 2007.

Yeah, there's a big gap there. :)

When I was but a wee traumatized thing, writing wasn't "what I want to do when I grew" up - that came later. (I was going to be a ballerina, dammit.) At first,it was something I had to do do get my therapist off my back. I wouldn't talk to her - so she made me write. Oh, about anything. So I wrote about spaceships piloted through black holes by telepaths, wrote horror stories about girls with the names of flowers, postapocalyptic dystopias and fucked-up fairytales. And yes,I still have all of this. And yes,it all sucks. I was a kid, okay?

I started to write Shayara after a suicide attempt when I was 16. I was in the ICU, and they would allow me nothing but a legal pad and pen. No TV, no books. Pad and pen.

I continued it for years...

Then the rape. Then seven years of post-traumatic writers' block.

And then I was jolted out of the block by the possibility of writing Shayara as a comic - and chased that dream for another six years, with an artist who was ultimately just not committed to it. I have a few nice character portraits out of that partnership, and an eight-page story that appeared in Shooting Star Comics Anthology #6. And...I'd been waiting around for six years, just idly tossing out scenes to entertain the LJ audience.

Losing my artist threw me for a loop. I had to completely change the way I approached my story. You can't come to grips with that in a weekend, dude. So to get myself out of the "I'm writing a comic. No, really I am!" mindset, I decided to write a piece of short fiction every day of November, based on reader prompts.

Well.

That worked. :)

So, rather than being a writer waiting for an artist, as I was for years, I am a writer rediscovering myself. New worlds almost daily.

Someone asked in response to a Wind Tunnel Dreams post why I haven't Been Published. Well, it's because I just started trying. Can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket! That first thing I submitted was accepted, and will be published by Electric Velocipede in November. I'm submitting more stuff. I am no longer waiting.

Comments

[thisdaydreamer.livejournal.com]

This blog isn't being published?

Many self-published authors have failed to reach such an audience. Hell, I think most of them only dream of so many reader!

You have done very well, and will do far better in the future! Trust me, I have seen what self-publishing usually leads to. Eep. Have I told you about the book starring Christian White and Daemon Negrano? Subtle, no?

The Advance Reader Copy (free book) never found a home among my bookseller co-workers.

[themaskmaker.livejournal.com]

I am no longer waiting.

This is my battle cry for 2008, too.

[wyyknot.livejournal.com]

You'll do it. You have the dreams, you have the words to make them come alive on paper. You will be successful! November's piece is just the first of many.

Three cheers for 'Song!