Thursday, June 29, 2017

Just Creative or Am I Schitzophrenic? #MFRW Authors #26

I've had a love of stories since I can remember.  I loved being read to, and was thrilled when I learned to read myself.  But somewhere about the 2nd or 3rd grade, something interesting happened:  I'd read a book or watch a movie, and would continue the story line with my Barbies or want to act it out.

Which, you might think is brilliant.  BUT....I didn't know how to communicate the ideas in my head, and would get mad at whoever was playing with me for going 'off script', which was weird, since there was NO SCRIPT!  (For more on this, go here)

When the concept of Creative Writing was introduced to me in the 5th grade, I was THRILLED!  Finally, all those story lines and characters in my head could be written down on paper!!

From the 5th grade through HS, I wrote fairy tales, essays, my own ending to Star Wars, poetry....anything that popped into my head during English class assignments, or even if they popped into my head after school.  Then I hit college.

In Jr high and in HS, I'd devoured the teen romance books, and even branched into Harlequin and the few romance books and adult fiction that my mom let me read.  But there was no dedicated series for college, unless you count the 50's series by Anne Emery and even a few by Rosamund Du Jardin which, by the 80's, was a bit outdated.  My prom dresses had puffy sleeves and looked like ball gowns, not layers of tulle!  Sleeveless?  Shudder...I didn't have enough 'on top' to hold it up!  But I digress.....

After going on a blind date, I decided to write the book I wanted to read.....and my alter ego's Arbor University series was born.  I was 'born' Feb 20, 2008, when more adult situations were being written by our collective brain, and the 12 year olds where reading AU didn't need exposed to more adult situations.

So back to Why I Write....I just gave you the long answer.  The short answer is, my head would explode if I didn't get these characters out of my head!  Yeah, if an outsider eavesdropped on a group of writers talking about their characters, he/she would wonder why these people aren't on medication or in a padded cell.

Truth is, the stories we write keep us out of that padded cell!

If you want to see why other authors do the things they do, click here:)

11 comments:

Meka James said...

Yes those voices can get very loud and very demanding at times. They want to be heard, and they want to be heard now they don't care about your time. Giving them an outlet helps everyone involved.

Cathy Brockman said...

lol I said the same thing. I would go crazy if I cannot get the voices out of my head!

Linda McLaughlin said...

That's a great answer, Kenzie. Those voices can be pretty insistent. Sometimes I think the only difference between schizophrenics and writers is we know the voices in our head aren't real.

Helen Henderson said...

I was going to do the schick about voices being real by someone beat me to it. Like you I heard voices and wanted to tell the stories, but school and their version of creative writing chased the voices away and made me hate writing. Thank goodness I've rediscovered the love. The characters got tired of me telling them to sit down and be quiet. :)

Anonymous said...

Yep, yep. The tongue-in-cheek title of my post was "Because writers are crazy". I even end the post by going back to my office with soft (i.e. padded) walls. In truth, most writers aren't crazy but they are, perhaps, a little odd, myself included. Other people daydream. We daydream out loud.

Alina K. Field said...

Ed said it well--we daydream out loud.

I have a close family member who IS schizophrenic, so I never mix up what I do with mental illness. We're odd, but not crazy!

Unknown said...

Love how you used to have your Barbies continue your stories. My sister and I used to do that, too!

Maureen said...

Can't agree more- I go a little crazy when I'm not writing. Great post!

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