Since taking the written word, structuring it into a story is something I enjoy doing, I put together this page on my blog primarily to explain the thoughts that drive my writing passion. My other intent is to publish some of my work and to wrap some explanations around each piece.
It’s also where I can focus on the process & possibly post some ideas I plan to pursue. At this point, I’m not sure where this page will go, but for now, it’s a work in progress and may not have any definite structure.
Focus: Looking at what interests me, my writing tends to fall on what I like to read as well as subjects I find myself interested.
Primarily I like fiction. Never been much of a history buff or non-fiction reader outside the education process. There are some biographies I’ve perused, but for some reason most non-fiction just doesn’t interest me. Simply put, it just don’t expand my mind in an imaginative way forcing me to paint a picture in my minds eye of what I’m reading. I view most non-fiction simply for informational purposes like how-to and educational research, which is my only non-fiction reading at the moment.
So, I prefer fiction, plain and simple. I believe that the majority of human readers prefer this category since it expands the mind beyond what may be true, gives you freedom and lets the mind wonder. I have been told I have a very active imagination as well as being a “story” teller. I’ve never been accused of being an out right “liar”, but I tend to “embellish” stories when retelling something that I’ve been involved or a story I’ve heard. I believe my intent is to make the telling entertaining and more interesting versus how boring it might actually have been.
My writing career hasn’t actually been a “career” per se versus something I’ve just always been interested. Most writing I’ve been involved in the past many years has been technical in nature. Unfortunately, necessity has dictated my life path and paying the bills is paramount to survival. Being in the software engineering field, I’ve had to write a lot of technical documents, exciting stuff. There’s nothing wrong with this, however, my real passion has always been writing stories and fiction.
On that point, I’ve written many things through the years. Most of it has been lost or not preserved since a lot of it was done as more of a release, the — “Get this idea out of my head.”– Has been the driving force in some cases, but the idea or story start was never developed beyond the initial dump.
Recently I’ve found that the idea of putting words into stories, working with the structure and developing the ideas that bounce around in my head is very appealing. I’ve actually started committing ideas to paper (digital that is) and am thinking about publishing some of the better ones, or at least the ones that elicit a positive critique.
Genres: There are so many genre’s of the written word that it’s nearly impossible to put them all here with comments. However, there are a few specific areas I’m interested that others may agree or not, I’m not offended regardless.
- Mystery - I’ve always loved a good mystery. This category covers so many types & kinds, but basically I love to read about a crime, potential crime or some other wrong doing, then flow through the characters and scenes to discover how the problem was solved and why did these characters make these decisions. When I read, I’m a “thinking” reader. But it also depends on my mood.
- Thriller – similar to a mystery, only a little more action packed and/or not necessarily crime related. So, it’s hard to outline exactly what this means to me.
- Action – This is my own category name. Like movies, it’s not designed to be anything more than full of action. I’d put Clancy and other “spy” stuff in this category.
- Science Fiction – Being into technology, computers and lover of future space movies, these just fit. However, I’m very specific in what I like. I’m not a “hard-SF” lover. Meaning, I prefer timeless stuff like Asimovs Foundation trilogy. Some hard SF is interesting, but reading about gears and widgets doesn’t really interest me. Futurism and what could be along with how people (Characters) have evolved is much more interesting.
- Horror – I’m not actually a big horror person. I enjoy the occasional zombie movie and I do very much enjoy Stephen King, but to just buy a gross out horror book isn’t something I seek out, nor like to write about. I may explore it more at some future time frame. You’d think with the “Halloween” slant that hovers around my life, you’d think this would be more of an interest, but surprisingly, it’s not.
Thoughts on some more specific themes I like to think about and explore. Most of the writing I work through has one or a mixture of these ideas.
- Ordinary people getting caught in extra-ordinary situations. I like to explore the thoughts and actions that drive to their decisions. Decisions drive life and when faced with making one that is serious, like life or death, kill or be killed or any other out of comfort action that they’d normally doesn’t have to deal with just facinates me. I don’t believe people in general give the idea of actually haveing to do perform an act outside of their norm is given much thought. My intent is for readers of anything I put together to explore this side of they phsyique.
- Murderous mind. Every single human being has the ability to take another life. What kind of things make one snap over someone else? I think the exploration of such mind games is interesting.
- Survival is one of the strongest pulls any being can have. In all honesty, no one wants to die or leave this life prematurely. Our will to survive is strong and in daily life, it’s given little thought on a conscience level. Subconsciencely we make tiny decisions in our activity that keep this at bay, but to be faced with a situation that causes one to face their mortality and how they deal with wanting to live is powerful.
- Morality conflicts and or what shapes our mind? There are lots of philosophies on what shapes the moral fabric of a human being. I think there are many forces on this front and it’s how a being reacts to impending situations that either strengthens or weakens our moral resolve.
These are just a few of the over all themes, questions and thoughts that bounce around in my head. So, if you ever read something I’ve committed to a “story” you may see where I’m coming from.
In exploring these areas, I usually start with a small short story that can be something that stands alone or is the beginning of a longer story possibly leading into a novel.
Shane
