Welcome to the journey

When I was growing up there was always two words, usually uttered with some measure of hesitation by teachers, that grabbed my unfaltering, enthused attention. Those words were 'creative writing'. For me, creating a story and fleshing it out as words on a page was almost therapeutic. Time would literally have no meaning. This is still very much the case today, though I have to be much more careful to check the clock every now and again. Something tells me my boss would not be too impressed by "Sorry I'm four hours late, I got writing again!"

The first time I got told, with some measure of jest at the age of nine I'm sure, that I should write something to be published was after handing in the Year 4 creative writing project "The Day the Sun stopping shining". Although I would not truly appreciate it until years later, the excitement and pride of someone telling me how much they enjoyed my writing left an impression.

Even now, one person reading my work and telling me how much they enjoyed it is enough to make my day.

You know, one day I think I'll revisit "Sun stopped shining"...

So, sideshow thoughts aside, where does that leave me today?

Motivated. I have successfully completed my first novel called SWANSONG: THE FALLEN and have started work on the second book in the SWANSONG series called THE TAKEN.

So the process has begun on trying to garner some attention from Literary Agents - but that is an arduous process which will be covered in a subsequent post. (Otherwise I'll have nothing to write about here!)

Instead we'll stick to the topic of what I've done and am doing. I've taken the time to think up some questions and answers about the SWANSONG series and writing in general, hopefully it'll give you all a bit of insight into what makes my writing brain tick.

What started SWANSONG?

Originally titled THE FALLEN (Just that, the SWANSONG bit didn't come along until much later), it was originally supposed to be a straight-up alien invasion story where the aliens actually won, for once. No silly computer viruses will save the earth this time, mwhahaha!

It started to become a series after I found myself unable to kill off children whilst writing. This is all thanks to my wife, Lily, who hates seeing young ones come to harm in any form of fiction. So in the interest of safeguarding the next generation I came up with the idea that the aliens literally 'beamed' the world's children off the planet before their attack commenced.

And a light bulb flicked on in my head. Ideas for a follow-on story started to form, the supernatural behind-the-scenes conflict between the characters Black Suit and Weeping Girl gathered momentum and depth and the aliens themselves started gaining character and richness.

Titular change followed and the SWANSONG series was born!

Inspiration

...is a fickle mistress. Seriously.

There will be days where I will literally draw a blank. Sometimes I'll go for a walk and ideas will form with the speed and ferocity of an F-5 tornado tearing through a cornfield. Usually my best ideas come during some form of travel, when I'm at rest and find myself thinking and creating to pass the time.

Frequency

I will write whenever I can. If the itch starts then I will pick up a pen, find some paper and scribble. The way I see it is, even if I'm away from my trusty laptop, I can always write down what is in my head and type it up in a polished form when I get home.

I'm certain this level of near-compulsive frequency is the source of annoyance to some people who work with me, simply because the writing can come on in between calls at work and I zone out completely when that happens. Sorry guys!

So that is a few basics of how writing works for me. Is yours anything like this? What works for you? Feel free to comment below!