Some years ago, I got married. Like most newlyweds, I was happy for that first year. But then child number one came along. I don’t know if this is the same for every father, but it was a big moment for me.
Suddenly, I realized that I was responsible for raising a family. My wife and I decided that we wanted to give our children the best possible upbringing that we could, so she decided to stay at home to raise our kids instead of trusting that job to someone else. This isn’t for everyone, I understand, but it was what we wanted for our family.
All of a sudden, my little salary and our 700 square foot condo on the top of an old, ghetto complex, seemed very small. Since we saw the police more than we saw the mailman, we knew that we didn’t want to raise our kids there long term.
It was about this time that I felt an overwhelming need to up our living standards. I was already working ten hour days doing construction. Any more side jobs would take me out of the house when I needed to spend quality time with my family.
I remembered a conversation I once had with an English college professor. After awing my class with a story, she told me to publish the short. I never did. Good thing too. I revisited that story a couple years ago, only to find out how much I needed to bury it. But the conversation still lingered in my mind. I always enjoyed writing, for as long as I can remember. I just never thought it a practical path to money.
So I brainstormed with my wife over a good story, then sat down at my laptop to type. In all honesty, this wasn’t my first attempt. Before I’d met my wife, I’d halfheartedly attempted the feat. But now I had motivation. It was rough and go for the first three years. I hadn’t developed a routine. But I kept at it.
Then a funny thing happened. I fell in love with writing. I got to the point, where I actually felt like I was a writer. Somewhere around year two, I developed a routine that has guided my writing discipline. Every morning now, for about an hour before I start work at my real job, I write my stories. I love this time of day. Most people I know are still sleeping and nobody is in my office. It is my time.
I can’t really describe why writing is so important to me. As I’ve stated, I started doing it to create another revenue stream. So far, I’ve spent more time and money pursuing my writing than it has generated for me. But there’s something about telling stories and honing an age-old craft that fascinates me. I’m constantly reading and trying to find better ways to tell my stories. The more I learn, the more I want to apply those principles.
I do have another motivation, but I’d still keep writing even without it. I plan to start an independent movie studio someday. To do that, I’d either need to buy other peoples’ stories, or I’d need to have a few of my own to draw from. I’d rather make my own.
The best part about writing is perhaps that I’m allowed to daydream. As a kid, that was always getting me in trouble. My head was always in the clouds. Now I can make those imaginations real. If done right, I can give other’s a sense of wonder and adventure. I can even build a world so completely foreign to this world, and make it more real than this world. Writing does good for others, even fiction. It helps people escape some of their dull-drums and find excitement. They’re able to place themselves in someone else’s shoes. They can receive the same excitements and anxieties, then recover from those traumas from the safety of their sofa, living out some other character’s adventure. The stories can teach, or they can just offer a diversion. But I know of few other things in this world that are a more powerful tonic for the human condition than stories.
I am proud to be a writer, but more importantly, I want to be known as a quality storyteller. Stories, both fiction and true, whether handed down from family or from strangers, has helped shape my life. They are the core of what shapes all of our lives. We are all story tellers. I just like the idea of putting mine on paper to share with a larger audience. I hope you enjoy my stories. As I continue to pursue my craft, I hope you follow my writings and have patience with my earlier works that may not be crafted as well.
Most importantly, I thank you for giving me a chance to inspire a sense of wonder in your idle time.