The First Story
I remember when I was about eight years old, playing with my best friends Carolene and Rainey, how Carolene and I effortlessly gave voices to our toys. Without having to think about it, we created a story between one another through dialogue, dancing our toy horses around each other as they spoke. Rainey moved her horses around rather listlessly, not adding any dialogue, and being the excitable eight-year-olds that we were, Carolene and I did not notice when she quietly slipped away.
I've been told the following snippet throughout my life, and told it myself. While it describes Rainey’s difficulty with imaginative play, it also perfectly describes my ease with it: Rainey reportedly went to our parents in the other room, who asked why she wasn't playing with us. Her answer: “I just don't hear the voices in my head like they do!”
The voices in my head… That's a perfectly apt description of my imagination, and therefore a perfect description of how my writing first came to be, as well! From the time I was born, my dad told me stories, stories about Barney the Barn Mouse and his adventures; stories about the dreamkeepers that he invented, the Muffet Tuffets; and so many more! While my imagination was my own, the inspiration for my first story and many stories thereafter came from my dad.
It's a sad thing, but since I was only four years old when I “published” (at least for my family) my first book, I remember very few details. It was definitely about the Muffet Tuffets, a chubby, nature-dwelling, fairy-like people who protected children by driving away nightmares and replacing them with good dreams. I know that my dad wrote my story for me in blue crayon on each sheet of crisp, white printer paper, and I know I supplied the illustrations. I am sure they were amazing, seeing how young I was…perhaps!
But while I may not remember the exact details, I do remember the thrill of creation! I remember hearing the little voices in my head of the Muffet Tuffets’ and how they spoke to me so clearly. Since then, my characters have always spoken to me. Even the omniscient narrator, nameless and unformed, speaks to me! Really, stories speak to me. They always have. They tell me what they want to get across to the world, how they should be told, by whom, in what mystical magical land, and so much more.
They may not all be written down, and likely all of them never will be (there are too many!), but enough of them will make it onto the page to fill my soul with the act of creation. Imagination, creation, it's one of the most human things we can do. For me, it's one of the things that makes me the happiest I can be. And I always want to share that happiness with the world. That's the plan, anyway!
I hope you have enjoyed reading this and learning a little bit more about me, my writing, and my writing process. I hope this moves you to write your own stories, create your own things, whatever they may be. And don't be afraid to share them, even if just with your family. Creating is for sharing. Storytelling is forever. I know I'll be telling them, forever. All I have to do is listen to the voices in my head.
Until our next story,
