My History as a Writer (2/3)

(Continued from last week)

Later, I wrote a story called "Glass Ducks."  It was my first attempt at writing horror, and it was a hit.  I can't remember everyone who I read the story to, but I remember my younger sister asking me to read the story on several different occasions.  I also remember holding the attention of two of my cousins.  Causing energetic kids (some around my own age) to settle down and pay attention to written words - my written words - was an amazing feeling.  The story, appropriately titled, was about the decorative glass ducks my grandmother kept.  The ducks were in the same room as the computer, and I remember them being present while I was reading the story.  In the story the glass ducks started moving and attacking people.  Although alive and moving, the ducks were still glass, so the main characters were able to break them.  It was a simple story, but was imaginative and contained enough suspense and action to entertain my age group.

It didn't occur to me until my mid-teens that I might be able to write a full-length novel.  My first few attempts were tragic, ending in the deletion of thousands upon thousands of words.  I didn't understand structure.  I wanted to start out with a character, put him somewhere with a bunch of other characters, and then I would try to come up with stuff for them to do as I wrote.  What was missing??  The plot.  More specific than a missing plot, I didn't even have an idea for a story; I just wanted to write.  But that wasn't entirely true... I had ideas.  I just didn't know how to get to them.  My best first attempt at writing a full-length story with a plot was soon to come (and soon to be erased when I knew it still wasn't quite right).

The plot went a little like this:  A boy would wake up with no memory of who he was.  Throughout the story he would come to learn he was created through genetic testing to be the first of his kind.  The boy's name was Adam (a shameless reference to a biblical situation).  Not too bad in my opinion, but with some help from friends and online communities I was able to see how the actual story progression was flawed.  It dragged out too long, didn't contain the necessary motivation-reaction storytelling elements, and readers could tell I was making the story up as I went along.  Multiple thousands of words, probably over 10,000, were erased on a whim, and I don't regret it.  It's true, I could have saved the story, but it would have required a major overhaul and I really wasn't in the mood to save the story... and didn't have that kind of patience at the time.

(Next week I'll enter into more modern times [if a decade ago can be considered current], starting with my newfound interest in writing non-fiction articles during college, and ending with a discussion about my current work, both fiction and non-fiction.)