Writing

It’s not that easy to write twins. It sounds like an interesting element to add to a story: two characters who look alike can produce a lot of conflict. It would be easy to mix them up and misunderstandings would ensue. The problem comes when there are no differences between the twins.

When I was first writing, I was a young, naive sixteen-year-old. I thought all my writing was perfect. When I was eighteen, I found a writing group, who kindly explained my writer shortcomings. In those two years, I wrote a story called The Dragon Tamer. I had twin main characters named Suzie and Emily. The story and the two lead characters were boring. It was a generic fantasy adventure, with no differences between the twins. When I wrote dialogue, it didn’t matter which character I assigned it to, because they were interchangeable.

Eventually, I abandoned the story and started work on Silver Rose, with Penelope as my main character. She’s Suzie and Emily combined into one character, with the added bonus of an actual personality. I learned the hard way that I can’t just add twins for the sake of having twins. They need to have a purpose.

I’m nearing the end of Silver Crescent. There are twin characters in this book, but I know I’ve handled them much better than my disastrous first attempt. Fiona and Rowena have distinct, separate personalities. Rowena is a constant presence throughout the story, while Fiona serves her purpose in a couple of chapters, before she disappears again. I keep them apart, so they can shine on their own. They may be sisters, but they don’t need each other to be their own character.

Every time I tell people I’m an author, I always get the same reaction. “You’re an author? What is your book about?” they say in surprise, almost disbelief. I patiently explain that yes, I am a writer and that my book is a fantasy adventure. Then, a lot of people say, “Oh, well. I’ve always wanted to write a book, too. Maybe I could write something and show it to you?”

The phenomenon of writing is an interesting one. From what I’ve seen, everyone I talk to wants to be a writer, but only a small fraction actually do it. Why is that? Well, first off, I think I catch people off guard when I mention my book. I’ve always looked young for my age, so people can’t believe someone as young as me wrote a book. Second, they’re trying to make conversation. They want to relate to me, so they tell me they want to write as well.

Third, and most importantly, many people are afraid of creative writing. You have to have a thick skin when you write. I’ve had countless people tell me that they don’t like my stories and that’s okay. I can’t please everyone. If someone doesn’t like fantasy, there’s not much I can do about it. I have to write what I like and appeal to a like-minded audience. Not everyone can handle that, though. They want validation and for everyone to say how great they are, but they’re too afraid to try. You could have the best story idea ever, but if you don’t implement it properly, then the results could be lackluster. They don’t want to take the risk that the perfect story in their heads turns out to be less than perfect on the page. The fact that I’m willing to take that risk everyday impresses them and they ask me to read their work, thinking that I’ll be gentle on them. Nobody has ever shown me their work, by the way.

So, what can people do if they want to write, but are too afraid? Simple. Admit that there is no sure thing as perfect writing. There are things I don’t like even in my favorite books. I just skip those scenes and move on. In other books, I like one scene, but dislike everything else about it. You can’t please everyone. The only person you can please is yourself. My advice to anyone who wants to be an author is to just write. My early drafts were all awful. I look back sometimes and cringe at how bad they are. But I kept going. I honed my craft. The only way to become a better writer is to write.

Maybe the phenomenon of writing isn’t as strange as I thought. We all have ideas bubbling inside of us. For some, the easier way to express those ideas is by writing. We just have to be brave enough to take the plunge and start. Who knows what books are waiting to be written, if only you’ll give yourself the chance.

I wrote this story for my coworker’s son as a third birthday present. The little boy loves dinosaurs. Enjoy!

Terry T. Rex had a problem. His friends would be over soon and he had nothing to give them! All the cookies he had made earlier that afternoon had vanished into thin air!

Terry paced, swinging his large tail back and forth. His little brother, Tyson T. Rex, leapt onto his tail, hugging it to himself.

“Tyson, get off!” Terry said, trying to shake him off.

“No! Wanna play,” Tyson said, hugging Terry’s tail even tighter.

Sighing, Terry pushed him away and went back to his dilemma: who had taken his cookies and how could he get them back.

“Terry,” Tyson said, tugging on his brother’s claw. “Found something. Come see!”

Ignoring Tyson, Terry headed to his room and pulled out a detective hat, placing it proudly on his head. There! Now he was a true detective.

Returning to the kitchen, Terry found it empty.

Good, he thought. Tyson’s not here to bother me.

Pulling out an oversized magnifying glass, Terry began to search for clues.

Aha! Crumbs! And right where he left the plate of cookies. Terry followed the trail of crumbs outside, right to a large fern. It was shaking slightly.

Someone must be behind it!

Terry pushed away the plant, shouting triumphantly, “I got you now, cookie thief!”

Tyson looked up delightedly. “Brother!” he shouted and attached himself to Terry’s tail again.

As Terry wobbled, trying to keep his balance, he spotted the cookie plate. There were only crumbs left.

“Tyson! I made those for my friends!”

Tyson’s head drooped and he pulled out a single, uneaten cookie. “Found them on the table. I didn’t know they were yours. I just wanted to share.”

Terry took the cookie. “You wanted to share with me?” He paused. “Hey, Tyson, how would you like to help me make more cookies for my friends? Then, they can be from both of us.”

Tyson looked up excitedly and nodded.

“Come on, then.”

Terry took Tyson’s claw and together, they walked back into the house, ready to do the brotherly thing and get covered in flour.

I’ve been working on the sequel to Silver Rose for a while now. I’m currently on my fourth draft. My writing has been going well and I’ve been making rapid progress through this edit. Once I finish this draft, I’m going to print the new version and read through it again. With any luck, I’ll be finished after the fifth draft. Then, I can publish my book and get Silver Crescent out into the world. Thank you to everyone for your patience.

In honor of Leap Day, I’d like to tell you about my mom’s friend, who was born on February 29th. Sadly, the friend died quite a few years ago, but my mom says she absolutely loved her birthday. I think she was in her eighties when she died, but she got a kick out of telling people that she was only twenty-years-old. Since February 29th only comes around once every four years, I think it would be a hard birthday to have. I love the friend’s sense of humor when it came to her unique birthday. Happy Birthday to all those born on Leap Day!

A few days after Christmas, my brother bought a cat tree for our cats, Jenny and Cannoli. He’d been talking about getting one for a while and we were all curious over how the two cats would react to it. We’ve had it for about a month and Jenny and Cannoli love it. I’ve seen Jenny spend hours on it. I’m glad she’s so happy!

There’s a little cubby and a couple of platforms. Jenny has been known to sleep for hours in either the cubby or the top platform. Cannoli loves the scratching post feature right below that platform. Cannoli sometimes disturbs Jenny by clawing at the scratching post, while Jenny is sleeping above him.

The best part of the cat tree, though, is the toy mouse. There’s a toy mouse on an elastic string attached to the cat tree. They’ve both spent hours attacking that mouse. They keep trying to pick it up in their mouths and run off with it. They get confused when they pull too hard and the elastic string pulls the mouse back.

It’s fun to watch Jenny and Cannoli’s antics with the cat tree. My brother definitely had a good idea when he bought it.