The Joys of Writing Fiction

A desire to write is burning deep within you. Your muse, or subconscious mind keeps imagining crazy things every time you turn around. When you see a woman walking her dog, crazy thoughts go through your head. You imagine she is a Soviet spy trained to pose as a citizen and steal government secrets. Or you imagine that she has escaped from Zoru, a prison planet, and made it here to hide out.

Or maybe you dream up wild adventures right in your own hometown. Shadow creatures move in and aim to take over. A portal to another world opens up on Main Street You discover that your spouse has been taken over by an alien from another world. Your mailman delivers a letter pleading for help from a long lost friend that you haven’t seen or heard from in twenty years. Do you help?

That is your muse or subconscious mind talking to you. She (or he) has a tendency to go wild with ideas. It is up to you to write them down and build on them.

Writing fiction takes you to other cities, states, countries, or worlds. They can be real or they can come from your imagination. You can go on journeys to places you’ve always wanted to visit and have your characters do things that you’ve only dreamed of doing.

When you write your ideas out for the first time, just sit and write whatever comes out. Don’t go back and edit. This is when some of your best ideas emerge and you don’t want to erase them because the punctuation or grammar is wrong, or just because it seems sloppy. Editing comes later.

The planning part is anything but boring. Not only do you plan out the characters and what the conflicts will be, but you also get to plan out where and when the story will take place. Just don’t get sucked into the planning so much that you forget to write the story.

Don’t be afraid to create new worlds, new races, new languages, different ways of doing things. Let your imagination, your muse go wild. The more you listen to what your muse says, the more she (or he) will talk to you.

Whether you decide your idea can be made into a short story or book, writing fiction is an adventurous journey. I invite you to come along with me for an exciting ride.