Writing With Purpose

I have wanted to do this for a little while now. The past week, in fact, the idea of writing the journey of writing my first novel was one that I was interested in. Well, I have finished the first draft of the novel and am in the editing process now, so I figured what better time to start. I have heard it said, “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now.” I am planting my tree, by writing this blog in a way. I have been unsure on what to do with the blog because when I first created all I wanted from it was a place to “Publish” my short stories. Holy crap did that start an Avalanche of craving the creative process and writing some shit that maybe people wanted to read. The true magnitude of which I am sure I don’t fully see.

The reason, it became such a big deal to me is because I never thought that I would want to be a writer. I mean sure, I love a good book but sitting at a computer crafting well-written stories was not my thing. In college, I had to write a dissertation or “Thesis” my senior year on whatever subject I wanted. I wrote about training high school athletes, and I hated it. Which was weird because I assumed I loved training people to get stronger and better, why was the writing so difficult. I managed to produce 40 or45 pages of something worthy enough of a B, and I was fine with that as long as I didn’t have to write anymore. It was such a miserable process that took me 2 full semesters to complete, and I was actually training athletes at the time so I should have had plenty of insight to draw from. Alas, non-fiction textbook writing was not my thing.

Fast forward 10 years and multiple trips to rehab, a failed business, 2 failed marriages and a plethora of other unmentionables crimes against the “American Dream.” I find my self in a place where I utterly crave writing every morning, it has opened up my eyes more than I could ever have imagined. I was told to “come to the blank page with, fear, anger, anxiety, excitement or any other emotion, but I was told to come.” Let me back up a bit for context.

So, I have self-published one novella an 18,000 word short (Dead Heart: An Origin Story) about a Knight named Sir Ageon. It’s actually on the Amazon Kindle for purchase now. The whole idea behind writing that story came to me because I wanted to write inspiring stories, and the idea was for me to write about a man that lost both his legs. From that little nugget of an idea came Dead Heart, which I am so proud of and, I am working on the second book now. It took me a week to write the thing and another to edit it, I was hooked, fully mesmerized and lost in a 4th dimension where time and space didn’t exist, even now I feel myself slipping into that space. Which led me to look into writing classes and other ways to get better, if I was going to put my work out for everyone to see I wanted to get better at the craft, not to mention I want to make a living doing this. I was hit with another incredible (What I think is incredible), idea during a creative writing exercise for one of the classes, three weeks later I have the first draft of, Trent Foster & The Council of 10. A 65,000+ word creative explosion from my mind. I couldn’t believe it, still can’t, and the crazy thing is I think it’s good. The shit had me laughing and crying as I wrote it like I was reading the damn thing not writing it.

Along the way in those 3 weeks, I was hit with some pretty incredible personal awakenings of my own. Without even knowing I was doing it, I was, in essence, writing a Sci-Fi/fantasy version of the last 10 years of my life. I saw it when I wrote the ending and damn did it hit me like a brick truck hauling a ton of shit.

Here is what I learned, I don’t always have to know what is going to come out of me when I sit down to write, hell that’s half the fun, I realize now. It is a gift to have any creative thought and it is even more of a gift to get a chance to share that with anyone else. So if you are scared to write, good and if you are excited to write, good. Just for God’s sake write, it is the greatest thing I have found in my life to this point. I never understood when I would hear quotes from people like Steve Jobs, saying “Your work is going to take up the majority of your life and if you want to do great work you need to do what you love if you haven’t found it yet keep looking.” Thanks, Steve, I used to think, this guy found his passion at an early age, I was lost I didn’t love doing anything. Until now, I can honestly say I love writing and whether I become the richest most famous Author in all the world or just some guy named Matt that writes weird stories and self publishes them all, I will have spent my life happy doing what I love, and that is worth something.
Now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to editing. Trent Foster & The Council of 10, will be available by January 2019.

Sharing is caring. If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to share it with your friends.