Glad to have found this site. I’m a sixty-two-year-old white male. Just getting started back in to writing after more than a four-decade layoff. In junior high and high school, I wrote short stories, poetry, and part of a novel. Eight grade year I placed second in the state poetry contest. Can’t remember the poem only that it began ‘There was a pig that danced a jig”, or at least that’s what I recall. Freshman year I wrote one similar to ‘Charge of the Light brigade’ based upon Confederate and Union soldiers rising from the grave to continue the battle. While my pig poem was less than a page, this one was at least four pages. When it got turned in for review only the odd pages were included. I wish I still had copies of these. Only story I really remember writing and completing was one where Van Helsing’s great-great grandson sought out the last werewolf in existence. Couple of others involved aliens crashing and a few humans being given special powers and fighting with escaped aliens to free the world and one where a comet altered the world except for a small high school group who were celebrating graduation. Once I got into girls and sports and then headed for college everything else got pushed aside. I also drew, painted, and played sax in high school but that disappeared as well. Anyway, now. About six years ago I started field work at a site about three hours away and drove there once or twice a week. Each time I would turn off the radio and just think. Parts of a story came to me but I still did not act. Each time I drove more and more would appear, but I still did not act. Right before covid hit, my son (twenty-two at the time) was taking acting courses. One of the lessons was to be a five to ten minute dialog, just telling a story. When he couldn’t find one he liked I offered to write him one, and I did. When he read it, he looked at me and asked if this really happened. Since it was set when I was in high school, I felt pretty good about that. But still I did nothing else. Finally, at the start of this year I decided it was time. I took the dialogue I had written for him, making it a small part of a short story entitled ‘Killing Robert De’niro’ (a play on the name). I have pretty much completed it, at least structure wise. During this time, I thought of other things to write, but the story that I pondered while driving kept coming back. Realizing I could move no further until I addressed that story in some fashion, I began. It’s a currently untitled romance novel which is near complete, still some missing pieces and needs some work I’m certain but mostly done, almost 100,000 words. No one’s yet to read it, not even my wife but most of it is at least out of my head (-:. The other one I’m working on is a fantasy novel set in the Middle Ages and while patterned after Europe (England) not necessarily tied to it by country and city names. I’ve always been interested in that time period. I must admit writing is hard for me. I’m an engineer and computer scientist so as you can imagine how very little literature course work was required in college (only American lit, English lit, and technical writing). My vocabulary is not huge. The hardest parts for me are writing site descriptions, and associated prose, etc. I think I’m OK with dialogue, moving the story along, and varying things going on. Here’s the real kicker though. I hate to read (-:. The last book I actually remember reading was the last of the Dark Tower series, when it came out. I do listen to some books, but again not many. My work required me to read a lot of reports and write a lot of reports so by the time I got home, reading was not what I wanted to do. I do plan on starting my reading by looking at the novels and short stories posted here. Well, if you’ve read to here, you either had nothing else to do or really enjoy reading (-:. If you have any direction on other useful sites, books, etc. I would love to hear.
Hey there mister Moon-pie—I just hit sixty-one myself a couple of weeks ago. And my own story was very similar to yours. I wrote, drew, and tried to paint throughout childhood and adolescence, and well up into my early thirties, and then it all tapered off. It completely halted in my early 40's when my sister gave me her old computer (when she got a new one), and I was introduced to the internet. That pretty much took the place of all that creativity (which had gone into hibernation about a decade prior anyway, just from becoming an adult I guess). Well, I guess my creativity didn't drop off entirely, I just moved to piddling around with stop motion animation for about a decade. So I was still making things, painting them, photographing them frame by frame, and coming up with story ideas—but for film, not writing. Never made any actual films though, just a few practice pieces and tests, and a couple of what you could call micro-films, just a minute or two long. From there I remembered my earlier fascination with lucid dreaming and found a good message board about it where I spent the next decade or so. That led me to a very deep interest in Jungian psychology, which I studied intensely for several years, and then I came stumbling into this place and revived my writing. Before arriving on these shores I had never really studied writing, just did it intuitively, which I think is a vitally important part of learning it. But now I've taken part in many conversations about technique as well as things like story structure and character arc etc, and that led to binging on Youtube videos and articles on writing, and then to buying a bunch of books on it. I've expanded my understanding many times over and sharpened up my skills considerably (something that's definitely still ongoing). I think a lot of us have similar stories about losing touch with the creative impulse and then reconnecting with it later in life. Welcome to our little online home. Hope you'll fit right in and enjoy your time here.
Glad you’re here, Moon-pie. New, I am, to this site as well. After reading your bio (which is very interesting), it reminds me a lot of myself. I have recently taken up writing and, at the age of 50, I also think it’s about time to buckle down. My passion for creative writing began during the Covid lockdown. Temporarily laid off from my day job and collecting unemployment, I needed something to keep busy. I liked it so much that I kept it up and here I am, after joining this site this past Sunday. I, too, played sax in high school. I have recently rekindled that interest, as well. Old passions and talents never leave us - sometimes it just takes a little time to dust off the cobwebs. It’s never too late to chase one’s dreams and talents. What matters, I think, is that we utilize our gifts while we are still alive, so we die with no regrets. Limited is my vocabulary and writing skills, as well. I have a degree in Business Administration and have worked as a personal trainer for seven years. Before that, I managed a business for a couple years. I have worn many hats throughout my life and worked many different jobs. I have done just about everything, but creative stuff throughout my work career. So, I’m basically in the same boat as you are. I hope you stick around here and that you go for it. - Grogu
