Writing Fiction

I started writing fiction when I was kid. Growing up in the 70's, when imagination was my favorite plaything. I think that growing up in an era when video games were called "Arcade Games" and computers were used for business, not entertainment. It was me, myself, and I playing in a vast world that I owned...a world I created and controlled. It was my design and my responsibility to maintain it. As I played in this ficticious world, I was compelled to write it out. It was as if writing the story about my world was somehow going to make it more real.

In my early years in grade school, I was called "clever" and "imaginative", but nothing could really describe what I was going through. It wasn't merely an imaginary world, but a second life. I had to write it down, share this place with everyone else, help them see it. I wrote in the margins of my math homework, in the pages of textbooks, on desks...I spoke to my fellow students about these places and some of them knew of it. Some of them understood that there was this other universe and we could see it.

Teachers would tell my parents that I was not focused on my work, that something had to be done. I didn't have any issues completing my homework or doing it correctly. I was scolded by some of the teachers for writing in the margins, while others supported my visionary drive. My parents felt a balance needed to be found - stay out of trouble, but still be me.

A simple solution was found: they gave me paper. I gave them a view of the world they could never imagine.