(Continued from Part 1)
The Good
I was in grade 11 when I took my first, much-loved, creative writing class. Except, I don’t actually believe that was my first class. I think writing fan fiction gave me a far earlier education in writing craft.
I truly do believe this, for writing fanfic offered me ready-made access to what is often the most difficult part of a story to devise from scratch.
Characters.
Two weeks ago, I was sick.This, for me, is a rare occurrence. I take my health, fitness, and diet very seriously, and am also just naturally blessed with an ironclad constitution.
As a result, the minor aches, coughs, and sniffles that many people suffer every other month do not afflict me. I don’t even really get monthly menstrual cramps.
What I do get is one major illness every year to year-and-a-half that takes me down for about a week despite my prideful efforts to fight it.
That’s what this recent illness was: it started off as a sore throat, quickly progressed to a hacking cough, and before I could say, “I’m fine,” I had a full-blown head cold complete with cement-filled sinuses, pounding temples, aching neck, shoulders, back and abs from coughing, throat scratched raw from the same, tiredness, weakness, and about as much air capacity in my lungs as if I were breathing through a straw, particularly when trying to lie in bed.
I was not fine.
And the thing that hurt the most was my ego in having to admit to my malady.
It was a low moment. So low, in fact, my body became a metaphor for my mental state: bypassing my bed entirely, I spread a blanket on my living room floor, brought my laptop down with me, and searched for something to watch on YouTube to distract me from my misery.
Why do you write?
This was the question written on a scrap of paper put forth for discussion in a Vancouver writers’ Meetup group to which I belong.
I’d previously made the suggestion that a possible method of stimulating conservation among the group would be for everyone to write down potential topics of discussion on bits of paper which would then be randomly drawn from a hat. In truth, the members of this group are already sufficiently comfortable with each other to freely converse without assistance. Still, we tried the activity anyway for the thrill of something new.
Hence the question: Why do you write?
You didn’t think The Rules of Engagement was just a name I gave this blog to make it sound kickass, did you?
Anyone who knows me (which, admittedly, not many do yet by way of this blog, but perhaps, in time, that will change) knows that I love rules. Seriously. Someone actually accused me once of taking the proverbial “rule book” to bed with me at night. It’s hardly something I can deny; I did already out myself on my “About” tab as being fairly left-brained, rational, and rigid, and to quote (or misquote) Popeye, “I am what I am”. But my love of rules is not because I lack sufficient imagination or ability to think for myself, but rather, I find that when the structure and consistency that rules promote is in place, creativity and imagination are able to flourish.
Janna G. Noelle 