Sometimes issues, problems, or challenges that arise in my life motivate me to write. When I address difficult situations through writing, the built-up tension and worry releases and I am better able to discover a solution. This kind of writing is usually for my eyes only. There’s no reason to subject readers to the crazy thoughts that occasionally rattle around in my mind.
More often, my need for creativity propels my writing, but I haven’t always written creatively. Tired of writing travel logs of my family’s trips that put me to sleep, I signed up for a travel-writing course shortly after retiring from a career as a CPA. One class assignment called for writing a story about a picture found on the National Geographic website. The picture I chose showed a cheetah stretched out on a lobby floor and a woman walking nonchalantly by the animal. I imagined walking into that scene after a lengthy air flight and bus ride. The instructor wanted to know all about my trip to Africa. When I told her I’d never been, she commented on my great creative writing skills. She actually believed the story was about me. I’ve been taking creative writing classes ever since to learn the craft.
I love immersing myself in a new fantasy world that allows me to daydream. The challenge of stringing words together to create a phrase, a sentence, and a paragraph that communicates happy, sad, peaceful, or tense experiences excites me. Connecting with my imagined characters also allows me to experience the same emotions they might feel if they were real people.
Did you notice the word new in the paragraph above? My problem isn’t starting stories, but finishing them. I have locked away countless characters on my hard drive, and they’re all screaming to get out. Is there an app for that?