Okay, as most of you know: being an author was my second dream. First? Being an illustrator. And I would be lying if I didn’t say that illustrating still has a particular allure to it. Problem is, I am a wannabe artist, not a good one, and the most that I can draw are anime-style characters (I did, however, make the map for She Who Chose War, which I’m quite proud of). It was around the age of four that I learned who the person was that drew pictures inside of books, and that was it: that was what I wanted to be.
That is not to say that I didn’t have an interest in creating those stories with the pictures. I liked that, too, and I remember being in kindergarten and creating Super Mario stories out of a spiral notebook that my grandma gave to me. And then Final Fantasy stories. I was especially proud of a Final Fantasy VI comic that I made.
I think my first “novel” was a book that I wrote called Silent Chaos. The title had no relevance to the story—it just sounded cool. I wrote it from start to finish, had a full cast of high-schoolers (which were just knock-offs from my favorite anime series’) and. . . . I can’t even remember the plot, except for a girl was kidnapped, some guy akin to Yugi Motou had to go and rescue her, and that was pretty much it. Had a trilogy lined up, because I liked the word “trilogy” even though I had no idea what was going to fill up the next two books. I believe I was thirteen when I wrote this story, and I surprisingly held onto it for a long time.
I’ve written much since then, including a number of short stories and a couple of full-length novels. None of it was published, but good practice material. I learned what not to do, and also started to experiment with what story endings looked like. It is all too simple to start, but how to conclude a story is something that does take time and practice.
My thirteen-year-old self would be so proud of me right now to know that I actually have birthed an adult fantasy novel into the world, and it does make me smile to think that my “real” writing journey has only just begun, even though I began to tread the path many, many years ago.