Edited post from old blog
Why is it so hard to make yourself sit in front of the computer and just WRITE?
You say "I want to write stories" as a little kid, spend hours daydreaming, staying up late under the covers scribbling about a story you thought of, or narrate it to your sibling.
You get older, long legged, grass stains on your knees. You say "I want to be a ballerina" "I want to be a fashion designer" You still daydream. You run in fields and make your friends make up characters in games you come up with.
You start worrying about your hair, and stay up late crying about a bad grade or about something your parents didn't let you do, you tell yourself stories to hide from the world. To hide from the pain.
Adults tell you to go to university, get a sensible job. You believe them, they know best, surely they know best. You listen and try hard in school and spend the precious moments you have free watching Netflix and sleeping your life away. That's your escape. A black hole that drains you of all your energy and creativity and time.
Eventually, you return to the keyboard. You stare at it. At the blank page. You write a sentence, delete it before you can finish, surf the internet for a while. But you eventually return to that blank page, and you write.
You ignore the season finale of that show and pick up a book from your shelf, you spend the night reading, scribbling in a notebook about character names and magical worlds.
You write about heroes, about quests and dragons. We all do.
You write about villains and darkness and fan fiction, we all have.
You create something unique, special, something that you can't let go of and you write.
Who cares about sensible when you can write?
- Thane Attor, To Be A Writer
" I still think most writers are just kids who refuse to grow up. We're still playing imaginary games, with our imaginary friends." ~ Ian Rankin
Hey, I'm not sure if I ever took the time to really introduce myself. (Good job Thane, have a blog for two years and just fail to introduce yourself.) So, Hi I’m Thane! I write YA Fantasy, and am co-writing a series with my amazing co-writer and best friend Vira Riddle. And that’s actually really how I got into writing. If you want to learn more just jump over to my The Sordian Chronicles page and read the “about”. It’s all there.
As I say on my about page, I am an avid reader. I grew up on horse books, fairy books, Harry Potter, and Narnia. My bookshelf is my favorite part of my room. I counted and have roughly 300 books... Though I've probably only read half (slowly working my way through the other). When my parents complain about me buying more books, I always tell them "Better books than drugs." But then they finally told me "... Drugs would almost be better."
I remember when I was really little my sister and I would put our pillows right outside our doors and talk to each other at night, her at one end of the hallway and me at the other. Since I couldn't write very well, I'd narrate my stories to her. I was always the one making up came up with games to play.
When I actually started writing, I was nine or ten, and I started out writing stuff where I'm pretty sure my character cried in every scene and there was a lot of really bad sarcasm. But I wrote a lot, thousands and thousands of words. I wrote all the time. And I didn't think about publishing, or calling myself a "writer". It was fun, they are cool stories with characters with powers I wish I had, going on quests I wish I could go on, fighting monsters and being heroic. As a kid, I needed that. I really, really needed that.
I don't know when I actually decided that like... I could actually write books and publish them? And I had stories I loved and I could learn how to write good stories... So I read every blog post I could find on Pinterest, I read The Write Practice’s posts and I came up with stories and wrote them.
After a few years of writing other stories, with The Sordian Chronicles on the back burner, Vira and I finally returned and decided mutually that we wanted to be authors and we wanted these stories we created together to be our main series. If we put out anything lasting into this world, it was this. We are both Christians, and though we don't plan to explicitly mention God in our series, we want our stories to reflect the truths God promises us. Such as forgiveness, healing, joy deeper than our circumstances, a plan for our lives, and most of all- hope.
We both have stories outside of Sordia we want to tell, but these are the ones we have to tell. We have created realms and hundreds of characters and stayed up late world building and dreaming about telling these stories. If you look at our Sordian Chronicles pages on our sites you'll see how many books we have planned, and that is barely scratching the surface. I have covers and outlines for side stories and fun stories and short stories and other characters and realms I want to explore, and I know Vira does also. There are so many things we have as secrets that have to wait to be told till ten books in.
Last winter I started to write a book and got 30,000 words in before realizing that that wasn't the book I needed to be writing. But it taught me a lot about my writing process and what to do better next time. I attempted NaNoWriMo this past November with another book I thought I had plotted well and was ready to write, but ended up scrapping it because I didn't have very good world building and ended up going all the way back to one of my original stories.
Since writing has been my passion for so many years now, I realize that I need to start taking it really seriously. One of the things that has really motivated me to write is following writers on Instagram and writing hashtags. Seeing other writers finishing, (and publishing!!) their books is so empowering and motivating. Every time I see a post I think "That could be me soon!". As the time to apply to Universities draws nearer the more I feel like I have to finish a book. "What if University gives me no time to write?" "What if I get burnt out?" questions like this haunt me, but this one all the more "What if I could actually make the writing this work?". A lot of aspiring writers hope this and for most, writing is a part time job, but that "what if" is still there.
But enough talking about me, I want to hear from some of you. What are your hopes and dreams as a writer? Have you considered writing a book, or even short stories before? Also, another question I love asking, what are some books you love? Or even books you hate, that is always interesting too.
Much love,
Thane
P.S.
You have already heard about my "ah-ha!" moments, but in case you were curious about the books I love (If you haven't read them oh my goodness, do. And then message me, email me, something. These are the books I stayed up all night reading) here is a short list of my very very top favorites: The Six of Crows Duology and the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, Legend Trilogy and The Young Elites Trilogy by Marie Lu, The Lunar Chronicles and the Wires and Nerve graphic novels and Heartless by Marissa Meyer, and Graceling Trilogy by Kristin Cashore. These books have shaped me as a writer. Every single book in the Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, Kane Chronicles, Trials of Apollo, and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series, and every single side book he's written for the series. Divergent by Veronica Roth and The Hunger Games by Susanne Collins are alright.
In more recent years I've branched out to other genres and Indie Authors, like Skies of Dripping Gold by Hannah Heath and The Beast of Talesend by Kyle Robert Shultz. I finally read Frankenstein and To Kill a Mockingbird- and next on my list is The Great Gatsby. My newest obsession is the two John Cleaver Trilogy's, starting with I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells, and the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson.
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