How I started writing the books

The first story I read that made a connection with me was Clive King’s ‘Stig of the Dump’. About a week after reading the book in school, we had to write an essay. I was about seven or eight years old at the time and once I started writing my story, loosely based on Stig and the adventures I would have with him, I was really surprised that the story flowed from me. I wrote many pages that I certainly had never felt the need to do before. The story was ‘okay’ and the teacher thanked me because he was impressed with my imagination and quantity, if not the actual quality, grammar and content.

I really wasn’t motivated to write anymore and the feeling was lost but not forgotten. Throughout the years in school, all my essays were adventures in the wild nature of my imagination and most of the time they did not receive good comments from the teachers who read them. One of the reasons was probably because my writing has never been very easy to read. In fact, I won an award in grade school for my hardest-to-read “spider doodle” writing. He was proud of this in an eccentric way.

My handwriting has never gotten better, actually it’s probably gotten a lot worse. In fact, when I was courting my wife Elizabeth, I wrote almost every day. It is a remarkable achievement that; one: she was smart enough to figure out my letters; and two, that my letters helped win her heart. But that speaks more to her ability to love her than to any innate ability of mine to win her heart. I am so lucky. I only had one other real adventure in writing, when I was in my twenties, and I remember the flow of words and my imagination being a joy to me. The story was long again although the content lacked sufficient quality.

With the arrival of our children, our lives changed in more ways than I could imagine. Since the little ones were born we have always read them books. Sometimes we would sit together and read and talk about stories and that’s how Rodger the Badger was created. Elannah and I were talking about writing a story together and it was about a badger named Rodger. Elannah provided the drawings, although it was many years after Sam’s arrival before she began writing ‘Of Lights in the Night’.

This time I was able to write without putting pen to paper and make people squint at the page to decipher my words. Thank God for computers, now my writing was on keyboards, much easier to read. My life’s journey had reached a point where my imagination and skills at a keyboard with the power of a good word processor, a wonderful wife and family to inspire me and ignite our collective imagination all came together and it worked. .

What is my technique for when I write now? It’s pretty simple; the story must become part of my daily thoughts.

Before committing to a new chapter, I think about what I would like to write and visualize the story. Adding ideas and building the story in my mind until I am ready to put on the computer screen what I have considered and seen inside my mind. For example, with the first book, my love of fireworks gave me the underlying passion on which to base the story. The characters, being vivid and realistic in my head, can come to life in this background, and as I write, they take on very real dialogue and emotions. The book is about a series of sensations, fireworks of the imagination, with Grumpspawn the Great Wizard entertaining the gathering in the land of Dreams. With the background in place and the characters playing in my mind, the fireworks become the focus, the foreground of the scene, and the internal visualization becomes the written word in a clear, flowing style that draws the reader in. with fantastic fun.

I am currently about to write a new chapter in the third story and this one is about a ship afloat in the Sea of ​​Dreams. I have been using the technique described above for many days, building the different aspects of this part of the story with the various plot themes interwoven. The ultimate goal of the story is to entertain my children, so fun and wonder must be a big part of it. I haven’t finished my preparations for this chapter but I’m close. The background will be my love for ships and the Sea, the characters are clear and interact with the ship, and with the possibility that any of your thoughts could come true in the Sea of ​​Dreams, the possibilities for fun and wonder. they are limitless, always in tune with the needs, wants and desires of the characters.

From my early days as a short story writer at school until now it has been quite a journey. Originally, I didn’t have any technique, I just needed to write, even if my words weren’t that easy for others to read. Now I can create the stories that others enjoy and that is a very satisfying feeling. So my advice is that everyone should remember their dreams and follow them, it may only be a matter of time until you reach them.

Sean Noon
Author

‘Of lights in the night, friends and adventures’, first story of the collection ‘The eternal and fantastic adventures of Elannah and Sam’. ISBN: 9781432752897

http://everlastingfantasticaladventures.blogspot.com/