Hello there. My name is Brad. I decided to put up a blog to improve my writing skills and communicate with others so that they may learn from some of the mistakes I have made along my journey. I hope this will be a long journey because I seem to be enjoying it so far. I guess you could say that this is my mission statement, as it were: “to improve my writing skills and to help others.” (Am I being too presumptuous? I hope not.)
About a month ago, my mother-in-law suggested that I might write a book! A BOOK she says, well to be quite honest I toyed around with the idea once or twice over the years. The farthest I got before was “pantsing” a few paragraphs based on a novel by a well-known author (who shall remain nameless). My dream was to approach the holders of the estate after the author’s death and submit to them a final draft of a story that would follow the storyline of one of my favorite books by that author. I had changed the names of the characters to protect the innocent (namely me). I had no idea about literary agents, lawyers, etc., I was just a fan of this story who wanted to see an ending to the bigger story that I had in my head (again, am I being too presumptuous?).
I still have the beginnings of that story, who knows, I may just finish it for fun and the experience. In the past, I have done a few other small pieces of writing that I and others thought were decent. It’s interesting, English Grammar was my absolute worst subject in school, I hated it. I felt that I had absolutely no future use for it. Now in my mid-60s it comes back to haunt me, and I have to admit something, I bought a Grammar workbook that was meant for school-age young people (Has the temperature dropped in Hell?)
Well, I am now over 5,000 words in, they just came to me out of a clear blue sky and haven’t stopped either. I’ve had to call a halt to some of them because I’m handwriting my very first outline (Talk about writer’s cramp). The outline process has been pretty easy also, well so far. I decided to make my stories episodic and have had brainstorms for 3 other stories with 3 or 4 main characters, but as of the first book my lead character is on his own.
The genre that I’m writing in is Historical fiction. I love U.S. history, even way back in school. My favorite teacher in High School was my U.S. History teacher and History was my favorite class. I even wanted to go to the same University that he attended, Northern Arizona Univ. in Flagstaff, AZ. But that never materialized for me, let’s just say I didn’t do very well in school, just barely graduated would be another way to say it. I’ve had fun with the research that I’ve had to do also.
Well, wish me luck (or something). Hang in there and I’ll be back again soon. Later!