Full of Words

Some people like to draw. Others like to play music or read. A few go out for a reckless drive. I prefer to write. I have never been a very sporty, outdoorsy person. My strengths are artsy and intellectual - hence, my writing. My writing - I'm not entirely sure how to explain it. It's something I've been working at for years, and at some point it stopped being a hobby and became a passion. Writing a story is like getting lost in another world - and the best part is, you get to create that world just the way you like it. When I write, I have a tendency not to notice anything that's going on around me, and I don't like being interrupted. I just want to finish that sentence, that paragraph, that chapter - whatever. I get the best inspiration from my stories when I'm not actively trying to think of a plot. The very best original concepts come when I'm thinking about something else, and then my brain inevitably turns to the question: Oh, maybe I can adapt this to so-and-so and make it this-and-that - and that's when the story is born. After that, the ideas come. It takes a while, sometimes - because inspiration is not something you can order on demand - but my brain works in weird and wonderful ways. For example, my most creative, productive time is at night, from 10pm to 2am. And some of my best ideas pop into my head while I'm eating, falling asleep, or just walking around a mall. I can never tell what will trigger a good idea - it might be a TV show, a movie, an ordinary everyday happening that I see all the time but doesn't inspire me until I've got a story idea simmering in my head. Currently my love is fanfiction. For those of you who don't know, fanfiction is a type of story where you take the characters and/or events of any pre-existing media - like TV, movies, books, or comics - and weave them into a plot of your own. Since you're using the property of others, you don't actually own the story - because you can't call it an original piece of yours when there's somebody else's characters in it - but it's an excellent way to practice writing, and it's just so fulfilling to make your own ideas come true. At present, I have 31 fanfiction stories published online (on a site specifically for fanfiction called FanFiction.net) under the pen name Peonywinx, and I have many more in the works. I get an amazing sense of accomplishment when I finish a story, and it's the best feeling in the world to get positive feedback from other people about my stories. And sometimes reading through my archives is a nice way to pass the time - to read what I wrote before and appreciate the plotline, see how well it was written, and pinpoint what I have to improve. Writing doesn't always come easy - every writer I know has to occaisonally battle against writer's block or a blank mind, and I'm no different - but it's always enjoyable for me. I love writing stories and I would (and do) do it for free. Like I said, other people draw, play music, read, or drive. I write.