This Writer's Journey

Once upon a time, not all that long ago really, this writer (me) knew nothing of writing and never even considered the possibility of publishing anything. I was doing good to come across a new book to read, which meant that I read what I had over and over. Oh sure, once in a great while I'd drag out some paper and write down a story, but that's all it was, and in truth it only happened a couple times and one of those got lost when we moved from one place on this river to another.

One day, sometime during the winter of 2000 I think, my son comes home with this rather new innovation, at least it certainly was for me. He brought me a little laptop computer. We had a computer upstairs (still do in fact), but it had been maxed out to 1G of memory and couldn't be upgraded any more. We got it to help the boys some with their school but mostly it was their toy. I never did much with it because it was upstairs and upstairs isn't just a stroll up a set of steps, it's a climb up a ladder and I really wasn't interested in playing with it all that much anyway. It is such a dinosaur compared to what I have today, or even compared to what my son brought home that day.

Well, now I had this 'toy' down here on the table. All it needed was plugged in and push a button and it turned on. The one upstairs needed at least one boot-up disk before it worked. Okay, so now that I had this thing, what does one do with a computer? Well, it had a keyboard. Did I remember any of my typing lessons from high school?

By coincidence, I had been writing another story on some notebook paper left over from when the kids went to school up river, so what better thing to experiment with. My son showed me how to open a document and I began to type. I discovered real quick that my new little toy knew more about grammar and spelling than I did. What a nifty trick that was. And adding or correcting something within a paragraph was pure joy. I think it took me flat minutes to fall in love with my new toy.

Over the next two years, I learned how to work my toy as I wrote my story, eventually giving up on the notebook step. I found the paint program and drew several pictures for my story, spending hours and sometimes even days modifying some of them to satisfy my picky nature.

To help me picture how long my story would be if it were a book, I picked up the last book I'd read and found a page full of text. I counted the lines and, following the rules for counting words from my typing class, I counted 'words' across one of the full lines. I took that information back to my story and adjusted the margins and font size until I got as close as possible. That also gave me a book size goal. The book I'd chosen was around 300 pages so that was my goal. I would consider my story a 'book' if it reached 300 or more pages. Imagine my pleasure when my story reached a little over 400 pages by the time I had reached an ending. I remind you that actual publishing was one of those alien concepts still.

The entire journey was such a delight, I simply had to start another, and then another, and then another. And oh my, look at me now. That first story is now a real book. The publisher chose a larger format which decreased my page count by nearly a hundred pages, but what did I know, and it was a minor matter, all things considered. They were, after all, supposedly the experts. Ah but that gets into a different journey and a different learning curve.

Many writers I've talked to since getting internet have been aimed at writing ever since they were little. How about you? How did you come to be a writer? Did it take you by surprise like it did me? Tell me all about it. I'd love to hear your story.

The Ongoing Story of The Daisy Lemmas Riff

Blog Chroniclers
Started By Roy Durham

Howdy! Are you ready to have some fun? Are you ready for some adventure? Do you want to look for hidden treasure? Visit new places? Travel the world? Meet new people? Make new friends? Maybe find a new job? Do you like to play games? Read a good story? Travel back in time or go into the future? Have you ever just surfed the web? Do you seek wisdom and knowledge?

If you have answered yes to any of these questions then you’re ready to begin your journey.

Here are the rules: Follow the links - read the story and you are off on the adventure. As you travel, report on face book where you have been or tweet about your adventure. Have fun.

A growing group of blog writers, artist, and photographers, have joined to write a story; each has written a chapter to the story, and you are the main character in the story. The story is ongoing and changing at will - your will. You are in control.

Watch for new links as the story evolves.
Last rule; leave a footprint or your mark the trail by leaving a comment at every page of the story

*Note to Bloggers: if you want to join in, contact any participating blogger and you will be added.

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Chapter 13

Every since he came into my life, I have struggled and cried and tried to run away. I have watched my life come apart is confusion and turmoil. I have seen the world I thought familiar fragment into chaos. An elephant? In my apartment? Where did it come from? Where did it go? Why is it bronze? Who really cares? Not I. No more. A bronze elephant in my livingroom is the least of my worries.

As if that chaos wasn’t enough try sorting out the sudden appearance of a bar straight from the old west held up by a gun-toting mad cat hunting a doubly mad mouse that ate Garfield’s cousin for snack. I’m outa there hot on the heels of the closest dude and I land with a roll just in time for the dude to open some exotic box. Why would he open someone else’s box? Of course, I know the answer to that question as soon as I ask it. He’s here same as me, he’s just been here a moment longer and he’s too curious for his own good, and for mine.

That box opens and he is all around us again. Or rather, he’s all around me - who knows where curious dude went - I sure don’t. That box wasn’t big enough for this, this vastness that was nothing, this darkness that was filled with emptiness? Or was it? Does emptiness take up space? Or does space fill volume?

I’m pissed now. Where is my life now? How dare he intrude in my world? I’ll get even. I’ll get my revenge. All I have to do is fill the emptiness, fill the page. I reach out and there is magic. I reach in another direction and there is a space ship. And in another direction is a herd of centaurs. Yes, I can do this - fill the page with worlds and ideas, subterranean and extra terrestrial, ancient and far future. And then I reach out again and you are there. Join me and help me fill the void.

Chapters of this amazing journey include:

Chapter 1 - Roy’s Garage Sell and Auction
Chapter 2 - Peace from Pieces
Chapter 3 - howaboutthis
Chapter 4 - Memoirs
Chapter 5 - My Journey Through The Pages
Chapter 6 - Sweepy Jean Explores the (Webby) World 3.0
Chapter 7 - Scattered Musings of a Creative Mind
Chapter 8 - Holes in My Soles
Chapter 9 - Roy’s Garage Sell and Auction
Chapter 10 - Ravings Ramblings and Rants
Chapter 11 - Almost There
Chapter 12 - Ravings Ramblings and Rants
Chapter 13 is right here
Chapter 14 - Ravings Ramblings and Rants
Chapter 15 - Explore
Chapter 16 - Legend of the Void....I am " Raven"...

Keep an eye on this. New chapters could be added at any time.