And the Morning was the First Day

Not that anyone cares - I'm mostly the only person that reads these posts. And Reader.

But today is the first day of the...writing camp? I still can't recall what it's callled.... I am a Dreamer; Let me Dream is hosting it. OR something.

I don't know....anyway.

Introductions....

Good grief.

What DO I write? Fantasy. Noir.

That about sums it up.

Fantasy is the vast majority. I started out writing sci-fi, but tend to get lost in the science and math that I don't understand -  so I switched to fantasy where at least I could make everything up to suit me.

I always write fantasy because of WHY I write. I write because of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Both of whom mostly wrote fantasy.....

Fantasy is beautiful, freeing. Anything can happen. Anything will happen. There aren't expectations or rules. I can do whatever I want.

AND I GET TO CREATE PEOPLES!!!!!  And put them all in old gowns and whatnot....

The other genre that is closest to what I write is dystopic historical fiction - AKA I was writing it in the Victorian era but set it in the Forties and put the plot in modern times......  It got REALLY messed up but I aadored it so I left it. I love writing historical fiction because it lets me use my research for writing.

The main thing I write is character studies. I write about the people. It's not the news or the setting or the clothes or the politics - it's the people. How are they shaped. How do they react. What do they value? Why? What lengths would they go to?

So, to use an example from the story I'm currently stuck on....

It's set in modern times. Mostly. Well, it spans a time period from the early seventies to....this year and beyond. It is set in the real world - which causes problems for me, certainly.....

but the stories follow the lives of people. Of a criminal, his family, law enforcement agents, their families, a child slave, a civilian daughter....  The story follows the people. Their actions too, of course - but the people. When they are broken, how they stay strong, how they fall, how they get back up, how they laugh, how they live, how they die....

I write about people. In the end, that is what motivates me - to tell the stories about people, about their fears and dreams and hopes and failures. I tell the stories about things hidden - about things ignored.

bad people do good things, good people do bad things - in the end, there are no white or black hats: everyone wears grey.