origins

When does it all begin? At birth? At the foot of our parents? On the carpets of kindergarten? When is it that we fall into this love for a good story? I've always been a sucker for a good story and occasionally a bad one. When an author has done his or her job well and hooked me into the drama of a few characters, I can't sit well until I've conquered the final pages or the final disc on CD.

I've heard it said before that we as writers are the first readers of a story. That statement is so very true. We write because the reader in us, the human is us, longs to be drawn into that next great story. As we write, we have been given the opportunity to create, and craft, and perfect a short window of drama and tickle that reader inside of us.

But when do we decide to make the transition from reader to writer?

For me, it happened one long winter in the late 1990's. The story I've told centers around a job I had at a pottery factory while I was in college. At this job, I was permitted to wear headphones while working, and I quickly exhausted my CD music collection. As a result, I turned to a book on CD; the bait was set before me.

When I finished the first book the following day, I had a hunger for another author to take me along on another journey. I picked up another book. Then I picked up another and then another; the hook was set.

Luckily, my time at the pottery came to a close when the college semester returned for session; I was nearing the end of the book on CD collection of our small town library.

But as I returned to college, I kept hearing a voice in my mind. It wasn't the onset of psychosis or delusions. It was 'THE VOICE' of all of those excellent performers on the books I had been listening to, coming together in one voice to tell me a story. I could hear the story that I wanted to tell, coming in clearly in my mind; a story I never knew I wanted to tell. I was caught and reeled in.

Today that factory is an abandoned building and the pottery has been sold and forgotten. Those few weeks I spent there all those years ago I hold dear to my heart. There was the origin of 'MY VOICE.' There was where the reader in me discovered my love and my need, to write, to create, to craft, and to perfect a good story.

How about you?