My Story

If you had said to me back at school that when I grew up, I was destined to write a science fiction, fantasy horror adventure novel that exceeded five thousand words I would have laughed at you. My mind was blown at the concept of writing more than ten thousand words for my dissertation and even more so when I stared lifeless at my computer screen knowing I had a week until my deadline. How on earth can someone have so much to say and how do you put it down on paper for all to read that made sense? 

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Here is the thing, I never finished school. In fact, I left school at the age of fourteen and never finished my GCSE's in any subject so working my way through university more than a decade later was difficult. I kept my 'disadvantage' of not being competent at reading or writing a secret, refusing any additional support because I was too embarrassed to sit with aid in my lessons. I was the mature student of the class, thirty years of age and more then half a decade older than my classmates and despite my audio skills topping all the marks in all my subjects, my literary ones...well they were the keys to holding me back. So I taught myself how to write properly. And even though I am still learning to define the art of writing, my writing has improved. its not perfect but I am more confident now then I ever was and that's the reason why I decided to finish my book.

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My story for my novel started fifteen years sooner on a boring night shift in a factory. The concept came from an idea to create original cover art for a brand new superhero to be entered into a competition judged by the late but great Michael Turner (Witchblade comic series). Slowly, during every shift, I crafted and defined my story to a perfectly thought out concept. You had a what, I had the answer. You had a who and I had the family tree complete with character bio, bad habits, physical stats, mannerisms and favorite foods.

My only holdback was my writing, or at the very least, my ability to convey my story on the page for others to read. The final challenge in my journey.

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I struggled with finding a workflow that worked for me, from pen and paper to using an iPad with an attached keyboard on my lunch breaks I could never get comfortable with my workflow habits, I would spend hours finding other things to do or something else to read that could help me with my writing watching tutorial after tutorial on how to write until I found that my gear wasn't the problem, my workspace was.

 

I found writing in a public place like a pub or coffeeshop armed with no more than the iPad, a set of headphones, a suitable Wi-Fi connection to Google Docs and Spotify loaded with pre-decided playlists to prevent procrastination was my saving grace.

I can sit for hours, often five to six at a time uninterrupted and in my zone.  The chapters fell out of me so quickly I struggled to keep my workflow organised bouncing between chapters as more and more ideas fell to my fingers. Since then I have upgraded my gear but with the same workplace principles in mind. I am now using Scrivener to better my workflow and to help keep my chapters organised. It's taken a long time, and a lot of trial and error to get to this point but I am proud to have experienced it.

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I welcome you to be a part of this journey with me.

 

I am now in the editing stage of my book and looking for beta/alpha readers, editors, artists, agents, investors or anyone who would like to help support my dream.

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Please contact me if you want to know more or want to help me make this dream a reality.