The First Hurdle

​One of the largest obstacles that prevented me from starting to write original stuff was the mindset that I couldn’t hope to create the kinds of worlds that made people want to enter into it and stay there for the ride. I was so used to writing fanfiction and using the characters and worlds of others that I never had the kind of confidence in my own creativity to come up with something original. I say original with quotation marks around it because to be truly original is impossible. However, as far as interpretations go, the sky’s the limit and that was how I was able to come up with these stories of my own and on my own. To put it a simpler way, I wanted a story setting, characters, and plot that I liked. In a future post, I may go into detail as to how I came up with the details of the Epoch of Living Memory, but for now, just take a story that you like and rewrite it to suit your tastes. For example; if I were to rewrite any North American superhero comic book hero, i.e. Superman, I’d emphasize his immigrant status, use his powers to assist in the organization of the poor, and work with activists to give them the leverage they need against modern day supervillains, i.e. CEOs and conservative politicians. I do not fear sharing this idea because no two people will create the same story using the same prompt. As an example; the bible inspired both Paradise Lost and Dante’s Inferno. If John Milton and Dante Alighieri were able to create their own stories from scripture, then it is entirely possible to come up with worlds, people, and stories of one’s own.