Scintilla Project, Day 1

Q: Who are you?

Light-Hearted A: I'm a somewhat obsessive music collector geek, so the following song lyrics may or may not apply as an answer, but at least they explain my varied taste in music:

--I want to be a paperback writer.
--I am the very model of a modern major general.
--Who-who, who-who.
--I've got the music in me.
--Aircraft adorn my hair, small boats adhere to my feet.
--I'm not the man I used to be.
--Call me morbid, call me pale.
--I'm not as sad as Dostoevsky, I'm not as clever as Mark Twain.
--I'm just sitting here, watching the wheels go round and round.
--I want you to want me.
--No one I think is in my tree.
--I'm not your stepping stone.
--I am a sensitive artist.
--I'm a jack of all trades, we'll be all right.
--It's not me talking.

More Serious A: I'm a writer, musician, artist, music collector, husband, son, brother, coworker, part French Canadian and part Irish, comic relief, onomatopoeist, blogger, and other things, hopefully adequately. None of this is professional as of yet, though I'd like to change that for at least one of the above.


For all he Scintilla readers: I do a lot of self-reflection on this here LJ, a lot of it about music and/or writing, so if you're interested, feel free to read! Welcome to RTS! :)

Scintilla Project, Day 1, Question 2

2. Life is a series of firsts. Talk about one of your most important firsts. What did you learn? Was it something you incorporated into your life as a result?

I completed my first novel on May 10, 1987, at 6:16pm.

It was by no means the first attempt at this novel, nor was it the first attempt at writing a story...both this novel and writing in general started most likely in early 1984, in the basement of the junior high school, and it went through quite a handful of false starts, aborted ideas, and rewrites. The finished version was probably started around late 1985 when I was a freshman in high school.

The inpsiration for me to write was the book Dragon Fall by Lee J. Hindle, the winner of the first young writer's competition that Avon Flare had back in the day. I'd thought of being a writer for ages, probably since I was ten or so, but I never really took it all that seriously, having wanted to hang out with friends and have fun instead. It wasn't until I saw this title at a bookstore in Northampton, and saw a poster for the next competition later on that year in english class. Hell, if someone else my age could do it, why couldn't I?

The novel itself--a war story that takes place on US soil--is pretty painful reading, as I think I hit most of the pitfalls that most newbie writers hit (meandering plot, bad opening, dangling plotlines, overly willing suspension of disbelief, and so on), but I think by the time I finished it I learned a hell of a lot more about writing a novel than I'd expected. Even if my prose was downright pathetic at the time, I could see where the plot needed major work, and what I could possibly do to fix it. I would resurrect it multiple times ever since in various forms and formats, though I finally sort-of put it to rest about five years ago.

Since then, I've written and completed four more novels, a screenplay, and have a number of other things either on the back burner or am working on them when time permits. I write nearly every night after work and on weekends when I have the time.

If anything, I'm glad to say I was able to finish that first novel, especially at a young age, because I proved to myself that I could do it, because I LOVE doing it.