Starvished

To paraphrase the late great Brian Jacques, when you’re hungrier than famished but not as hungry as starving, you’re starvished.

And that’s me. I’m beyond famished for stories but not quite starving. This past year has provided me with plenty of time to work on my own stories, yet I’ve turned to devouring others’ instead. To be kind to myself, I haven’t picked up a book and finished it in a couple of years. This comes from the bookworm, the wordsmith, the child formerly known as a ‘walking encyclopedia.’

My blood runs scarlet and black—with the ink of every story I’ve held close to my heart in this seemingly ordinary life. As a youth, I was obsessed with myths and tales of forgotten peoples and worlds. These have informed many of my dreams for a long time, including my hope to be a successful author one day. Instead, I’ve sold my words by the penny. As a creative person, that hurt my pride at first. Then I realized there’s something to be said for valuing every word you use.

Plenty of narratives recognize the importance of intentional communication, of not wasting one’s breath on flattery and falsehood. As someone who now understands the benefit of quantifying content and copy, I get it. Although nickel and diming any writer is shameful, some of the most successful stories of my lifetime started with well-crafted ad copy. For example, look at Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ or the horrible lie the DeBeers company sold to generate perceived value in an otherwise worthless gem.

I’m not here for the first time in three years to discuss marketing and advertising. The influence a good story has on someone seems intangible, but it’s not. I’m reminded of how little writing I’ve done for the worlds, stories, and characters within me. As a reader, plot holes are one of the biggest frustrations in any series. They’re a hallmark of cheap, ineffective, or rushed writing. Paying homage to publishers instead of an audience is the biggest crime any good storyteller can commit. But I realized that by leaving my writing undone and only writing for a living, I’ve created the most shameful plot hole: another cliched writer starting a novel and never finishing it.

So why am I returning to this blog after three years? I still have stories to tell. Some of these will be about life-changing moments in my life. Some will be stories aching to come out of me, demanding to be shared. Some will be about prepping and planning for the latest crazy changes in my life. Others will include the struggles of returning to a novel that’s been in development for more years than I’d like to share.

If you missed me, hello! If you didn’t, your loss. Either way, I’m back in the saddle again, ready to ride out this new creative journey and see where its currents take me.