When did you decide to write?

Free-form Friday

I decided many times. I wrote parts of several bad novels during high school along with stories and all the other things young people should try to write. But I think the real catalyst for me was that as a teenager I began playing Dungeons and Dragons.

A funny thing happened: I participated in a few games as a player, but it wasn't long before I found I was most interested in being the dungeon master. It was far more satisfying to set up the dungeon than to explore it. In fact, I noticed I was spending more time and getting more pleasure out of preparing the adventure than actually running the game.

As the years passed, I noticed that pattern again and again: regardless of the nature of the activity or endeavor, I felt a need (practically a compulsion) to get the story right.

And a big part of getting the story right is the context (back-story and setting) and the structure (the pattern and rhythm of the narrative). I was delighted to discover that these questions apply equally well in music and software and prose.

Writing is closer to the center of what I've been orbiting in my professional life and so I concluded it would be most graceful to bow to the inevitable.

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