Writing

Writing has been part of human history ever since we learned to scratch into clay and stone. I'm no different. It's still mostly just scratching - some on my head, some under my chin, some behind the ears of my dog. In the end there may be a poem or a book, but that just the result of all the preliminary scratching.

I wrote ever since I was a kid. Notes, poems, stories and eventually my first really bad teenage novel. It was a novel, though. I collected 430 pages of my scribbles when I was 14 years old. So, naturally most of my early writing ended up in trash at some point. But one thing I remember from those days is the unspoiled pure creative stream. My characters lived in my head and until I put them on the paper, they were with me. Sweet daydreaming - because when you are a teenager, there is time for such luxuries.

I also remember my first fans - my friends. Big thanks for early encouragement go to Paja and Jarka from the summerhouse, Marie from school and my buddy Daniel. It was really exciting to have other kids come back and ask for the next chapter. Paja sometimes read my work literally as I finished each page, which may qualify her as my first editor. On occassion, she giggled over my mistakes, but she was definitely a cheerleader.

Because of this direct feedback, I never gave a thought to the possibility of publishing. I didn't need it. I drew satisfaction from clearing my head of all the pressing issues I had to share and from the handful of people who thought it was fun to read them. I considered it a success that my essay was chosen for our "graduation" ceremony at the end of elementary school or that my letter to the editor was published in a teenage magazine. I wrote a lot of really long letters to my friends any got a lot of interesting ones back. But most of all, I fell in love with the power of words. I realized that my stories had the power to make someone laugh or cry and this is the aspect I still find fasctinating.

Then the stream dried out and the luxury of having time and peace for daydreaming disappeared, as I entered my 20's I became "an occassional writer" - writing for occassions such as friends' birthdays. At the same time, I switched my tool and started writing in English. The English language opened many horizons for me and this is yet another one. I'm able to do my book research in English with a much wider pool of information and I'm able to write in a flexible and concise language.

In 1997 the inspiration came back to write a novel. It didn't creap in either, I woke up from an afternoon's nap with the entire story in my head. My original 8 page note gave me a base for a rather extended research. The novel is set in a very specific place and I need to spend some time in Italy to get to know it. The story threads the present and the year 1518, which makes it my first historic piece. So, I'm learning a great deal of history before I can write about it comfortably. One of my main characters is a well documented famous historic person, which is really tricky.

As you might guess, it will be a while before this novel sees the light of day. In the meantime, my friends might get some more birthday poems, but that's about all I have time for. I'm hoping that at least my Essays and Observations will keep my writing skills up to par for a while. Like all writers, I need the luxury of time, space, peace of mind, money to live on, discipline and some inspiration. Right now, it seems a little too hard to coordinate the first five. I have plenty of the latter.