A Handwritten Source of Inspiration

It's so easy to give up when it comes to telling stories in general. Triply so (if not more) when it comes to telling stories of the fan fiction genre.

Even with a compulsion to share with the world any number of stories stuck in your head, there comes a point where it may not seem worth the effort.

When I experience those kinds of disparaging moments, I turn to this. It's a handwritten piece of MLP fiction, which is very special to me for a few reasons. See if you recognize it at all:

Perhaps not sure very many people will right away. To be fair, you won't find the story posted to this website.

Here's another version of the same text:

The reason the story isn't on this website is because it was eventually published as the MLP: the Movie tie-in novel Pinkie Pie Steps Up, by G.M. Berrow.

This handwritten first draft came to me by way of an auction done by the author. (It was unexpected as it was done on behalf of a well-known member of the fandom community who was in need of aid at the time.)

I often pull this page out to look at whenever I need reminding of a few different lessons.

(1) Even published stories have humble beginnings. So all those notes, whether for MLP notions or more personalized sagas, are just as worthy as this particular handwritten specimen.

(2) What you start with always changes before others read it. Sometimes a lot, sometimes a little. Sometimes things need to be added, sometimes taken out. But nothing perfect happens the first time.

(3) It doesn't matter what medium you use to get the story out. It matters what you do with that story once it's committed to a medium. Let's face it: between the notebook paper to the several different colors of pens, this is not what was handed in to an editor. But what's more important is how much of the story is there already, after falling out of the author's head by whatever means she decided to use at the time. Fancy software and specific hardware be damned. Maybe some Very Important Digital Tools came in later. Maybe. But just to get the story out? Paper and colorful pens were enough.

There's undoubtedly some other lessons to take away from that one sheet of paper. But for the sake of readability, let's stop at the nice round number of three.

The story will come. Just worry about getting the story out, not how it's done, or whether it's perfect.

Because that first draft—whatever form it takes—is just the beginning of that story's story.

Comments

[Ponyess]

always write down the story, stuck in your head.