January Writer Wednesday

Tied to the hashtag #writerwednesday, I’ll spend one Wednesday a month in the blog sharing a bit about my journey as a writer. Today’s topic: themes I like so much I’ve apparently been trying them out for decades.

I was cleaning out some old boxes just around the start of the new year. I came across 35 year old writings. Some were handwritten, others had obviously been printed out on the computer options available to me in the day (this was the late 80s, early 90s).

But the content made me realize that I have been exploring some of the same story ideas and themes for most of my life: striking out alone, finding trouble; challenging established perspectives, gender roles, or attitudes about a variety of social topics. I also tend to abandon a story when it felt too much like something else I’ve read elsewhere. This inner critic (“be an original”) has been with me since I was in high school.

I’ve grown a lot as a writer since I penned these, so I’m not going to upload and share, but the fact that I find some of these themes still among my favorites to write was fascinating.

On another note: there were at least half a dozen spec scripts, some were adaptations of narratives but some were only in script format. Obviously I was looking for the lines between not enough and too much description and using the more “stripped down” script writing format to find it. As Spock (or Data) might say, “Fascinating.” LOL

I did find my two original “Xena” scripts typed (on a first-generation Mac) printouts, but long ago I put those on the internet for eternal keeping.

Share in the comments some common themes you like to read or write.

~ Lara