Creative Support
I love how supportive my family is in terms of my writing. My whole family has that artistic appreciation, devotion and desire. I have a few stories of my mom’s from when she was younger. I can’t bear to read them just yet. But I have them. My dad has always been there to help us with projects and throughout the past handfuls of years, he has been eagerly giving Danielle and I ideas for stories, scripts and the like. His stories are so amazing but we have yet to make anything of them other than a notebook filled with ideas and plans.
We were raised to be imaginative. We were encouraged to use our imagination. And I will always thank my parents for not forcing reality at me at a young age. They have never made us feel worthless or that we did not deserve to be artists. That being said, they are realistic in the fact that they wished for us to pursue education. And this may be a struggle but honestly, I do not regret that decision to go along with them. Their hope was that education would be just a support. Something to fall back on. And the way I see it, I’d be bored out of my mind if I focused on my art 100% of my life. I’m sure I’d go a little crazy and definitely become very self-centered and single-minded. Being out in the world and interacting in life allows me to bring back something even more important to my stories.
I’ve been writing since I was at least eight years old. I remember writing in 2nd grade because of my Young Author awards and the only time I got into trouble was when I didn’t stop writing during recess when I was supposed to be “cleaning up” (I got so scared of detention, I got sick and my mom took me home). But Danielle has always been creative as well. As we’ve gotten older, it is more difficult to conceptualize but she has always been the more fantasy thinker of the pair of us. She’s always been the one to have an imaginary giant wolf (“Wolfie”) to run alongside our van, an imaginary pet mouse (“Squeaky”) and a multitude of imaginary animals to chase us. She’s also been the one who could draw her creations. I was the one who could bring to life the creations through words and into the imagination. Our hopes are that someday, we’ll work together on creative projects. Film is our new adventure. She has these big ideas. I have the words. It is very much a work in progress.
Today, on our way to work, my father and I discussed my accomplishments of my writing. In particular, we compared my how my writing has developed just in the past two years. And it is amazing how far I’ve come! Now, please forgive if I sound bragging or vain. I do not intend that at all. But I am sincerely proud of what I have created. My novels are so much more than they use to be. They are so powerful! I have started to really focus on psychological process of emotions and situations. And recently, writing an entire novel with a “what isn’t really being said” sort of cloud overhead. I have relied upon such strong emotions that what I’ve created has had great impact. But having my dad dote about my writing skills, to be genuinely interested and add to the conversations is something amazing. In my early teens, I was hesitant to let anyone into my world. I’ve since become a lot more open about them. While I write first and foremost for myself, my dad has a big influence on me and it is great to get outside persepective. He has helped me with so many rough drafts and ideas in the past couple of years before I’ve gone to everyone else and for that, I am eternally grateful. He gives me space. He pushes me to write when I think I can’t. And just the excitement in his voice when he engages anyone in conversations of my art. My aunt is very much the same way which boosts my confidence even more.
I love that I have the skills. And I love even more that I have this massive amount of support. My dad, my mom, my sister, my friends, fellow writers, fans, my aunt, my cousins, Beth, my dad's boss, professors and even 2 Hollywood screen writers. But honestly, the support and excitement from my dad is probably the best.