on idols
If ever I would say I want to idolize another person, I'd have to choose sam_storyteller. He is the most amazing writer I have had the pleasure to come across in all my years of reading, both online and off. I know I blather on and on about Neil Gaiman being All That, and he is. But Sam is the kind of writer I really, truly want to be. He started out in fanfiction and kept writing, kept improving, kept trying. He's a published author now, but he still writes fanfiction for the sheer pleasure of it. He recognizes the value of fandom in encouraging and inspiring young writers, and he advocates the institution of fanfiction as a sort of training ground for those who want to sharpen their skill and eventually strike out into the competitive and harsh world of fiction.
The first lines of his epic and popular Harry Potter alternate universe fanfiction, "Stealing Harry":
Harry Potter was eight years old, and he had a wonderful secret.
Harry had a lot of secrets: that his hair, even when freshly cut, grew so fast it was always unruly the next morning...or that sometimes he seemed to make things happen without meaning to...or that he swore sometimes he could understand what snakes were thinking.
But this was the best secret, especially because it involved doing something that was Against The Rules, and any eight-year-old knows that Against The Rules is more fun than anything.
It had to do with the house on the corner, and the Sandust Books shop on High Street.
You tell me that is not just flooring. Tell me it doesn't open up a place inside you that is forever after devoted to knowing what happens next. Tell me this isn't amazing, wonderful, beautiful writing. Tell me you don't want to read it, and everything that follows after it.
I think the best and most appealing aspect of Sam's writing is that as a writer, he is just so passionate. You can tell that he writes for the love of writing, for the love of the characters, for the sheer and pure, unadulterated joy of creating worlds and laws and relationships between people whom he makes Real and unforgettable, in the way of The Velveteen Rabbit. Sam handles emotions the way a sculptor molds his clay: he shapes them with his hands, measures them, smooths them if they're too lumpy on one side, strengthens them if they're too thin in the middle, straightens them if they lean a little too far to the left. He doesn't just write, he creates. It's a labor-intensive process in which he becomes invested in the creation, involved and intimate with it. When it's all said and done, you walk away feeling as though something indescribable has happened somewhere deep inside you. You feel changed, bettered, a little dizzy from the rush. There are new ideas swimming in your thoughts, brilliant ones, great ones.
And you want to write. That's what Sam gives you. That's why I love his stories.
Sam, if you ever read this, you should know you encompass a great deal of, if not absolutely everything about, what I believe it means to be a writer. Not just an author or a novelist or whatever the fancy terms are. A writer--one who writes. It's simple and it's stunning, and it's Sam, the Storyteller. So thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the rest of my life: thank you.
The first lines of his epic and popular Harry Potter alternate universe fanfiction, "Stealing Harry":
Harry Potter was eight years old, and he had a wonderful secret.
Harry had a lot of secrets: that his hair, even when freshly cut, grew so fast it was always unruly the next morning...or that sometimes he seemed to make things happen without meaning to...or that he swore sometimes he could understand what snakes were thinking.
But this was the best secret, especially because it involved doing something that was Against The Rules, and any eight-year-old knows that Against The Rules is more fun than anything.
It had to do with the house on the corner, and the Sandust Books shop on High Street.
You tell me that is not just flooring. Tell me it doesn't open up a place inside you that is forever after devoted to knowing what happens next. Tell me this isn't amazing, wonderful, beautiful writing. Tell me you don't want to read it, and everything that follows after it.
I think the best and most appealing aspect of Sam's writing is that as a writer, he is just so passionate. You can tell that he writes for the love of writing, for the love of the characters, for the sheer and pure, unadulterated joy of creating worlds and laws and relationships between people whom he makes Real and unforgettable, in the way of The Velveteen Rabbit. Sam handles emotions the way a sculptor molds his clay: he shapes them with his hands, measures them, smooths them if they're too lumpy on one side, strengthens them if they're too thin in the middle, straightens them if they lean a little too far to the left. He doesn't just write, he creates. It's a labor-intensive process in which he becomes invested in the creation, involved and intimate with it. When it's all said and done, you walk away feeling as though something indescribable has happened somewhere deep inside you. You feel changed, bettered, a little dizzy from the rush. There are new ideas swimming in your thoughts, brilliant ones, great ones.
And you want to write. That's what Sam gives you. That's why I love his stories.
Sam, if you ever read this, you should know you encompass a great deal of, if not absolutely everything about, what I believe it means to be a writer. Not just an author or a novelist or whatever the fancy terms are. A writer--one who writes. It's simple and it's stunning, and it's Sam, the Storyteller. So thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the rest of my life: thank you.