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A reminder |
For as long as I remember, I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Except for a brief period in my childhood during which I had the usual children’s dreams - being a teacher, being an astronaut, being a president, being a pilot, etc. – that has always been my dream. The kind of writer I want to be, though, has always been changing. When I was little and I loved reading children books, I wanted to write a children book. As I got older and started to acquaint myself with heavy literatures, I wanted to be a poet. When I got into debating and, in extent, politic, I wanted to be a journalist. For a while, that’s what I want to be, a journalist.
An internship and a job at a newspaper later, I found out that I don’t think I can be a journalist. As I become more realistic, I understand that I don’t have the guts to be a journalist. It’s a serious job that requires a lot of courage and discipline and no, I don’t have enough amount of either quality. I love it still, but I can’t be one and still be happy and content. Then, I tried to work at a lifestyle magazine. I liked it to a certain degree, it is still writing, after all, but no, I won’t be doing it for the rest of my life. I don’t give a crap about the kinds of stuff they are covering.
An internship and a job at a newspaper later, I found out that I don’t think I can be a journalist. As I become more realistic, I understand that I don’t have the guts to be a journalist. It’s a serious job that requires a lot of courage and discipline and no, I don’t have enough amount of either quality. I love it still, but I can’t be one and still be happy and content. Then, I tried to work at a lifestyle magazine. I liked it to a certain degree, it is still writing, after all, but no, I won’t be doing it for the rest of my life. I don’t give a crap about the kinds of stuff they are covering.
So for a while, I was not sure what kind of writer I want to be. All I know was that I still wanted to be a writer.
Until yesterday. (Du du dum)
For those of you familiar with the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, the latest installment just came out on November 8. The geek that I am, I rushed to the book store, put a reserve on one, and finished the 850 pages in 4 days in between work and workshops and meetings. I’m so proud of myself.
I hadn’t finished a book in a while, and my attention span has gotten shorter and shorter over the years. I was very much doubtful if I could finish it that quickly. My estimation was a month.
I’m going to restrain my opinion about the book because if I start writing about it, this would end up to be a review of the book and I could go on and on and on.
As disappointing the book is (oops, sorry can’t help it) it brought back this dream I’ve always had. I haven’t read a fantasy book since the last Harry Potter book. It turned out that I had forgotten of this burning passion I had for the fantasy genre. Inheritance brought that back. I was again in love with the idea and now that I’m older and I understand what I want, I finally know that that’s what I want to do. I want to be a novelist and I want to start by writing a fantasy novel.
So for the first time in my life, I am sure of the kind of writer I want to be. I am now starting on this book. I have a pretty firm idea of what it is going to be. I am developing the story as I’m writing this.
It’s amazing the change that this enlightenment brought. I am excited again for the first time in a long time. I want to start writing this. I can’t wait to start doing this. I’m ecstatic.
So, wish me luck.
For Christopher Paolini, thank you. Thank you for reminding me why I love the genre so much. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Cheers,
-Bubbalub-
