A few days ago, a friend asked me how come I started writing stories. I explained that I began journaling about twenty years ago to help me deal with the emotional fallout from my job as a busy family doctor. Once I’d reflected on what I’d written, usually about something I’d found difficult to process, I deleted it. I thought it best to move on.
Then, driving home one evening, I was chuckling to myself after a home visit to a patient whose dog tried to pinch my stethoscope during the consultation, imagining what might have happened if the dog had succeeded. I wrote about this when I got home, saved it instead of deleting it, and the first draft of a short story was born. I found and read it again a couple of days ago. It’s not as funny as I remember, but it was a start.
I continued journaling, but often I’d switch to fiction inspired by something I’d been involved in, rather than writing about the event itself. I found that the process of creating a story after a difficult day was more comforting than journaling, and that writing a story inspired by a positive experience was more fun.
It was my son who encouraged me to take the next step and sign up to a creative writing course. After that I was hooked. From time to time, I plan to re-edit old stories whose characters have ended up in the Andy Truelove world as well as write new ones to put on my website. Watch this space.
