The discovery tonight that fiction writing is not my inspiration or gift. Rather, non-fiction journaling of thoughts and experiences holds me captive to the words I want to imprint on paper.

Stephen King’s dark, scary novels do not interest me, but his Memoir of the Craft of Writing called On Writing has held me captive for nine hours of listening and learning. He is a master writer and teacher, in my opinion. Are there greater authors? Possibly. The fact Stephen King wants to share his thoughts about what he has learned as an experienced novelist, so that others may glean and benefit from his suggestions and the techniques he uses to craft great stories, all while telling great stories, which help do the teaching, opened my eyes to the fact he is a great human.  A thoughtful person. He is not just some evil horror storyteller. He is much more. He had a childhood. He has a wife and children. He has feelings.  He cares. He loves his family.

I doubt there is a lot of money to be made for simply sharing thoughts about a person I admire or a personal eye-opening experience I had that turned a negative judgement about a person, because of a particular genre of writing, into a positive judgement about the person behind the writing. I don’t know that Stephen King is the type of guy I would want to strike up a friendship with. But, I could listen to him tell stories about his life and teach about writing for hours upon hours.

Not to get overly political, but this question came to mind: Is my realization that Stephen King is not such an awful evil person because he writes beyond scary, horrendously dark fiction similar to the realization that Donald Trump may not be such an awful human being because he made awful choices in his past? Some might think so. I do not compare the two men to each other. They are very different men. The only parallel I want to draw is that some people believe Stephen King is good for the writing world, just like some believe Donald Trump is good for the political world.  

The pressure is off. Becoming a fiction novelist is not in my future, more than likely. (Did you see me leave the door open to the possibility, still?) However, blogging is in my present. Blogging is a place I can share my thoughts and experiences. My written musings may connect with my fellow bloggers from time to time, just like theirs connect with me. That is what brings me joy and that is what inspires me.

Who knows? Maybe the more I blog the more I will realize there is a fiction story in me that is waiting to get out…. Someday.