For the longest time I have remembered the writing process for, and the results of, what I consider my first real short story. I also know I went on to write three sequels to it in relatively short order after. This was way back in public school. I was likely eleven given that I was one of those children carted off to school a year earlier than my classmates because my birthday is late in the calendar year--one of my cousin's started school a year older than her classmates because her birthday was in the first part of the calendar year. I could thank the teacher for starting me on my storytelling path if only I could remember her name. I think I may have dedicated the final part to her since I don't recognise the initials I used in the dedication. Even then I considered these stories, and spoke of them, as a series. I also had grand illusions filling my head of a computer game in the Choose Your Own Adventure style like old games I can no longer name, and thus can't Google. I began coding the game in Basic on a TRS-80 Model 3 that you ran programs off of 30-minute audio tapes.
I pulled out the stories recently. It's immediately obvious that I was young, over melodramatic, and didn't mess around with small time stories--I put the smack down on Lucifer not once, but twice. The funny thing is the brevity. I don't know how long I spent on each piece but they are so incredibly short looking now. I also lost most of the last paragraph of the first story--I think that's all that's missing. I think all is not lost though. I'm fairly certain the first story has the last same paragraph as the second story with one small but significant change. Oddly enough the change still exists in the broken paragraph. Sometime after the initial writing I added a prologue to the first story, and mirroring the ends an altered version on the beginning of the second story.
The importance of these stories is more than just that they set me on the path of a writer. They set the tone for the kind of world building I engage in with my fiction--as opposed to role-playing game settings and work. They also formed the basic premise of a more recent work, that again is only the first part of several. I have always wanted to go back and rework the best parts of these stories, and with the rediscovery of the manuscripts, I may be closer to doing that than in a long time. I know the character, I have the feel down again, and all I need is the time.
Music: The Gunslinger by Demons and Wizards. Or get MP3s.
