Introduce Yourself : Me, myself and I by Bruce Sprague

Maybe I should back up a bit. My tendency is to hide behind my writing, so I'll step out and show more of myself too.

Background in Journalism and English, with a work history including editing, documentation, and, now, self-employed with an editing business. Also have had a resume-writing business, but that's being retired now. Getting a bit burned out on it.

Always been interested in writing stories, having been drawing stories before I could write them, and finally decided to start writing short stories, then longer fiction.

But, as usual, I've always been my best worst enemy. I'd get really upset and angry at rejection letters and then mad at myself for being upset about my reaction; I mean, I know I'm going to get rejections, right? But I'd still get mad at them and I really had a difficult time trying to balance that with the knowledge that it wasn't personal but a necessary part of the experience. Eventually, I gave up, unable to reconcile that.

Fortunately for me, that whole reaction seemed to be more a lack of maturity. Years later, I'd send out queries for my novel and was better able to handle the rejections, although I did finally give up after 34 rejections. I had to keep going but I didn't.

Later, I was diagnosed with ADD, which helped explain why (I think) why I didn't want to take time to learn how to write fiction and why I had such a difficult time with following up or completing very many projects. And I still procrastinate (but I'm not alone in that by any means!) and I'm also fighting with massive, massive internal messaging that what I'm writing is not any good.

And I've also had trouble settling on a genre--there's so many story ideas I have in so many genres and I've not wanting to focus on any one. My fiction of choice is sci-fi/fantasy, but I also love mysteries, and I also have an idea for an interesting rom-com....but I have a hard time deciding on which genre to stay with.

It's particularly tough since I'm a concept writer: I get great story ideas and then work backwards to find characters to drop into the story line.

There is one good thing about this, though....I've written a horror screenplay but I didn't especially like it and I don't have any interest in reading a lot of other horror stories, so I've permanently shelved that one. I consider it to be an experiment, learning what really excites my and what doesn't. It's really all about what do I want to read about to learn about how to write about. (But it IS something I can present as a sample).

Right now I have a murder mystery script finished, Let the Dead Bury the Dead, about a gay ex-cop turned minister who gets involved in investigating the death of a homeless youth found dead on church property.

And I'm rewriting (and rewriting and rewriting--gr) The Apple Thief, a fantasy story about a prince who discovers more than he ever expected when he offers to find out who's stealing some magical apples. This is becoming more and more interesting to me as I go along, unfolding itself like an artichoke.