Mystery, Adventure, and Loyalty

I really struggled over what to write for my first blog post. Will it be engaging? Is anyone going to read it? Will it be relevant? And I finally realized: no. It’s more than likely no one will read it so it probably won’t be relevant or engaging to anyone but me. Even then, I’ll probably be sick of reading it.

Turns out, this wasn’t even my first post. I forgot about it and ended up writing other things. Go figure.

So, I thought I’d go back to why I even got into writing.

Because I love to read.

Thanks, Carolyn Keene, for bringing Nancy Drew to life.

I’m not a mystery writer – my brain doesn’t operate that way – but I do love puzzles, adventure, and loyalty. No doubt why I love playing the Zelda games so much. And Nancy Drew had it all. So did the Mandy books and Boxcar Children. Those are the earliest books I recall reading that were more than simple picture books with small amounts of text. It was then, I started to create more complex plots, characters, and resolutions.

As I’ve written my variety of short stories and young adult novellas, I’ve always tried to ask myself ‘Would I have read this if I were ten (or twelve, or fourteen, etc.)?’

Writers are encouraged to write for their audiences – and they should. But, I also feel that if we don’t also write for our middle-grade or teenage self, we will miss the mark. If we won’t pick up and read the book with the excitement and anticipation of the favorite books of our youth, how can we possibly expect anyone else to either?