My Journey in the World of Writing :: Sndbox Summer Camp Writing - Task 1

A Journey always has to begin somewhere...

The earliest stories I wrote, or at least the ones I can remember the ones I have proof of, were written in primary school. Every now and then I happen across them, and they make me wonder. They are a mix of Sci-Fi and dystopia. How did I think of them? They are focused around made-up languages, saving the world and inventing technologies to aid humanity. Mind you, I'm not that old, but old enough not to have grown up with cell-phones and regular access to computers.

So, that is where my story begins. With a teacher who liked my stories, and with me being proud and saving those stories as a personal treasure.

Dutch poetry...

Not all the steps on my journey in the world of writing are very clear. I wrote a lot of poetry as a child. Don't ask me why. I have no idea what made me do it. But I won a poetry contest when I was 11 years old, with a poem (in Dutch) about a girl behind the window. The girl, that was me, and I was very ill and stuck in a wheelchair for some years, and the poem was me seeing all the people outside, riding their bikes and me wanting to also feel the rain on my hair.

The prize for this contest included participation in a poetry workshop with a local poet who wrote in the local dialect - I remember his poems being very difficult and in old-fashioned meter and I had no idea what he was talking about. I remember him telling me that my poem could be much better if I would edit them. I was angry, how would he know how I felt.

The main prize was that my poem was published, in a real little booklet, of which I'm still the proud owner. But it also included a special evening, in a theater. I had to read my poem in front of a large audience, and I remember I was the last one to go on stage, so I had to wait a long time. As I was waiting, an older guy started talking to me, he was the 'main event' of the evening, a famous night-life-poet and night-mayor of Rotterdam, Jules Deelder. I didn't know him, I was just eleven, and with his black clothes he might have even looked scary, but he was actually very friendly and made me laugh about something I have now forgotten. He was the first real poet I met. And he made me feel that writers, or poets, may be very nice people after all.

English

At a certain point I started reading English books. I had no idea there was a difference between American and British English, at the time, so I went to the library and took from their modest English-offering a book that looked interesting: The Firm by John Grisham. I know, I know. How low can you go? But I must have been around 10 years old, and what did I know? I read the book while looking up all the words I didn't know in the dictionary. Which were most of the words, at least for the first few pages. About half-way in the book I started to kind of understand what was going on, despite all the lawyer-talk and the terms I didn't even know in my own language. This is how I learned English. Or at least, this is how it all started.

I continued to read ferociously, and by the time I went to college (an all English-speaking college) and had to write an entry essay to determine my level of English and the classes I'd have to take, the feedback was whether I had read a lot of King James by any chance. My English was ancient, probably due to my favorite book being The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, written in the 18th century and still one of the best (non-fiction) books ever written.

In college I learned the strict rules of academic writing, but only during my PhD, which is basically a four-year period in which you have the freedom (& the responsibility!) to write your own book based on research you decide on, I really started to think about writing as something to do. Writing also became a topic in my philosophy-PhD, and I started to read a lot of 20th century French and German philosophers and what they wrote about writing.

Writing books...

So I've written a couple of manuscripts now, all philosophical monologues about things I find very important. My main work, which will be published later this year, is the manuscript based on my PhD dissertation, entitled 'The Necessity of the Impossible'. It is the philosophy I developed and which forms the basis of the other manuscripts.

And today exactly one month ago, my first (Dutch) book was published, which I have written about extensively on Steem already, so I will not bore you again. It's called 'Diagnosis of the modern philosopher: Why philosophers are crazy'.But let's say, that when earlier this week I saw my book in the window of the main book store in Utrecht (the Netherlands), I was pretty pretty proud of myself. All other things felt like small things in comparison. It was a magnificent feeling. I guess I'm really feeling like an author now.

And I'm still writing... and also still looking for publishers to take on my new work. Which is a struggle, but one worth the perseverance it takes. Several manuscripts are in the making, in three languages at the moment, which leads to a bit of madness in my life, but so far it's going okay.

(And I will not remind you, not to disturb this nice and uplifting story about my journey into writing, about my many rejections, the abundance of moments I felt like giving up and stopping all this worthless dreaming that didn't go anywhere...)

Fiction!!!

But... I'm never really satisfied. My real dream has always ALSO been to write fiction. I have written some plays during college. Sometimes professors would tell you to be creative for a paper, and I decided to show them what creativity really meant... I wrote three plays, one of which was published in the student philosophy magazine, and another one was once performed -- directed by myself. It was a lot of fun. (And yes, I wrote those plays in English, and they rhymed.)

Philosophy & Fiction

But... fiction is a great way to get philosophical ideas across. There are some great examples, and in hindsight I understand why I have always been attracted to certain authors. Philip K Dick, who was a visionary and uses short and longer stories to explore the limits of an idea. Jean-Paul Sartre, who uses fiction to let people experience a philosophical concept. Ayn Rand, who uses fiction to make people see the world how she sees it.

I'm not sure I'll ever walk in their footsteps. But it does explain my love for dystopia, sci-fi, literary works to question something fundamental about human life. I will always also be a philosopher. But I would like to one day be able to say I am both a philosopher and a fiction writer. Thinking is great, but getting other people to think for themselves is the real mission of philosophy, I think.

Short Stories first... and then... who knows?

So far, I've mostly written short stories (here is a full overview of stories published on Steem so far), because I know I still have a lot to learn. The people at @thewritersblock have really galvanized my love for writing fiction, by giving sharp feedback and also by challenging me to write things I'd never think about. Like writing from the perspective of a dike that battles against water. Also the writing challenges on Steem help a lot, like this story about, well, I'll not spoil it, but here you can read Not the Dinosaurs Again the deadlines are often very tight, which is sad, because a 2-week writing period really makes it possible to edit and rewrite a story into much better shape, sometimes.

I have no clue what the future will bring. I will focus on short stories for a while, trying to get them published someone in a sci-fi journal maybe. And perhaps one day I'll feel ready to start working on a longer project, like a novel. For now, I'll continue learning from great authors as I continue reading as a writer, and learning through peer-review. I am pretty sure fantasy is not my genre, but the rest is still pretty open, so I'm looking forward to learn more about where my true interest lies.

On @Sndbox and why I joined this #sndboxquest

Steem for me is a place to connect to other creative people, to inspire and to be inspired, and to help grow this platform by writing high quality posts, by curating and by supporting good initiatives. It is the world with all its aspects, and my aim is to contribute constructively, not by entering debates, but by entering into collaborations. I've joined this SNDBOX-challenge because I think that I have something to contribute to the SNDBOX community, but also a lot to learn from their infinite knowledge. I'd love to be part of their community, to learn and grow together.

And perhaps, I'll even get to spread some of my love for philosophy and my love for fiction writing there ;-)

^{Here an overview of more fiction/short stories and poetry by @nobyeni.}