Stay groovy ☮

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I suppose I’ve had many inspirations to become a writer over the many years of my teenage life. I think firstly is the books I read when I was around 13 like ‘The Book of Dead Days’ - this book really got me in to the whole idea of the gothic and led me to classics such as ‘Dracula’ and modern classics like ‘The Shadow of the Wind’. The obsession of one genre is good for productivity and ideas in that it motivates you as you don’t have to invest so much time in choosing your pathway. If you like gothic you’re going to try and write the next gothic classic.

While I don’t consider myself a fan of his writing anymore, ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho was definitely something that opened my eyes a lot more because, as a young person reading the book, it really connected with me and inspired me. This inspired me to inspire me I suppose. It’s really very remarkable about how one dose of inspiration can open your eyes to the world and give you a thirst for knowledge and individuality. After reading ‘The Alchemist’ I got passionate about life - I really started to consider my views on religion, ethics, politics, art, science, trees vs. clouds, ninjas vs. pirates… everything! Now this isn’t to say that ‘The Alchemist’ changed my life because I suppose it coincided with my intellectual awakening that was engendered by my teachers, my family, my friends, things I heard, things I saw… everything I suppose.

The next stop on my journey was science fiction. Now I’ll admit I used to play Warhammer 40k and this led me to reading the books. This led me to Isaac Asimov. Now Asimov is and always will be one of my favourite authors because of his intelligence in his message and lore yet his simplicity in writing. Science Fiction expanded my imagination to the nth degree. It’s a fantastic genre; I don’t care how geeky it’s perceived to be.

But my true passion is film. And in my progression from a book obsessive to a film obsessive I suppose I took my awareness of narrative. I love seeing how a film is shaped by the story. The special effects may be pretty and all but they are (read: should) be there for a reason - it is the reason I’m interested in. Without the story there is no film (unless you’re Michael Bay of course) and I want to know more about the story! Films are books put to canvas… well a flipbook of canvas. My passion for books led to my passion of film and this led me to the realisation of my passion for art - writing being my art of choice.

But for my final inspiration I must return to books. Now I’ve been very naughty and for the past year the internet and film have entirely replaced books in my life. I’ve been trying to change this (rather unsuccessfully) recently but it’s going relatively well. But it’s what I’m reading now that is so inspirational - Camus, Sartre, Kafka, Kierkegaard, great thinkers and philosophers who make me think and change me as a person. I want to have this effect on people and in the process of creating something to this effect, challenge and change myself.

The way I see life is ‘carpe diem’ - seize the day, and what could be better by doing so with words and stories and thoughts and minds and intelligences and awesomeness? Writing and stories and any manifestation of these are just plain groovy and anyone that disagrees is just not groovy. Stay groovy everyone :)