What a great personal story, Andrei. I love this, and the honesty.
First up, that passage you posted is pretty damn good, especially for story #1. It's really vivid, plus the ending feels perfect, even without knowledge of the rest of the story. (Personally, I am yet to get to grips with endings. I love the magic of beginnings -- I'm terrified of story endings.)
"I wrote with a fervor I hadn’t thought possible, and at the end was astonished by how a single mental picture could be the catalyst for almost two thousand words of pure fantasy. Two thousand words of stuff that hadn’t existed before I wrote it into being." <-- doesn't this just capture the true magic of writing? Of what it can do and what it's about.
Also, your point about feeling whole. I have been wracked by similar notions of being a scientist (and enjoying that) but not feeling content. There is nothing that gives me that sense of completeness like writing. Joining Substack this year has been a balm in that regard, because even with a single weekly post I get that feeling. I've crafted something, I've put it out there, I haven't *wasted* my time (whatever that means), but have instead done something I can sit and see and put out there. There's a lot of magic in that.
One of my favourite hobbys is making puzzles, Lego and whatever kind of construction game I can find! I think it started when I was a little child and my mom bought to my sister and me a game called Exin Castles... As you say, when I'm doing this thing, the time runs very fast and I could keep doing it for hours! The world is apart, is only the puzzle and me, and maybe some good music too.
What a great personal story, Andrei. I love this, and the honesty.
First up, that passage you posted is pretty damn good, especially for story #1. It's really vivid, plus the ending feels perfect, even without knowledge of the rest of the story. (Personally, I am yet to get to grips with endings. I love the magic of beginnings -- I'm terrified of story endings.)
"I wrote with a fervor I hadn’t thought possible, and at the end was astonished by how a single mental picture could be the catalyst for almost two thousand words of pure fantasy. Two thousand words of stuff that hadn’t existed before I wrote it into being." <-- doesn't this just capture the true magic of writing? Of what it can do and what it's about.
Also, your point about feeling whole. I have been wracked by similar notions of being a scientist (and enjoying that) but not feeling content. There is nothing that gives me that sense of completeness like writing. Joining Substack this year has been a balm in that regard, because even with a single weekly post I get that feeling. I've crafted something, I've put it out there, I haven't *wasted* my time (whatever that means), but have instead done something I can sit and see and put out there. There's a lot of magic in that.
One of my favourite hobbys is making puzzles, Lego and whatever kind of construction game I can find! I think it started when I was a little child and my mom bought to my sister and me a game called Exin Castles... As you say, when I'm doing this thing, the time runs very fast and I could keep doing it for hours! The world is apart, is only the puzzle and me, and maybe some good music too.