"Thoughts on Writing" by Charles Millhouse

"Thoughts on Writing"
Charles Millhouse
2/1/2019

As the cold tightens its angry grip around the mid-west, I sat down at my computer in my drafty study to write this guest blog, deciding what I wanted my topic to be. I fought with the idea of introducing myself to potential readers who might find my work appealing.  But why, I wondered. Would anyone want to know me? Would they care who I am, and what I do? So, I figured it might be best to tell you, if anyone reading this is interested of course, how I came to write this blog post.

I first published twenty years ago, a three musketeer in space adventure, that, to this authors relief is no longer in print. The idea was sound, but the execution was a mess. My prose in those days was, shall we say not as strong as it could have been. When I say not as strong, I mean it was a wreck. You see, as any writer will tell you, story telling is as much an art as a painter or sculptor. It takes time, practice and a lot of patience. In 1999, I was young, well, younger than I am now, and I didn’t understand story structure at all. My POV was all over the place and... ok, I think by now you realize that I wasn’t good at my craft then. Few writers are when they start out, but I wasn’t going to admit that, especially to myself.

Writing is hard. You sit down in front of that computer screen, and you realize you’re all by yourself. There is no one there but you. But after a while something amazing happens. You find you’re not as alone as you might think, when the characters of your story join you on this amazing adventure of storytelling. Suddenly you’re not alone, and you begin this journey, a journey of adventure, intrigue, or even murder.

Then something else happens, the story you thought you were going to tell goes off on its own, a course you didn’t set. You type furiously because you have to know what’s going to happen, then it hits you, you’re no longer in control and the story is alive. All you have to do, is make sure you don’t screw it up. Writing a story is a lot like writing this blog post... it took off on its own, it went in a direction I didn’t set. How can that be you ask? Aren’t you the writer? You ask. Yeah, but if I knew the outcome, why bother to write in the first place? I ask you, as a reader, wouldn’t you rather discover the story, instead of figuring it out before you get to the end.

An author constantly changes and evolves. Their writing style becomes second nature. They see the world differently than non-writers. I love being a writer – I love the constant change, the discovery, the wonderment. I craft stories I want to read. Hi-adventure, strong characters and fantastic worlds. I write for myself, but having someone read my work, and like my work, and tell me they are waiting for the next book to come out does my soul good. I have fans, I have readers, I have people wanting to read my stuff and after twenty years, it was well-worth the time and effort perfecting my craft.

I am Charles F. Millhouse, an independent writer of eighteen books in the science fiction/new pulp/supernatural genres. Including the Captain Hawklin Adventures, the New Kingdom Trilogy and the upcoming Serena Darkwood series.

You can find me at www.stormgatepress.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/theCFM, at www.twitter.com/writermillhouse, and at www.instagram.com/writermillhouse.

Happy Reading.