Maria's Journal

In my early teens when I began writing, I didn’t even know there were different styles of writing. As a young woman, I was just thrilled with the idea of world building. I discovered I had the power to change a person’s fate with a few simple keystrokes and that fascinated me. As the years went by and more responsibilities were piled onto my plate writing became secondary soon I’d stopped writing altogether. It wasn’t until just a few years back that I delved into world of fiction again employing the only method I’d ever known, the make-it-up-as-you-go-along method. When I set out to create my first short story Captive I started with nothing but a blank Word document and the hero’s voice in my head. The plot and supporting characters would emerge during the course of that first draft. As you might imagine my initial attempt at this short story didn’t go so well as plot lines were changed and/or added along the way. The second and third manuscript drafts were just slight...