My Writing Process: An Epic Penned Across the Compass

My Writing Process: An Epic Penned Across the Compass

I'm fascinated by a many number of things.  One of those things is the concepts of direction and journey-taking.  It's one of the reasons why I enjoy classic epics such as The Odyssey and The Lord of the Rings; as well as modern classics such as The Inheritance Cycle, and A Song of Ice and Fire.  Now, combine that with the inspiration I find in video games, and it makes perfect sense that I would be such a big fan of role-playing games like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, and most recently: Fallout.  My interest in video game RPGs is not an exclusive one; I also found a great interest in table-top RPGs back in college.  That interest has followed me into my teaching career.  Fortunately, an incredibly awesome group of students I have enjoyed teaching just so happen to like table-top RPGs as well.  It was difficult to get a Dungeons and Dragons campaign going since attendance was inconsistent.  I was therefore required to be creative.  The thing is, I took that requirement to the maximum and created the foundation of a whole new table-top RPG.  I have named it Cataclysm and the students absolutely love it!  I was so happy they were having fun and to watch their characters evolve in conjunction with the game itself.  Improvements have been made to the mechanics, but the lore is in need of much more than is currently written.  Therefore, I've embarked on a poetic journey to tell four stories of particularly skillful adventurers from the world of Cataclysm.  I have already written quite a few poems in the series and I am very excited to keep it going; seriously, there's such a refreshing feeling that comes from writing for the fun of it; to create a narrative with my poetry, that which contributes to the even larger narrative of an entire world that I have created.  I'm relatively certain that this is the kind of rush the writers of those aforementioned classics felt and fell when creating brand new worlds filled with an assortment of fascinating people and a rich, diverse, and enlightening history.  I don't mean to compare the quality of my work with the greats of the genre; however, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that I hope to enter their ranks some day.  For now, I mostly just hope to enjoy the fun I'm having for as long as I can.