The early years...
I learned to read before starting school, and credit reading for teaching me some of the most valuable lessons. By absorbing other people’s stories I had the benefit of their accumulated experience and it served me well growing up, helping me navigate problems and decisions with a wisdom beyond my own years. I’m drawn to fiction that reaches to strengthen the better part of human nature, and am myself dedicated to courage and integrity, personal justice, and the belief in inherent human goodness. In writing, I now get to sit on the other side of the page and give back in authoring my own stories.
The scholastic years...
My Reed College application essay explored the way science-fiction/fantasy allows us to look at, and see, the world better than other, supposedly more reality-based media, specifically because the imagination and creativity brought to it provides a fresh perspective. There, I majored in Linguistics out of a love of language.
Writing influences...
I have been involved in RPGs for twenty-five years. From playing in wonderfully creative games and running games of my own – outside of pre-made settings, and focusing on storytelling instead of systems – I’ve learned so much about how to give an entertaining and emotionally satisfying ‘fiction’ experience to someone entering my worlds and scenarios.
In 2002 my reading group tried our hand at writing games. We went on to develop our own version of collaborative improv writing. Nine years later we’re still going, and have a website devoted to our stories: http://www.johnworsley.name/writing/. I also lead a round-table of improv writing every year at OryCon: www.orycon.org. From this delightful activity I learned to just write – to allow the words to come despite the inner critic. I developed a more playful, active voice, and further honed storytelling skills by taking the brilliant but sometimes disparate elements fellow improv writers can bring to the page and weaving them back together into something cohesive, satisfying, and funny.
Early writing...
I began dedicated fiction writing with screenplays, and then found my home in novels. So far I’ve written several novels in the process of learning to write, and am drawn to urban fairy/fairy tale, period piece paranormal and literary nonsense. I’m now ready to submit my work for publication and have just begun with a couple of short stories, the Amazon Breakout Novel Award, and pitching at the Willamette Writers conference. Short fiction has been more challenging for me, but I know it is an invaluable writing skill, as well as a good way to advance a writing career. I recently completed my sixth short story, and am beginning to love the medium more and more.
Writing activities...
For the last several years I’ve thrown myself into the world of critique because of how much I learn from analyzing other people’s stories, as well as the fresh eyes you get from being critiqued. I was a member of the Lucky Lab Rats (with award winning short story writer David Levine, as well as SFWA Western Regional Director Jim Fiscus, speculative fiction reviewer John Bunnell and other published writers), started a dedicated weekly group that is invaluable to my writing, and am also a member of a great online group called the Plot Ninjas.
One of the team behind National Novel Editing Month, I’m a regional leader, the graphics designer and a contributor of articles, as well as yearly participant (http://www.nanoedmo.net/xoops2/).
I’m indebted to the Office of Letters and Light for National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org), which has given me an external deadline every year as I learned how to set up my life to write productively. And the event has helped me to write without writers block, because writing an entire novel in a month forces you to learn to trust yourself. So I use the spontaneity of NaNoWriMo to bring what’s fresh and unique to me into the first draft, and then work in further layers of craft during subsequent edits and rewrites.
Goals and ambitions...
I struggled after college because I couldn’t find a job that was at all right for me. It took time to discover my vocation, but now that I have, I’m so thankful. My current driving goal is to earn a full-time income from both my writing and art.
I learned to read before starting school, and credit reading for teaching me some of the most valuable lessons. By absorbing other people’s stories I had the benefit of their accumulated experience and it served me well growing up, helping me navigate problems and decisions with a wisdom beyond my own years. I’m drawn to fiction that reaches to strengthen the better part of human nature, and am myself dedicated to courage and integrity, personal justice, and the belief in inherent human goodness. In writing, I now get to sit on the other side of the page and give back in authoring my own stories.
The scholastic years...
My Reed College application essay explored the way science-fiction/fantasy allows us to look at, and see, the world better than other, supposedly more reality-based media, specifically because the imagination and creativity brought to it provides a fresh perspective. There, I majored in Linguistics out of a love of language.
Writing influences...
I have been involved in RPGs for twenty-five years. From playing in wonderfully creative games and running games of my own – outside of pre-made settings, and focusing on storytelling instead of systems – I’ve learned so much about how to give an entertaining and emotionally satisfying ‘fiction’ experience to someone entering my worlds and scenarios.
In 2002 my reading group tried our hand at writing games. We went on to develop our own version of collaborative improv writing. Nine years later we’re still going, and have a website devoted to our stories: http://www.johnworsley.name/writing/. I also lead a round-table of improv writing every year at OryCon: www.orycon.org. From this delightful activity I learned to just write – to allow the words to come despite the inner critic. I developed a more playful, active voice, and further honed storytelling skills by taking the brilliant but sometimes disparate elements fellow improv writers can bring to the page and weaving them back together into something cohesive, satisfying, and funny.
Early writing...
I began dedicated fiction writing with screenplays, and then found my home in novels. So far I’ve written several novels in the process of learning to write, and am drawn to urban fairy/fairy tale, period piece paranormal and literary nonsense. I’m now ready to submit my work for publication and have just begun with a couple of short stories, the Amazon Breakout Novel Award, and pitching at the Willamette Writers conference. Short fiction has been more challenging for me, but I know it is an invaluable writing skill, as well as a good way to advance a writing career. I recently completed my sixth short story, and am beginning to love the medium more and more.
Writing activities...
For the last several years I’ve thrown myself into the world of critique because of how much I learn from analyzing other people’s stories, as well as the fresh eyes you get from being critiqued. I was a member of the Lucky Lab Rats (with award winning short story writer David Levine, as well as SFWA Western Regional Director Jim Fiscus, speculative fiction reviewer John Bunnell and other published writers), started a dedicated weekly group that is invaluable to my writing, and am also a member of a great online group called the Plot Ninjas.
One of the team behind National Novel Editing Month, I’m a regional leader, the graphics designer and a contributor of articles, as well as yearly participant (http://www.nanoedmo.net/xoops2/).
I’m indebted to the Office of Letters and Light for National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org), which has given me an external deadline every year as I learned how to set up my life to write productively. And the event has helped me to write without writers block, because writing an entire novel in a month forces you to learn to trust yourself. So I use the spontaneity of NaNoWriMo to bring what’s fresh and unique to me into the first draft, and then work in further layers of craft during subsequent edits and rewrites.
Goals and ambitions...
I struggled after college because I couldn’t find a job that was at all right for me. It took time to discover my vocation, but now that I have, I’m so thankful. My current driving goal is to earn a full-time income from both my writing and art.
