It’s all about the books
At its core, my story is probably similar to many of yours. Books, books, books as a kid, a teen, a young adult. It’s a passion that is rich and sustaining. A passion that only other book people can really “get.” An obsession, perhaps. A joy, absolutely. Luckily, we are a wide community, not only across geography, but the centuries as well.
In time, a love of story made way for a parallel love of ideas. The bridge? A steady teenage diet of scifi. And the natural curiosity we humans seem to have in abundance, most particularly at that age. The new worlds were breathtaking, the only limits those of our imagination. It was not so much the trappings of those other worlds, but the very different ways of seeing, ways we might bring back from those worlds to ours, for the better. (Yes, I was a Trekkie too.)
A professor of mine once said that being raised Catholic had given me the habit of confession. No doubt, he was onto something. But it was Harriet the Spy who led me to paper. And later, much later, Joan Didion and EB White who confirmed the habit.
Writers beget writers, as well as readers.
When I later moved into editing, nonfiction was the natural fit. I knew its workings. I knew how to get inside and find the bits that needed shoring up or redoing. Thus for development. When it came to language, I had to learn how to move from symptom to diagnosis to solution in ways that kept personal preference, as much as possible, at bay. It’s never possible to entirely subdue the personal — there is no “view from nowhere” — but I studied to be on guard against it. To always have a reason for a change made or suggested, with such reason rooted in some principle of English syntax. In how sentences work, not only in isolation but together. In one or more of the many ways in which syntax might be misaligned with semantics or intent, or both.
It’s been a fascinating study, one that’s never fully concluded.
But, meanwhile, there’s that undiscovered country: fiction. It’s been calling to me, ever more strongly in the last couple of years, and now I think I’m finally in a position to answer that call. I don’t know where it might all lead, maybe nowhere professional, nowhere other than personal satisfaction. And that too would be fine. Sometimes the journey is enough.