Growing up, I dreamt of becoming a writer.
Growing up, I dreamt of becoming a writer. I was in first grade when I wrote my first short story. I vaguely remember the plot, though I don’t it had one. It was about a farm where the cows and pigs would get into silly shenanigans. I may not remember the story, but I remember how my teacher and my classmates reacted. My story made them laugh, and by the end of the story, they clapped and commented how good and funny it was. That moment made me feel great and it started my love for writing.
For years, I wrote on and off. I wrote poetry in college and some of my poems were published later in small online and print magazines. I wasn’t particularly good at poetry. I’m no Elizabeth Browning. Although I liked writing poetry, I wanted to do more than just that. Like many people, I wanted to write a novel! I‘ve started and stopped many novel projects. I would devote my free time to a project for two or three months. And then, one day, I would just abandon it, even though I had a complete outline of the plot and characters. I just couldn’t finish a book project. A lot of times the reason would be that I’d forget about it as work would get busy and life, in general, would become more stressful.
I also struggled for a long time trying to find my voice. There were also times when I had a lot of self-doubt. I didn’t have much confidence in myself as a writer. I didn’t exactly know which genre I wanted to do, where I should post stories, whether the indie or traditional route was for me, and if I should focus more on either drafting a novel or short stories, and what kind of characters I wanted to write. The list went on.
I tried writing fantasy, urban fantasy, romance, drama, and comedy. I couldn’t quite get into them as a writer, even though I enjoyed these genres as a reader. Then, one day I started to write horror. I also read more about cryptozoology and folk tales, especially those from the Philippines. There’s something about the unknown and the complex emotion of fear that I find intriguing and deeply relatable. With encouragement from my small circle of friends, I’ve decided to buckle down and take writing much more seriously. And this time, instead of a novel, I would start with short horror stories and then novellas.
So, I want to take it slowly and step-by-step. I hope to build up to drafting a novel. Who knows? Maybe I’ll finish it one of these days. Although I’ve failed many times trying to write a novel, I’ve at least completed several short stories. You can check them out on my website at cgacosta.weebly.com.
I’ve also finished a novella called “The Giggling Grandma with the Lizard Eyes”! It’ll be serialized in a webzine this spring. Follow me on Twitter @ckgacosta to get updates on the novella and other stories I have in the works.
I will also be posting new stories and even some poems on Medium soon! If you enjoyed the first short story (“Mr. Agustin Takes a Lunch Break”) that I posted on this site, please follow me. I’m quite excited to be part of the creative writing community on Medium!
