Kat Brokaw
Fantasy Fiction Writer
About the Author
"Everyone" says that you have to have a bio on your website
detailing your life in synopsis for the fans and the curious. I've never really gotten along with
"Everyone." I realize that she's in a position of quasi-authority and I truly do make an effort to
be civil; but I just don't like that bitch.
After three drafts of fact-schmoozing PR that made me feel like a hippo in a leotard, I got to
my comfortable place and told "Everyone" to hit the road. The fact that I was born in the late
sixties to a pair of young white Republicans in Lansing, Michigan doesn't matter doodley
to you. Or, at least, it shouldn't. The only thing it did was shade the color of my rather
outrageous teenage rebellion.
The census facts are simple. I'm a middle-aged single woman living in Southern California which
I afford by way of my day job. I have one extremely talented teenage daughter (who did this
lovely background artwork) living at home. I also have a grown son (who is the love and frustration
of my heart) living on his own. I have four cats, two birds, and a tank full of guppies. Oh, and
every available inch of wall-surface of my apartment is filled with bookshelves.
What I think you really want to know is where does the writing come from? How do I -- and how can you
-- get to that place where stories come seemingly out of thin air?
My personal theory is that it starts in childhood; or, more to the point, that it doesn't end with
childhood. Children are natural story-tellers; fiction floods their daily play of make-believe.
“Let’s play that I’m a fairy princess and you’re the knight and you want to come save me from the big
dragon guarding my castle.”
Something of that dies in us when we start worrying about grades and pimples, and by the time we’re
focused on bills and sex the funeral is past and the grass is growing over the mound. But a few
of us somehow kept part of that “Let’s play that…” going in our hearts, and somewhere along the
line we started putting it on paper.
That’s where it starts. And for various reasons—abuse, loneliness, encouragement—we keep doing it.
Some of us drop by the wayside, losing the battle to the adult world of corporate goals and piling bills,
and we stop. Some of us fight to keep the “Let’s play that…” alive and going. We are the writers;
whether we’re ever published, whether we’re best sellers or short list, we are the writers in the world.
If you’re one of those few, remember that and keep going, no matter how many times someone snaps that
horribly negative “So, what have you published?” question at you. If you make people in your
head who live through things that have never happened and you put it on paper, you are a fiction writer.
Hold that in your heart.
Even though the child is the root of the story-teller, the source of the talent, the writer must develop
the skills necessary to effectively tell the tale. The skills come from learning your craft. Grammar,
style, theme, conflict, character, plot, setting; these things should be your best friends.
But don’t panic! You don’t have to know all of these right now in order to sit down and write. You can
sit down not knowing a thing about any of that stuff and still write. But your stories are going to be
better if you do know them. A lot better. And isn’t that what you want? So, while still writing, find
a grammar book, a dictionary, read a magazine article about setting.
Keep going. Keep learning. Keep writing. Keep trying. The story you wrote yesterday is not going to
be as good as the story you wrote today, and the story today is nothing compared to what you’ll write
tomorrow.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Blessed be.
Kat
Unless otherwise noted, all text on this site is
the original work of Kat Brokaw and protected by copyright law.
Original background art “Sky Lady” © 2006 Kaide Brokaw.
Thank you.
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