2. There are two different answers to this question. The first is that I've been writing for as long as I've known how to write. As far back as early elementary school, when we were given vocabulary words and told to use them in sentences, I would always make sure those sentences told a story. My dad tells me that I used to make up stories about the TV show "M*A*S*H" and tell them to him in lieu of being read a bedtime story. I was making up stories in my head all the time; sometimes I wrote them down, sometimes I didn't, but it was always there. But for all practical purposes, I stopped writing, and stopped thinking myself as a creative writer, sometime during high school.
Then it all started again many years later, which brings me to the second way I could answer this question. In 2004, more than a decade after I stopped writing with any regularity, I was replaying FFX-2 for the second or third time, when I was bitten by a plot bunny. Hard. So hard that I had no choice but to start writing it down. The plot bunny was Paine, and her relationship with Nooj, and what might happen between them after the game was over (I 'shipped Paine/Nooj from the very first time I played the game; they were my OTP before I even knew what an OTP was). That bunny became the story "Chasing My Past". I spent months working on it (I didn't post anything until April 2005), but before it was even finished I was attacked by another bunny: an Auron bunny. What was his past? Why did he turn down the marriage and promotion? What *really* happened between him and Kinoc? Before I knew it, I had started writing that story down as well, and I was hooked on writing in the FFX/X-2 fandom.
So I guess the answer to your question is yes. I have always been a storyteller, for as long as I can remember. But a particular someone inspired me to start setting those stories down in fixed form, and that someone, improbably enough, was Paine.
I also need to mention one other inspiration: my friend madlori. Back when I first started this journal (which was many months before I started writing any fanfic), I mentioned my desire to start up with writing again, and she brought up the possibility of fanfic (she was in Harry Potter fandom at the time). I didn't have any inspiration then, but her suggestion worked on the back of my brain. And I don't know whether I would have ever given myself permission to write fanfic otherwise. So she deserves a share of the credit as well.
whew, tl;dr! sorry about that. ;)
Also: Paine icons! parron often makes good ones. You might browse through her icon backfiles if you're looking for more...
no subject
2. There are two different answers to this question. The first is that I've been writing for as long as I've known how to write. As far back as early elementary school, when we were given vocabulary words and told to use them in sentences, I would always make sure those sentences told a story. My dad tells me that I used to make up stories about the TV show "M*A*S*H" and tell them to him in lieu of being read a bedtime story. I was making up stories in my head all the time; sometimes I wrote them down, sometimes I didn't, but it was always there. But for all practical purposes, I stopped writing, and stopped thinking myself as a creative writer, sometime during high school.
Then it all started again many years later, which brings me to the second way I could answer this question. In 2004, more than a decade after I stopped writing with any regularity, I was replaying FFX-2 for the second or third time, when I was bitten by a plot bunny. Hard. So hard that I had no choice but to start writing it down. The plot bunny was Paine, and her relationship with Nooj, and what might happen between them after the game was over (I 'shipped Paine/Nooj from the very first time I played the game; they were my OTP before I even knew what an OTP was). That bunny became the story "Chasing My Past". I spent months working on it (I didn't post anything until April 2005), but before it was even finished I was attacked by another bunny: an Auron bunny. What was his past? Why did he turn down the marriage and promotion? What *really* happened between him and Kinoc? Before I knew it, I had started writing that story down as well, and I was hooked on writing in the FFX/X-2 fandom.
So I guess the answer to your question is yes. I have always been a storyteller, for as long as I can remember. But a particular someone inspired me to start setting those stories down in fixed form, and that someone, improbably enough, was Paine.
I also need to mention one other inspiration: my friend
whew, tl;dr! sorry about that. ;)
Also: Paine icons!