The Evolution Of An Idea - Part 1

I’m sure that every writer out there has a favourite story; something that they’ve written that they love above all the rest of their writing. Sometimes it could have a deeply personal meaning for you, and others you just realize you have an affinity for this particular story and you know that it is the best you’ve ever written. The same is true for me.

I have a favourite story, and it is not Black Ice, Perspective, What If It All Means Something or even my newly-inspired Demonria. No. My favourite story is something that I’ve been literally working on for my entire life. I feel like, more than anything of my works, it has the most potential – the only problem is that it is still a work in progress.

I think I am most connected with it because I grew up working on it and building the world where it takes place – a world which is as real to me as ours is. I’ve been the catalyst for its evolution over time into what I think is my greatest work yet.

I would love now to share with you the story of this idea’s evolution.

The Evolution Of An Idea

Part 1

There’s Something To Be Said For Best Friends

Inspiration can come from many places, and it is a powerful thing that provides its own encouragement to write. I don’t remember where all of my inspiration for this story came from – because I was so young when it started to form in my head – but I can tell you that there were many contributing factors as to why I became so obsessed with this idea. Part of the credit for this early stage my story’s development has to be paid to a guy named Michael – Mike for short.

Mike, just three months younger than I am, is my cousin on my mother’s side. Above the family connection, though, I consider Mike to be my best friend – and we have been best friends for literally our entire lives. Okay, ‘literally’ we’ve been best friends for his entire life, and my entire life minus seventy-seven days. This is beside the point.

I can’t go any further on the story bit until I explain to you my friendship with Mike. We’ve been hanging out together for twenty years. Our mothers are best friends and so, when we were kids, we used to see each other all the time. Right from when we were babies. During my years before school, I would see Mike several times a week. Once we started school, I would still see him some evenings and nearly every weekend. We grew up together.

We didn’t go to the same school until high school, but we continued to see each other every weekend. When we were both 12 we joined Martial Arts together, which we take every Friday and Sunday. Today, now black belts, we are still in it.

Grade 9 came around and we finally got to go to school together, which was awesome. Best four years of school of my life, and Mike was one of top reasons for this. In Grade 10, I got a job at Taco Time and a few months later I got him a job there, too. We worked together for three years. Nowadays I’m going to the University of Saskatchewan and he is at the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology and we do not work together, but we still take Martial Arts together and hang out nearly every weekend.

I think this is what a true ‘best friend’ really is, and I’m so fortunate to have been able to spend so much of my life hanging out with him. We’ve had a lot of laughs and then even more laughs. The reason I feel that this is all relevant is because when we were young we used to play imaginary games.

I really can’t say when it all started, but our games quickly evolved into one theme – a theme that I had initially made up and Mike had helped enrich. This game was the foundations for a story I wrote when I was about five years old.

So what exactly was our game about?

Well, that’s for next time!

Thanks for reading,

Till Next,

-Will

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