Welcome to my almost weekly column! Though I would like to update once a week – probably on Mondays – time constraints might prevent me from doing so every week.

I am what you might call an amateur writer – writing for the sheer pleasure of writing. Anything from Star Wars fan fiction to poetry glossing over attempted novels and short stories are fair game in my attempts at writing. Now I have decided to add yet one more category and add the so-called non-fiction writing to my repertoire.

All the writings in this column will deal with the different aspects of writing: from character to plot. Anything which crosses my mind is a potential topic and will eventually be dealt with. A such I might have to apologize if I do not have any distinct plan. There is no set table of contents. No master plan behind this. Only the pleasure of writing on any given topic. I might ramble and I might be stringently academic. But in the end my goal will be to try and impart some of the fun and pleasure I feel while working on the tales I tell.

The Idea of “having fun” is probably the single most important part of amateur writing. The writing produced is not being paid. I make no money with the skills of my pen. Then what do I get out my writings? What is the motivation that keeps me and the thousands of others populating fan sites who write fan fiction going year after year after year? And what of the pocket poets – as I am – who scribble random verse onto the back of receipts and envelops? What do I have of my writing?

One part of my mind does hope that someday I might earn a living from this skill. Any one amateur writing says other wise is a liar. We all hope to be the next J.K. Rowlings or Stephen King. But there is another part of my mind, far larger and far more persuasive, which shrugs at these aspirations and gleefully grabs pen and scrap of paper and begins to scribble yet another daydream into verse. This part of my mind hopes to capture the essence of what it sees and make it presentable to those who might not. This part of my mind is happy to just put the words to paper. It is happy, even if some of what it writes will never be seen by more than one pair of eyes, or two at most.

I have fun in stringing words together and would rather spend two hours of my life writing, than watching images flash by on TV. In writing, I am anything and everything – from the hockey fan dreaming of “her” hockey god to Leia Organa Solo and anyone in between. In writing I am a down on my luck in some trashy back street, or a queen ruling over a ravaged kingdom.

Over the years, I have put a lot of time and thoughts into how I write, no longer being content in only the what. The act of writing itself, has taken precedence over the telling of a tale. In this column, I hope I can pass on some of these thoughts and ideas, and that I will receive, in the comments, even more food for my writer’s mind.

Please, do post comments… the more the merrier!

Yours truly,

Cala