Personal Experience
The day I was to leave America in 2010, I happened to make a slew of new online friends. Most of them weren't vital in my writing's development or anything, but two in particular have changed so many things that I'd be a fool not to mention them here. One of them was a girl my age named Catie, who I affectionately refer to as "Fentzy." She became the official artist for Dark Chao Adventures. The other was a girl close to my age named Jane. She became.. a lot of things.
I became a part of a little circle of friends who I spoke to every day on AIM. I had no school to go to or job or anything, so this became a key part to my life. In January of 2011, in response to Fentzy drawing a dog version of me (that Jane dubbed "Clarence"), I decided to write short stories starring my new slew of friends.
Me and My Family of Friends
This was to be a collection of short stories all linked by a loose story arc regarding a crazy dragon named "Steve." I wound up only making four stories out of, like... ten. >_>
"The Stalker" starred Fentzy as she explored a strange building and met a crazy killer. After writing this story, I decided to make this a collection of creepypasta.
"Sunshine Valley" was Jane's, about her riding a unicorn into a town of elves who all grin too widely. This was me experimenting with the uncanny valley.
"Forest of Faces" was for a friend who I only know as "Zonic." He wandered into a forest by accident and constantly heard a wheezy laughter, only to run into an eldritch beast who does not wear a mask. Makes sense in context.
"A Ward for Autumn" starred the eponymous Autumn as she was trapped in a hospital and chased by a bloody (but vague) humanoid skeleton man.
The Mouse in the Doorway
In one group chat with Autumn and Jane, the former asked me to tell her a story. So I started making one up on the spot. In the end, it was about a mouse named Thomas who struck a deal with the devil in order to see his wife again. It was also a little bit about a gerbil named Happy who was being watched by Thomas every night. For a story written completely on the spot, it was good! But as just a story, it had plenty of flaws.
Throughout the months of January-through-April of 2011, I wrote many short stories solely for Jane, as well. Most of them were just me being a dork, but I experimented quite a bit with some of them! I can't, for the life of me, remember most of them right now, though. xD
I stopped writing standalone stories for a very long time at this point. Instead, I received an offer I couldn't refuse.
In retrospect, the Personal Experience era gave me a lot of experience with.. personal stories. Hence the name. This segment of time was influential, though it wasn't reflected in my writing that much. It was mostly influential in the support and happiness I got from my online friends. Without it, my writing would no doubt be very much different.
Coming up, the most recent era of my writing!
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