Editor's Note: I was able to copy this article to my hard disk
before I lost my original WriteLit.com database, but wasn't able to
note down the author. If you're the author of this piece kindly e-mail
me at writelit(at)gmail(dot)com. 

Editor's note: This e-mail interview was conducted in September of 2004. 

When did you first know/realize that you wanted to be a writer, or that it was what you were meant to do?

I believe it was Jack Kerouac who wrote and wrote even when there were no more chances of publication. It took him almost a decade to get his book On The Road on the road, so to speak. It got him into a lot of fights with publishing houses in those almost ten years. Had him consume bottles and bottles of liquor. Killed his lungs after snorting too much Benzedrine. Aged so much since he first wrote this seminal book. In his tired mind, he had thought that most of the original ideas in it had become passe.

I was given the first novel in the Left Behind series by a good friend. Don't worry, this isn't a review of the series; there isn't room here, but it is an observation about the importance of small details.

Since the day I learned my ABCs and how to write them I knew of one thing I wanted to keep doing for the rest of my life, that is, to write. From writing little greeting cards to coming up with full-fledged essays for Literature, Philosophy and History classes, I simply appreciated the labor put into picking up a pen and paper and jotting down gathered facts and well thought ideas into carefully laid out words.

So you've decided to write a short story, but are a bit stumped by one minor detail –- you don't know what to write about. Here are a few suggestions, most of them based on my own writing experience, on how to look for short story seeds, and how to go about growing them so that they can flower into short story masterpieces.

1. Read