The Hobbit Archives - Douglas W.T. Smith

The Authors life’s inspire their writing, a few of them were writers without consciously choosing; a natural flow into the field. To a high degree their facts mixed with fiction, for example Tim Pear starting writing as he moved to England, his reflective journals of his presence in the new world – a realization of his new location – inspired his first novel.

The main element of my life that will influence my writing is Relationships: family relationships, sexual relationships, friendships, good/ bad and animals/ humans.

I watched a live video of Alison Tait, author of The MapMakers Chronicles (link here) and one of the comments she made was, ‘write what you know’. That for me resonates and will always be something that I fall back to and that’s what other aspiring authors can remember.

Fantasy has always been revolved around my life. I guess my goal for writing is to intertwine these real relationships with fantasy to make readers relate to it.

An appropriate photo for inspiration and influence is a

photo I took a few years ago. I decided to visit New Zealand

and draw inspiration from Hobbiton

and the picturesque landscape.

Hobbiton: Where Hobbits Live.

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I sat at my desk and pondered on what my next post could be, then it hit me. An introduction of who I am and why I am posting this.

I grew up and live in Port Macquarie. I moved down to Wollongong when I was 21 to study but at the time I was unsure what I wanted to do. I dabbled in different fields and subjects but nothing interested me except, Sociology. After a summer break I got immersed into The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings. I had always been drawn to fantasy but not in a literature sense, after I fell back into reality I thought to myself, I could create a world with characters and underlying messages that can apply to real life.

Once I had that moment of clarity I rushed to my computer to see if I could major in Creative Writing. I scanned the computer screen and it was meant to be, I could.

I went to university the next day and organised another major to be added on and that is where my Creative Writing spark begun. After 4 years of learning how to apply and break the rules of writing, existential break-downs, all-nighter assessments, an excessive amount of alcohol, traveling to foreign countries alone and living with no money; I can say with all my heart, I want to be an author.

I moved back to Port Macquarie, started working at The Beach House Cafe/Pub and trying to get students for an English Tutor.

From here I want to create a space to share my progress, thoughts, short stories, what I am reading, ideas that continue to inspire me and my own story to become an author.

At the moment I am in the draft stage of my first novel, however I am not comfortable in sharing any piece of that yet. In the meantime it will just be all the other things listed above.

My main focus of writing is Fantasy. I am open to fiction, especially the classics, like J.D Salinger, Charles Dickons, Keith Waterhouse, Harper Lee, Jack Keuroc, Frans Kafka etc. but I will always fall back to fantasy on either side of finishing a book.

I hope I haven’t bored you with my story. I hope to join the writing community and build a strong relationship with people like myself.

Tell next time, here is a photo my friend Charlie Black captured (check out his page here) which inspired me to write a scene in my book.