From a very young age, I have wanted to tell stories. Sharing the fictional places and characters I created with others was a way to put the content that I wanted to see into the world. But as I grew older, I realised that writing about real life could be just as interesting as fantasy, with the right cast. The more research I did, the more I fell in love with history, and the more I delved into historical fiction. It’s a genre I love because I get to learn with everything I write; each era has a different way of life and different challenges to pose my cast of characters.
My goal as a writer for the last five years or so has been to tell stories of characters whose voices aren’t as often heard, including disabled and LGBT characters. This is true of my novellas as well as my short stories, which mostly feature characters who are experiencing intense moments of self-reflection, either based on a personal identity shift or a startling revelation about the world around them. No matter what I write, I hope to keep people thinking about my words even after they have closed the book.
Writing in a digital medium for Twine was difficult for me because I am very attached to my plots once I have them figured out, and creating digital work that can be manipulated by the reader to create different endings went against that sentiment. I felt like I was handing the reins over to a faceless person to be judged once I posted it, and while I was writing it, my head was spinning trying to keep track of everything I needed to change for each iteration. I could have written something with fewer choices, but it was important to me to write in this way, because I grew up playing choose your own adventure games exactly like the one I began to develop in twine. I have a new respect for these writers and their organisation, but I think I will stick to my historical fiction novellas and introspective short stories for now!