I received an email recently asking to submit a blog about my twisted journey, and I just thought “Wow, they want me to write a blog. What’s a blog?” So a quick internet search followed by a flick through on what the other “Twisted” writers had written led me to create what I think is a blog. But I’m probably way off track. I decided to start like all of my stories, with an end scenario, and then try to create a journey towards that end. So now let’s move forward to the beginning.

I was up until one year ago a “Closet” writer. Scared to tell anyone in case they laughed at my “Just another fantasy” approach to life. No one took me seriously as I had all of these fantastic ideas, but no proof in the pudding. So I kept my head down, fantasizing myself away from the mundane and repetitive world I inhabit.

I hid away from the world of creatives, and their odd ways. Unaware that at the age of 35 a big change was coming. I was diagnosed with Dyslexia and proven at last that I probably wasn’t really that stupid, and was told not to worry that I’d only achieved a grade D in GCSE English. Around about the same time I met a poet and artist who became my mentor, who really kicked my arse into gear.

My creative journey had begun and I set about writing my only feature screenplay, although rather terrible, I learnt a great deal, and would prove rather fruitful later on, with my research into the personality traits of a psychopath. I also read my first book since leaving school “To kill a mockingbird”, which I felt was a great start. I then received word about “Create 50”, which became my biggest learning curve. I submitted a few entries for a couple of their projects and it was the feedback which I received from other writers and readers which I found most useful. With the large numbers of stories being put into one book I found that people weren’t out to stitch others up, or steal their ideas. They wanted to help others improve their own work in order to create the best possible work to reflect their own.

When I wrote the first draft of “A guide to acting the gentleman in any given scenario” I really didn’t have a clue of its eventual outcome. The very useful feedback I received shaped that story far greater then I could have alone. And that’s the beauty of the learning experience of create 50. You can go from absolute amateur to published writer in under a year. It also helped me to dull my fears of writing using the correct grammar and punctuation, as there is a great family of understanding writers with their arms wide open, and will not judge me for calling myself a writer when I keep forgetting how many “T’” the word writer contains.

I think that I’ll leave it here with a big thank you to the founders, readers, support staff and writers of create 50. Thank you so much for realising my dream for me, even before I knew it was what I was seeking.

Lewis Rice
My Profile HERE.

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