I think about stories a lot. The ones I want to write, the ones that inspired me, and the ones I wrote as a kid. I kept them in a shoe box and also had some in a desk drawer. Unfortunately, I can’t show those stories since I never took any photos of them, and many of them got ruined and were thrown out. To this day, I still wish I took better care of them (storing them comic-style against cardboard and in plastic bags would’ve helped). Still, the memories are there and I loved writing them.
Creating worlds and characters with words is powerful, so that instantly appealed to me the second I saw it could be done. There’s a lot I could go into, but for now we’ll keep it relatively simple. I’d say it’s tricky to do this blog post without having photos of the books I created, but in the end it always comes down to the words themselves.
Anyway, let’s do this!
Where It Started
I was looking around one night for something to do. Playing video games and watching movies was fun; but I wanted something else to keep me busy, as I always liked finding new things. Soon, I came across what looked like a book that one of my brothers created. It was called “Blaster Master,” named after a video game that we played a lot. I noticed that it was drawn with crayons, and the pages were written in pencil, while the paper itself was normal notebook paper stapled together. The raw do-it-yourself nature of it grabbed my attention and I thought that was really cool. It was short, so I read it pretty quickly. Despite the length, I took the time to appreciate everything put into it.
I told my brother I really liked it, and he nonchalantly passed it off as he said, “Oh that? That was just something I did for school.” Then I thought to myself, “Why not do this outside of school?”
So I ran to my bedroom, grabbed some crayons & paper, and started creating my own book that night. It was similar to my brother’s book in terms of art style, and I even made one illustration look like a drawing from it as an homage. Those things aside, I came up with my own ideas. It’s been quite some time, so I don’t remember what I titled it. The premise was a sci-fi adventure where someone comes across a device that sends them into outer space to fight monsters and bad guys. When I finished with it, I started on an idea for another story.
I also dabbled in typing stories on a typewriter and, later on, a computer I had at the time. I talked about it a bit ago in this productivity thought piece; but basically, I would print out stories, cut the text out of the paper, and then glue that into pages that I stapled together. The stories themselves varied from little attempts at horror fiction, to stories about friends getting into crazy adventures with dinosaurs. I also liked to put myself into some of the stories like it was a fictionalized version of me getting caught up in random escapades with talking dinosaurs.
This went on for quite some time. In addition to writing & illustrating books, I started creating comics. Because those had a lot of comic panels, I went with stick figure art to bring them to life. I spent a little more time on the cover art, but I rarely coloured those since I wanted to speed up the process. I didn’t always put a lot of thought into the plots and often kept them simple, but I still had fun creating them and I’d often draw three comics in one night (each one was usually around 30 pages). I enjoyed the whole process and kept making these for the next 5 years.
My Golden Age of Inspiration
In those five years, I got ideas from many things. When it came to superhero-type stories, Power Rangers was a big influence in terms of how I drew costumes, and X-Men inspired some of the super powers I’d depict. With sci-fi stories, the Mega Man video games greatly influenced how I would treat robot villains; while other games like Blaster Master and Super Metroid influenced my love for planet exploration.
I also took notice of concepts from TV shows, cartoons, and films. For instance, two-part episodes of cartoons and mini-series events made a big impact on my love for cliffhangers and the serial format. I also took a big liking to the satirical & crazy nature of the sadly-overlooked movie Stay Tuned. I remember me and my brothers coming up with lots of silly ideas inspired by that, so it was really fun. A similar thing happened when I watched Last Action Hero, which has an almost-similar concept but with more meta humor and a feeling of self-awareness.
Those are all very random things, and at the time I didn’t consciously take too much influence from those. But in the recent years of reflecting on it and as I write this, I realize that those ideas entered my mind at that age, so it is worth mentioning.
One thing I did consciously take influence from, though, is a cartoon that I wasn’t fully prepared for. It’s something I saw a preview for one night (thank you TGIF Saturday Morning Preview), so I knew I was gonna like it already, but when it was actually released on TV, it completely pulled me in and I knew I found something really special.
That cartoon is Sonic the Hedgehog (often referred to as SatAM Sonic by fans).
I was only seven years old, but I noticed that this was very different from other cartoons at the time. I could dedicate a whole blog post to it (and believe me, I will definitely do that), but for now, I’ll just say that SatAM Sonic changed everything for me. It grabbed me with its writing, a surprising amount of emotion and character development, as well as a unique and intriguing world.
This show opened me up to the kinds of stories I want to write. It has a great feeling of epicness, solid character interaction, and other different ideas to explore. To this day, I still think about how it has affected my love for storytelling and I’m always brainstorming how I can pay homage to it.
My Evolution in Writing
As I entered middle school, my stories shifted to something slightly different. I still loved inserting elements from before, but just as my own life evolved through adolescence, so did my writing. I started making my characters just a little bit older, letting them grow up alongside me. Even though I started adding teen angst and slightly mature ideas, I still kept things lighthearted enough to stay in touch with what I loved as a little kid.
When I got into high school, I was writing stories that were a mix of everything. There was still humor and plenty of character dynamics much like the Sonic cartoon, but I also started to add a little more action. Superhero-films were starting to take off in a new direction thanks to X-men and Spider-Man, and I was also enjoying Jackie Chan movies, so I started getting ideas on how to write more exciting fight scenes.
Eventually, I found that those scenes would look better as movies instead of giant walls of text. My ambitions kept growing, but as my love for writing continued, my interest in filmmaking also continued to grow; and thus, many of my ideas at the time weren’t being finished. I would just write those little ideas with a few paragraphs and then set them aside thinking, “This will be better as a movie.”
New Territory
As high school went on, my taste in films started to evolve as I watched more horror movies. I was motivated to write short stories and draw monster designs to further my imagination. Despite this new and somewhat shocking territory (my brothers were very surprised when I showed them demon art), I never stopped thinking about the kinds of stories I wrote as a little kid. I didn’t want to stray from my roots, so I loved writing a bit of everything.
Then I got into the films from Kevin Smith and found even more inspiration. Since then, his knack for writing dialogue has always made me want to write characters who express their personality through funny smalltalk-inspired conversations. This was another sign of my growing sensibilities, so it was fun experimenting with something I never thought about before.
I began to write dialogue differently. I’d treat it as if I were eavesdropping and writing their conversations. I’d let them banter about random things, and then I would either add in story details while revising, or offset their conversations with external events for comedic effect. I’d also put a lot of myself into the characters and think about friends & kids I knew at school when it came to shaping personalities.
After that, another thing happened.
I watched the movie Donnie Darko one night, and it left a big impression on how I thought about blending genres. On top of that, though, the thing I got the most from Donnie Darko is the idea of having a “more than what seems” aspect in regard to story worlds and how to approach some supernatural ideas. From that, I explored making some of my own stories just a little more intriguing with this approach.
Then I started thinking bigger. I always loved doing individual stories, but I was getting ambitious with the idea of developing a series. Due to the size of that, I decided to keep a notebook with me throughout high school that I would always add ideas to. Even during classes, I’d always be adding to that notebook whenever stuff would come to mind.
And even though there were always new things I would learn and take inspiration from, I still thought of everything that inspired me before, particularly that Sonic cartoon and childhood movies. So I never strayed too far from my beginnings.
What Now?
So what inspires me today? Everything that’s inspired me since childhood is still there, but there are a lot more personal things from the recent years that I never saw coming in regards to storytelling. Coming-of-age ideas, aspirations, daydreams, introspection, hopes & dreams, thoughts on who I’ll meet in the future, my own personal development, and also new things I want to experience.
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to complete a story (unless you count this goofy little slasher film-inspired reverie), but I’m always jotting down ideas in notebooks. Since I’m still trying to make sense of those personal things, though, I’m often telling myself that I should write simple stories before I can do those personal ideas effectively and with better understanding.
Closing Thoughts
Writing has been a part of my life ever since I learned the alphabet, and it always will be. It’s been creatively satisfying and, with everything that’s been on my mind recently, it’s also been very personally challenging yet rewarding.
Everything has something that can inspire and/or influence you if you really take the time to look at it. And sometimes, you don’t have to look at it for every long to know that it’s special. If it grabs you, you’ll know it.
So take notice and don’t let go. Whether it’s a cartoon, movie, a person you know, or a life event, never stop thinking about what you can get from it and how it can let you grow (be it creatively or personally).
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It almost feels like that’s everything, but there’s likely more to come that’ll continue to inspire me and the stories I want to write. Whether they become novels, films, comics, or something else, I know that I want to bring those ideas to life.
Until next time, always stay in touch with what inspires you, but always keep on evolving. I’ll see you next week! o/
Kasey Lewis - Actor, Writer, Creator 