Dyslexic Little Writer

Last night I was sorting through one of the cupboards in my office to see if I could chuck anything out to make some room. This lead to me tumbling down the rabbit hole of all my old stored up stuff that I've kept from over twenty years ago.

I'm not sure if people really believe me when I tell them I've been writing the same story since I was a "little girl."

But I have.

I really, truly have.

Will I finish it? That's the real question we're all sticking around for, heh?

I couldn't spell. I couldn't write. So, the mere notion that I wanted to BE AN AUTHOR - a famous author - was (and still is) rather hilarious. I have no idea where I got this wild notion from. I just loved telling stories. I loved imagination. I loved going off on adventures with imaginary friends.

However - I had a very big hurdle to overcome - and that was my dyslexia. My grandmother worked tirelessly as my tutor when I was in year four and five to teach me the fundamentals of spelling. I am sure that I owe her my ability to both read and write, for due to her tutoring I learnt to read not by the word itself, but by the visual appearance of the word, not how it sounded, not how to spell it, but how it looked.

I basically learnt to read and write by art.

That, folks, is why I like typography.

My grandmother taught me typography.

Keep that in mind while reading this little, very embarrassing, segment I found. It is marked from 2001. I would have been elevenish.

It's pretty bad isn't it.

Oh. I've got worse ones, but, ah - this one is the least embarrassing one I'm willing to share.

But I'll tell you something amazing. In just three years from writing that - whatever that was - I had a three hundred page plan for my entire series. Re-reading it last night, it wasn't anything great - it was actually hilarious and painful - but the improvement is incredible.

I had an entire universe crafted, with complex characters - some that I'd completely forgotten about over the years - and an insane plot. Like, guys, we're talking wild plot here.

I thought of this when I was fourteen. I had cybernetic robots, time travel, space travel, genetic warfare, environmental warfare - and this villian who pretended to be a good guy for the entire series. Oh, I'd forgotten about this, by the way. Re-reading that plan, and realising that character was supposed to be evil totally blew my mind.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Little Kylie, you were so amazing.

Sure, you couldn't spell, and had no grammar skills (still don't) - but you had such a good imagination and you really could tell a story. XD

These are the first sketches I ever drew of the Palace and Palace-Town, back in 2003. Pretty cute heh. ^_^ I can't say it's changed much either - the main Palace is still a giant domed building with huge pillars.

This is the earliest drawings I have of Zinkx and Shanty. I would have drawn them when I was ten. Both Zinkx and Shanty aged with me until I reached my mid-twenties and started growing older then they are in the series. So - yeah - I really, really know these characters very well.

Zinkx has gone through - for lack of a better term - many evolutions, over the years.

Unfortunately the great Harddrive Death in 2016 lost me almost everything I had ever drawn from 2000 to 2014. Puff. Gone. I cried - a lot. (I could maybe get it all back, but, I'd need an extra $4000 just, you know, lying around somewhere. So yeah, Gone.)

The only major change in recent years, really, has been his hair - which I originally always coloured as brown - but after addressing who his parents are - neither of which have brown hair, I figured I'd just make it black so he'd fit in.

And finally - I give you Sam - or Semyueru - (once Shinkx) - this was drawn in 2002. If you go to the front Home Page of this website, you'll see Sam. Without Sam there would be no story. Without Sam, there would be no adventure. I really hope I can finish telling his story someday. I started dreaming it up a long time ago, and I still feel like it's a good tale worth telling so I'll keep chipping away it.

Recently I've been contemplating dreams. I was watching some online seminars on publishing and got pretty disheartened due to just how difficult the industry was, just how much money was required to even attempt getting off the ground.

Basically - impossible for someone like me.

So I cried at the reality of it all - but then I started thinking about, really thinking. My purpose has always been to tell stories, to share stories for that is what I love to do.

Don't get me wrong, I adore the publishing side of the industry because I adore typography and illustrations and BOOKS and helping other writers.

Yet, at the core - this dyslexic little writer - she just wants to tell her stories and hope that people will enjoy them.

So that's what I'll keep doing.

And, ah, sorry for the bad spelling and grammar folks. :D