Hello Again!

Hey there, my name is Thomas. I joined some time maybe a year and a half ago or more and was thoroughly enjoying the platform. There are a lot of great writers here, and many great writing prompts to get the juices flowing and provide a challenge. However, for what ever reasons, I fell out of my writing for a while, and haven't posted in many months. Recently, for the first time since Covid came around, I've had a reduction in my hours at work and I'm trying to use it wisely. Hence, among other things, my return here!

So I mostly just wanted to say hello to everyone, wish them a good day, and pose a quick question I'm sure we've all answered many times over. Certainly I can't be the first, even in recent memory, to post it to this forum. Though hopefully it hasn't been posted so recently that no one could be bothered to reply. I do enjoy hearing the various inspirations behind our beloved craft.

So what was yours!? Perhaps a special book or series you loved, that sparked a desire to evoke the same reaction you had in someone else? Maybe you discovered that you thoroughly enjoy crafting worlds, characters and the myriad situations they find themselves in? What if you simply discovered you had some level of natural skill for writing, and decided to see what you could do with it? Or maybe you're like me, who among these things and more, found that writing was one of the few ways to quiet your mind?

I know for myself, writing seems to be the best tool I have to communicate with the world. Throughout my life, people have been telling me that I am a good writer. Be it in response to resume cover letters, emails to property rental ads and school of course, to name a few examples. Yet a lot of the time when I speak in day to day conversation, I feel like half a lackwit. Don't get me wrong, I don't sound like Sloth from The Goonies or anything. However, I do feel like I have to focus more than your average bear to have clear, consise conversation, free from the uncountable distractions constantly derailing my thought process. "Shiny shiny," I've always called it.

So writing, where I can more easily focus my thoughts down to what lays directly visually ahead in the senctence, has always been a boon to my unquiet mind. Not to mention the healthiest form of stress management and coping I've ever practiced. I've sure gone down a few, more destructive routes, and spoiler alert; they didn't work.

Not that I don't still go way off the rails when I write some times, and not that it is even inherently a bad thing. That can be part of the beauty, especially in storytelling. Setting out go from point A to B, yet winding up in an entirely different alphabet, unsure of how you ended up there. Which, unless I stop myself soon, I'll start doing right here!

So let me kick it over to you, fellow writers! What inspired your entry in to the wonderful world of writing? I look forward to reading your answers, and jumping back on to this great platform. Keep reading, keep writing and most importantly keep being you!

Much love from the beautiful west coast of Canada <3