I think I was about seven when I first realised that I enjoyed writing stories, and since then, in my spare time, that’s all I have ever done. As a teenager, I toyed with the idea of becoming a journalist, which, of course, never panned out. For reasons I will go into another time, I did not go to school for two years during my teens and lost the motivation to study because I fell so far behind academically.

Anyway, last year I flew back to Ghana for my best friend’s wedding and during the trip, I came across a 75-page story I had written in my early 20s. Now, I vaguely remember the synopsis, although admittedly I will have to re-read it and find out what the story is really about. A cursory glance at the manuscript has revealed dozens of grammatical and spelling mistakes. I remember spending a week at work during a low period, writing this ‘masterpiece’, and I think it was the first time I had ever completed a story from start to finish.

 

Today, I was looking for a file on my computer and came across a folder entitled Stories. Intrigued, as I had forgotten all about this, I opened it and found at least 15 files of incomplete tales, including Dream Catcher. Other titles are The Butterfly Trade, Wasteland, and Narthbor. I honestly thought I had accidentally trashed the soft copy of The Dream Catcher years ago, so it was amazing to find it. I’m pretty excited to read through all the ideas I had more than 10 years ago. Some are Fantasy / Sci-Fi and the others are just plain old modern fiction.

 

I have friends and family constantly after me to start writing again, but I find the prospect of all that work overwhelming. Besides, what am I supposed to do afterwards, start shopping for a publisher? I mean I’m not JK Rowling (I would love to be!). Neither are my ideas of the Game of Thrones calibre. Anyway, whatever I decide, I guess it should be interesting for me to re-read the documents and see what was going on in my head at the time.