There's another writer in the family

[Editor's note: This, like all posts that date prior to January 9, 2007, was originally posted at my former Woebegotten Wonderland blog that was destroyed for many very good reasons and a few pretty pathetic ones. They will all be labeled as "re-runs" here. I apologize for the blatant recycling hack-job, but the truth is I don't write that much and some of this stuff is probably better than I am likely to write any time soon. It seemed such a shame to let it go to waste.]

My son Josh just wrote a story on the computer.

Josh is very interested in all of the things I do. He had so much interest in the guitar from watching me play that he convinced his mother and I to buy him one for his fourth birthday. I got my first guitar when I was twelve, so he's got a pretty good head start. I'd like to think he'll be a virtuoso. It doesn't really matter, though.

He does look the part of a guitarist. He's watched me play every chance he gets and mimics me well. He's got good form and plays with a loose wrist. That's the first (and often most difficult) lesson I give to my students, and it just came naturally to him. He just picked it up by watching me. I never had to intentionally show him anything.

I have not intentionally shown him how to use the computer to write, either. But last night he asked me if he could write a story on the computer. Apparently he has been interested in doing so ever since I started this webpage. It's something else that Daddy does, and so it poses an inherent interest to him. I have no problem with this, though it makes me wonder how many bad habits of mine he feels compelled to emulate (but that's a topic for another time).

Josh says he wants to be a writer. On the way to take him to school today, he even asked me if we could go over his story, change some things, add some stuff to it, and just generally make it better. I'm actually excited about the prospect. My almost six-year-old son wants to get into the proofreading and editing process for writing.

This whole course of events has inspired me.

I get to write here. I get to write music. I get (have) to write at school. I get a lot of opportunities to write, and I use them as best I can. But my kindergartener just wrote a story. Granted, it's a kindergarten story, but it is a story.

I haven't even attempted a work of fiction in a long time.

Well, now I have.

Here is a link to a new work of fiction I am writing. I don't really know what it will be. It may just be a short story. I may get carried away and make it a novella or (heaven forbid) a novel. I don't know. The point is that I am writing.

I will keep you updated about its progress, as well as music news, in the future.