Timothy Bontempt

When I get an idea that I think might make a good story, I sit down and try to write the first couple of pages of what might be the story based on that idea. If those first couple of pages become a chore, if I just can't seem to get the story started, or if what I wrote was just lousy, I abandon it. After all these years I have a huge folder full of false starts that I hope someday to revisit. If the story seems to flow well right from the start, I'll keep going and see how it turns out.

I don't remember the first story I ever read, but I clearly remember the first story I ever read that made me want to be a writer: "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin. Baldwin described music in such a way that changed my appreciation of it forever. With just a few words he broadened my vision. That's really something.