A Symposium of Nothing
/Nice, writing about myself writing, haven’t been this faux artsy in a while. So howdy, my name is Tyler Cooke, and for the next 1500 or so words I’m going to babble on about how tragic my life is, or how inspirational, or whatever it is that writers do to get big fat cheques. Also, hey Mom, hope you’re enjoying reading this. Love you and all that. *Coughs* Now where was I? Ah yes, being pedantic as ever. God I love big words.
In all semi-seriousness now, I don’t have an exciting life. I do stuff, but it usually consists of reading, thinking, playing games, thinking, watching movies... did I say thinking yet? The point is that I’m extremely introverted, and the person I talk to the most in my life is, well, myself; and let me tell you, I’m quite the blabbermouth.
As you can see from this stream of consciousness style of writing I don’t do the whole, “I walked over to the computer, turned it on, and played video games until my fingers blistered,” style of narration. No, even in my attempts to talk about myself in a creative storytelling fashion, I fall short. The best I can do is a bag of mixed metaphors, cheesy jokes, and a hope and prayer that this won’t end up being abandoned after reading the first paragraph. Well, at least you have made it this far.
My life isn’t a spellbinding tale of heroism or tragedy. You know… Let me sum it up for you.
Photo Source: Pixabay
Day one, I’m born; though some will contest if this is “technically” my first day of existence, but I’ll leave that for someone else to decide. Some years after I’m born, I decide that reading is the shit, and somewhere in there Harry Potter becomes my ‘be all and end all’ in regards to books. Before that moment though, I had to go to school, you know, to learn. I quickly decided that I’m the best at this learning thing ever. Years later I realize that’s false, as I never picked up studying. I also learn during these formative years that someone has to always be at the lowest rung of society, and I eventually realized that was me. This wasn’t to say that I didn’t have friends, just the bare minimum of two. Though even that didn’t always help.
So I knew exactly what to do to let my awesomeness shine and become the most popular kid in school. I became an even bigger nerd, and buried my nose so deep in books that I was akin to a submarine. I sank to depths so low that I even began reading the dictionary, for fun. Yeah, nobody does that. Well, nobody cool anyways.
Hey! *Snap* No drifting off now.
This was the point where it all changed. No, I didn’t get superpowers. I started high school. Now, contrary to the stereotypes, high school was nice. Nah, I can’t lie to you that much. But it wasn’t total hell. I found a group of friends equally as nerdy as me, and that was cool. But, while my social life was improving, my grades still hadn’t improved drastically, and by the end of that whole deelio, I wasn’t sure what to do next. So I decided to enroll in college, with the idea of being a writer; as you can guess, since this obviously isn’t a math essay.
So yeah, that catches us up to the present. No shocking revelations, I know, but I did leave out a lot of details. Now, why am I writing this? Well, first and foremost, it’s for the grades. But I do have another reason: getting my emotions out. While I am one of the most emotive people around, that only extends to reacting to others. I’m quite introspective, but that doesn’t do me any good if I don’t talk about them to anyone.
“I either romanticize the past, or make my struggles resemble the twelve labours of Hercules; which makes the truth very difficult to discern.”
It doesn’t help that I can’t tell a gripping narrative about my life, hell, I couldn’t even tell you what I had for breakfast. I’m not exactly great at remembering things, never have been. I’m a lot better with thinking on the spot, being creative, and always having a plan; cause I made it up a second ago. This is why I prefer to write fictional stories, because I get to make all of that stuff up. But it’s still very real to me. I take inspiration from my mood, spin it around like a potter, and sculpt the story into something amazing. With real life, I don’t exactly have that luxury. Sure, I can use metaphors and similes, but I have to stay true to the facts, and my mind sort of rebels against that. I either romanticize the past, or make my struggles resemble the twelve labours of Hercules; which makes the truth very difficult to discern.
That’s why I take to this wacky style of writing instead. I lure you in with some low-tier humour, then I build sympathy, and finally I allow myself to be honest with you, and even then not completely. This all sort of goes back to why I want to write in the first place and how it ties into letting out my emotions. I could say that I do it for the money, the prestige, the fame (well maybe a little of that), but that’s not exactly why I do it. On a good day I’d say that I do it for fun, which it can be, but that’s not the only reason either. The main reason why I write is simple: being able to give someone else inspiration, or bring hope to them.
Sounds sappy, but it’s the truth. I don’t write just for myself. No matter where I am in the process of writing, I’m always thinking about the final product, and whether it will have an impact on the readers. That’s also why I pour all of my emotions into my work; I’m fueled by them. I want people to have a powerful reaction to my work, I want them to desperately care for my characters, and I want the audience to be able to relate to them on a personal level. Not because they're super realistic, but because their raw emotions are relatable, and can be traced to the core of human desires.
“I want to help shape others with gripping stories that have amazing characters and fantastic worlds.”
When someone connects to a character, it allows them to follow an otherwise unbelievable story, which in turn allows them to learn about things in new and radical ways that they may have previously thought impossible. Similar to how Harry Potter shaped my developmental years, I want to help shape others with gripping stories that have amazing characters and fantastic worlds. I want to be the reason that someone decides to pick up a pen, or sit down at a computer, and start to write. Whether it be fanfiction, their own story, or just about their personal lives. I want to shape others into idealistic thinkers who are willing to challenge the preconceptions that the world has thrown at them, and say ‘stuff it’ right back in the world’s stupid face.
Still, there is one final thing I want to do with my writing. I want to talk about myself and, as you can plainly see from my writing, I don’t exactly do the best job at it. This is why I love fiction, because you can explore yourself through it, even though you don’t always realize it. Sometimes it’s very obvious when I’m using a self-insert character; it’s the nerdy guy with glasses. Though in other situations my characters are just parts of myself that I don’t normally explore, and the similarities are hard to find. No matter what though, I’m still writing about myself, or at least what I understand about the world; and I wouldn't have it any other way.
I don’t generally know who I am. I’ve given you a vague description, but even that might be slightly distorted and details may have been left out in order to shape the narrative a specific way, even without my knowledge. The point that I’m trying to get at here is that I want to know who I am, and I want to spread this idea of finding yourself to everyone who reads my work.
Through the trails of writing, I have realized one important detail about myself. A detail that, no matter how much I might try to discredit it, always seems to be true.
I am a storyteller, through and through.
Tyler Cooke
Tyler Cooke hails from the small town of Alliston, Ontario, right outside of Barrie. He is known as a quiet individual, but also as the most boisterous character in class, depending on the day. His hobbies include reading, playing tabletop games, scouring Tumblr for memes, and of course playing video games.
