There’s something to be said about being born somewhere beautiful. And I was lucky enough to have two fantastical backdrops as the set dressing for my childhood. Born at the base of the Rocky Mountains, an appreciation for the grandiose nature of…well, nature was quickly hard coded in my psyche. But I was not limited to just the sweeping landscape of a mountain range. My imagination had a chance to go beyond the peaks of snowcapped mountains in the winter every summer when my siblings and I were set loose in the state of ten-thousand lakes, Minnesota.
I believe that as children we experience the otherworlds much more often than we do as adults. And in that other space we all make home for stories of our own. For some, these imaginings might give way to writing science fiction or contemporary worlds. For me, access to some of the most breathtaking ecosystems during my formative years gave me an inner world filled with elves, magic, and adventure.
It was not just my environment that wove the threads of my tapestry into the shape of a storyteller. The landscapes of the mountains and Lakelands of the United States are certainly not my only inspirations, in fact the story behind Storycrafte is filled with characters, plots, and settings that have put together the final narrative.
In this diurnal, I am going to share with you how my story has shaped my crafte. As an author, content marketer, and editor I have discovered that a good story can change you, but a better story can move you to action. And the journey to discovering your story can unlock an entire world of possibility.
The author.
Once upon a time in a yellow house on the corner of the street in Burnsville, Minnesota my grandmother tucked me under her arm on the couch and opened a book. It was evening, I was four or five years old and exhausted from a day of running around in her garden picking flowers, fruits and vegetables, and chasing butterflies. By then, my head was already filled with stories from the TV shows and Super Nintendo games that my mom watched while she stayed at home with my siblings and I. Little did, I know, Grandma was about to change my life…forever.
“In a hole, there lived a hobbit…” She used an epic voice, the tone that meant something very interesting was about to happen.
The first line of the book made no sense to me. No one lived in holes and I certainly had no idea what a hobbit was. But Grandma kept reading. I learned that hobbits were small people who lived in the Shire and that they most definitely lived in holes in the ground. (Not nasty, dirty ones, of course.) I learned of Gandalf the Grey and Thorin Oakenshield and his dwarves. I learned of the elves in Rivendell and Mirkwood, and there was always some good in the world, if you just looked for it.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s work quickly became my everything. I learned to read by reading The Hobbit. The backyard was no longer Grandma’s garden, but instead my very own hobbit hole on Bag End. When she took me to the lakes, we were in Dale just outside of Erebor. And when I returned home that summer, my mountains became the peaks of the Lonely Mountain.
I never stopped chasing stories from there. Of course, I read the Lord of the Rings. Grandma started sending me books monthly. She’d call me weekly to check my progress as, of course, she was reading her own copy on the other side. Like her, I became a voracious reader. I wanted to find more stories by other people. Without realizing it, I was starting to shape my life’s work.
Learn more about Storycrafte’s Eliot Rose.
The stories that made me.
The magic behind my childhood was supported throughout adolescence. I kept reading, but the reason started to change. My upbringing was not always reading books with my grandmother. As my identity began to take shape, I started to realize that I was less like my siblings or friends, and more like the characters in my stories. Eventually, they became the only place I could be safe and authentic – I learned early that I was different.
Growing up queer in America has never been easy, but the last few decades have been a roller coaster. I am no stranger to the trauma of this environment nor to the cruelty some people can do unto others. I was othered by my family, though often embraced by my friends, and only sometimes capable of navigating the complexities my changing world.
The crafte.
That is, until I began to write.
It began with the Lavender Orb Inn. A refuge for weary travelers run by an elven keeper with a storied past, too many secrets, and one very powerful, magical crystal. The inn was perched next to a lake, with a mountain range watching over, the perfect mixture of the two landscapes that shaped me. I wrote online in a chatroom with friends, where we would ultimately spend several years writing millions of words together, adventuring with our characters.
More characters began to emerge within me; echoes of my childhood experiences and more stories started to unfold. Beyond the grouchy elven innkeeper, I had a political leader and his conniving sister, an elven war refugee covered in ritual tattoos, a soothsayer and their ability to see paths into the future, a chef who is cursed to never be able to eat the food he cooks… More stories, my stories began to unravel, and I knew one thing for certain: I needed to learn how to crafte them, just like the many authors who came before me.
H3: Why Storycrafte?
Storytelling is something humans have done since the beginning. It is easy to imagine early humans sitting in caves, eating over a meal, regaling one another with harrowing tales of their nomadic, hunter-gatherer lives. From there, many forms of storytelling appeared. The oldest known piece of written literature can be traced back to the Mesopotamians and is a cuneiform tablet dated to 3400 BC. Egyptians performed the first passion plays not much later. No matter the shape, story is something uniquely human, something that defines us.
For me, story did not stay a children’s story about a brave man who goes on an adventure. My avid readership turned into obsessive writership. I wrote with my friends, in person and online, almost exclusively. We roleplayed, we played Dungeons & Dragons, we invented stories together, collaborating to create epic tales that embodied each of us.
I was lucky, I met some of my dearest friends doing this sort of writing. Some of you may even be reading this right now (Hello LOI and Oasis players!) It’s where I met my spouse.
My time earning an undergraduate degree from Central Washington University only gave me a taste. It was not until I started learning how to shape my stories into narrative form that it all started to click. The stories we tell each other are the stories that made us and they tell us so much about ourselves.
Storycrafte is my exploration into what the stories that made me have brought me. I hope I can help you find yours.
Looking to discover your own story? Storycrafte can help you find your way. Whether you’re looking to market your brand, develop your manuscript, or want to read what Eliot Rose has to offer, reach out directly, or visit Storycrafte.com.