Why I started writing fiction

In a few weeks I will be publishing a fiction novel. It is a first for me. Having already co-authored “Wings of Change” with my wife, Katharina, and set up coaching websites and offered online coaching courses, many are wondering why I now write fiction. The answer is actually quite simple, and may surprise you, yet it will surely inspire you.

For as long as I remember I wanted to be an author. As a boy I was a keen reader of all sorts of genre, adventure, science fiction and fantasy. I loved the story writing classes in school. So I enjoyed writing stories. In my early twenties I started work on some Tolkien inspired fantasy story. This however was never completed and life moved on. The desire to write a book remained but the idea was suppressed, or rather allowed to dwindle.

Decades passed until my life was turned around by events which caused me to view life through different eyes. I had always been a people helper so it was natural to follow after those who were coaching me at that time and become a coach myself. It was during this process when Katharina and I wrote and published Wings of Change, our experiences explained and told. As part of each of the seven chapters in that book I had written a fictional telling of our experiences using a family of geese. This was fun to write and is still fun to read.

After this I read The Alchemist, a fictional story with a spiritual meaning. I was already familiar with the Celestine Prophesies series, more fiction with spiritual lessons. So I began to think about this. Why write dry teaching books which only a certain type of person will read? I wanted to reach those who were open enough for new thought ideas but who were not quite open or free enough to delve into self-help or metaphysical teaching books. So why not write a story and hide the lessons in it, like the above mentioned fiction books?

For a while this was a passive idea I carried in my head. A novel needs a story and I didn’t have a story. Then came Jane and the Dragon, a response to a friend’s financial dilemma who felt he was attacked by dragons. This short story must have ignited something in my mind. A short time later I thought this could make a good novel and I jotted down some notes. Before I knew it a mystical, metaphysical story with dragons was emerging. The whole writing experience was something wonderful. I didn’t know what was going to happen until I wrote it. Inspired? I’ll let you decide.

More than two years passed since I started to write. I thought working on other projects was more urgent and important. After all they would make me money so I could have time to write more. The result was no writing, no earnings and no successful projects. I attended courses and spoke with other coaches all the while thinking that coaching was my passion. Yes, I was passionate to help people as I had been helped. However I was running on the wrong path. I still can and will help others through teaching, speaking and my writings. Yet I discovered that something else was my passion – writing.

It wasn’t until January of 2013 that I decided to complete the fiction story started two years previous. On completion I realized that this was my passion. Money or not, this is the path I must pursue. And what a striking title for my first work of fiction: Pursuit.

The result was a fascinating journey of discovery where the characters learn secrets of life as they pursue their own answers and face their own challenges. A story spanning centuries and uniting people in a common thread.