My first blog post!

Hi! Welcome to my Blog!

This is my first blog post! Ever! I'm excited! Okay, alright so I guess I should introduce myself. Ahem! My name is James Melville. I'm 25 years old. Born and raised in Ontario, Canada. For as long as I can remember I always loved to write stories. Whether be short or long. It didn't matter to me. I enjoyed it! It was way more easier for me to write fiction than it was to write essays, reports, etc etc. My imagination would always run away with me. Every time I woke up from a dream whether it be pleasant or nightmarish I would write down a brief summary of what I had dreamt of. Sometimes I would write a short story based on them. Despite some of them being hard to write about, I did it anyway. To my dismay I lost majority of them before moving to Vancouver. But I have a lot of recent ones saved and I'm deciding whether or not I should write a full book on them or not.

Speaking of books I'VE WRITTEN ONE! I finished the first volume of it just two days ago. I'm excited to see where this takes me. It's a new series I started writing two years ago called Vampire Pigs. At first I wrote it as a short story. Then I wrote the script. And after much trial and error I finally decided to write it as a book. I also have a few other scripts that I'm turning into a books as well but I'll talk about that another time. You're probably wondering why I decided to write a book called Vampire Pigs. Well for one I always wanted put my own spin on vampires. I have to admit I'm a lot more scared of vampires than I am of zombies and as to why I decided to combine it with pigs...well it's a long drawn out story that I won't get into. Let's just say witnessing a pig slaughtered in front of me just made me feel bad for them. Weaving that factor into the story is one of the main reasons why I wrote it. In any case, I'm just taking a break for a few days before I enter the editing phase. I've already prepared the full character bios and summaries for volumes two, three and four. Right now I'm just getting everything prepped and ready before submitting to various writing agents.

Even though I've been writing my whole life it doesn't mean I was good at it. Before I could write decently I had to go through an EXTREMELY STEEP learning curve. Meaning I had my butt kicked so many times from all types of people (Writing teachers, friends, story editors just a name a few) So I knew I always wanted to do it but my confidence level was at an all time low. Especially when I was in college. My stories were flawed, my sentence structure was terrible and my characters were so flat and unlikeable. I didn't give up completely however. When I realized the college course I was taking wasn't really for me I decided to do something that has always interested me but I never gone through with. ACTING! Which is the main reason why I still reside in Vancouver, B.C and not in Ontario. Applying to the acting course at VanArts really changed how I write. It made me understand proper character development. Subtext. Story structure. Dialog. The proper answers to the questions Who, What, When, Where, How. I would always have a  few *Ding I get it now!* moments in my head during the course. When I graduated two years ago I immediately went back to the drawing board with all the concepts I wrote down, scripts I partially finished, short stories I completed and did a major overhaul. I learned so much from acting that it actually improved my writing. The only way for a person to know that is by reading what I've written. When I told people I was writing a book series called Vampire Pigs they pretty much all laughed in my face. I think it was because they thought it was going to be stupid. But I always told them to read it first then criticize after. Not before. I feel that now that I've finished the first book in the series, the hardest part will be to get someone to read it. Which is why I'll be dedicating a lot of time to prepare and edit.

So that's where I am at the moment. As an artist I've had my share fare of ups and downs. I mean who hasn't right. Like many of us we remain focused and determined. I fully know that success is not guaranteed but will that stop me from trying to do what I want to do in my life...Never. I love acting and I love writing! One of my goals in life is to live off my passion. I feel that now is the time to take a risk and pursue it to the fullest. I'll leave off by revealing what I'm writing and currently working on. I've thought of these projects thoroughly before I decided to pursue them. It may take awhile but I want to write and complete them in my lifetime. Here's the list:

1. Vampire Pigs Volume One (Book Series) (Completed - Editing phase)

2. Mixed Identity Volume One  (Book Series) (Structuring the plot and characters)

3. Spirits And Souls Volume One (Book Series) (Early phase. Building the universe)

4. Queens and Kings Volume One (Book Series) (Early Phase. Building the universe)

5. Bi Bye Volume One (Early phase)

6. Living In A Living Room (Theatre Play) (Working title)

I'll share more about these projects and my experiences with them all right here on my blog as well as many other personal experiences. Thank you all for taking the time to read this. I greatly appreciate it! Take care!

Sincerely,

James Melville