Welcome to Fictionsmith Family

The prologue to the prologue.

“Look dad, it's an invisible house.” is a sentence that changed a lot for me.

My oldest daughter, who was six at the time, had joined me on a walk around the neighborhood to clear my head. It was March 2020, there was a lot of uncertainty in the world, and her Kindergarten year had ended abruptly.

I was unsure how to look at an invisible house, but she pointed to an empty lot in our neighborhood that had a mailbox standing in front of it. I had walked past that lot dozens of times, usually focused on some work related task or just trying to get my daily steps in.

I recognized that my imagination had fizzled out a bit... but hers was still going strong. I wanted to keep it that way, so I asked her who lived there.

She said it was a scientist. I asked her why it was invisible, and we didn't have an immediate answer, but we started taking regular walks around the neighborhood to brainstorm more things about the story, bought an old typewriter, and by the time she reached her seventh birthday and school was back in session, she handed over a finished, published book to her first grade teacher... who read it chapter by chapter to her class.

We're now writing our fourth book together, and once her little sister learned to read, I began the process with her as well.

Why am I telling you this?

The benefit we’ve seen as a family from telling stories together is something I don’t want to keep to myself.

If you're a parent with a kid who is interested in writing, or you're wanting to share your interest in storytelling, I want to share the process with you.

Also, it's a healthy reminder for me to stay on it and continue to write with my own children.

And the more I explain it here, the better I'm able to develop creative ideas and exercises with my own kids. Win-win...win.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be rolling out a series of posts here on Substack about how we go about telling a story together, but to get the full experience, head to FictionsmithFamily.com.

Sign up for updates at the bottom of the site, and you’ll get some exclusive content, some bonus materials, and we’ll use Substack as a way to share the lessons on a regular basis for Fictionsmith Family.

All the best,
-Ryan (half of C.W. Task)

P.S. I’ve been a long time lurker of Substack and have thoroughly enjoyed Brad Montague’s The Enthusiast. I’d definitely recommend checking him out if you haven’t already.