My First Story: Rish Outfield

My First Story
with author Rish Outfield

Age first started writing: about 16
Location of first writing: I was a Junior in high school, living in a tiny Midwestern American town.  Sounds like a John Cougar Mellencamp song, only with less kissing.

Atmosphere: Well, I always had an overactive imagination, and was frightened by virtually anything.  I wrote my first stories exploring those fears happening to other people. We had just gotten our first family computer, and it had a word processor program on it.  So this was the first thing I wrote on it, and was able to actually print out multiple copies of a story for the first time.

My first story/Basic plot: In “The House Was Different,” Sam, a teen boy, wakes up to find the world around him dark and evil.  He discovers that his best friend sold his soul to the Devil, and threw in Sam’s as well.

What did you think of the story then?  I was immensely proud of it, and shared it with friends at school.  I do recall that my buddy Matt had a big problem with the ending, since he was a huge Heavy Metal music listener, and insisted that the Devil just didn’t work that way.

What do you think of the story now?  Oh, I’m sure it’s terrible.  I haven’t looked at it in several years, but it’s probably riddled with typos and grammatical errors–and gasp!–is written from the point of view of a teenager when I actually WAS a teenager.

How did the story help you on the road to writing?  I shared it with others, and a couple of them encouraged me to share with them my later stories.  Not long after, I submitted a story or two to school contests and the yearly student writing anthology.

Current work:  I’m not good at pitching or selling my stuff (guess I haven’t learned much since high school), but I have tried to put out some of my stories in audio form.  The first collection of those was called “The Calling and Other Stories” and includes more than a dozen Horror, Urban Fantasy, and Sci-Fi stories, narrated by yours truly.  Narration seems to be where I shine, except of course when “Tony” tells me something bad is going to happen in Room 237.

Rish Outfield is a writer, podcaster, and audiobook narrator who normally walks on four legs, but can rise up on two when provoked or about to attack.  He thinks he’s funny and talented, but only his Sean Connery impression is worth any salt.  You can check him out at the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, That Gets My Goat, or Rish Outcast podcasts, or bug him on Facebook (there are fewer Rishes out there than you would guess)

 Thank you for reading the My First Story series. Stay tuned to this blog for more writer series.