Hello My name is Jay Bahre. That’s pronounced (Jay Bear.) and thank you for having a inetrest in my article and my story Don’t Run.

So a little about myself. Right now I am a truck driver at a construction company, but I would rather just be writing full time.

I have always enjoyed writing stories as far back as I can remember. When I’m writing it brings me to places that I have never been before and I try to combine reality and fantasy together.

The story that I am most proud of that I wrote is a story that I wrote for my son.  This story came about one day when I was writing a story I called The Green Lady.

I haven’t finished it yet because there was a long period of time that I got out of writing but about a year ago I got back into it because I felt as if something was missing in my life and it turns out it was writing.

As I was sitting there typing up a storm my son came up to me and asked me what I was doing and I told him I was writing a story. He looked at me and said that I should write him a story too, so I logged out of The Green Lady and started his story, Pirates Cave.

I finished that story and I don’t actually remember if I ever read it to him or what I did. He was about four or five at the time and that was over twenty years ago! I set out with a goal to actually publish that story but I never did it. It sat in my computer in my closet on a shelf.

Then one day not so long ago I bored so I got my computer out of the closet, dusted it off and re edited Pirates Cave. I got it to where I wanted it and self published it. I ordered a copy and had it sent to my sons house. I live on the East Coast and it’s heart breaking to me that he lives on the West Coast.

I told him that I was sending him a package but wouldn’t tell him what it was. He was so surprised and excited to get it! and it was such an awesome feeling to actually hold my book in my hands.

I follow three of my own rules in writing and if you think about it they make a lot of sense. At least they do to me, let me tell you what they are and if you like them feel free to use them.

(1) (Never write a story any longer than it needs to be.) Meaning if your story ends at 48k don’t try and force another 2k words just to hit 50k, writing isn’t a race or competition. I mean who really says I am going to sit down and write a 100k word story? How would anyone possibly know how long their story is going to end up? Don’t ever let anyone tell you that your story is to long or to short. That’s not their decision to make.

(2) (Write your story the way it was meant to be written.) Meaning Write it the way you see it in your mind. If you’re story calls for using the word f#%& then use it, don’t substitute frick or fudge for the word you need to use because you don’t want to offend someone. Your story will never be perfect if you don’t write it the way you see it.

(3) And this is probably the most important rule to use. (Never! Never try to write your story alone.) Now this doesn’t mean to write it with another person, this means to write it with the characters in the story. I mean listen to the characters in your story and write what they tell you.

I know some of you are saying Jay you’re crazy characters can’t talk. Well I beg to differ, if your characters haven’t started to talk to you yet it’s because you haven’t gained their trust.

This is a huge asset in writing a story. Once you gain your characters trust they Will start talking to you. When I write most of time I get so lost in the story I don’t even remember or know what I’m writing. My characters will take over my mind and fingers. I wrote a story I call Redemption and in the first chapter I wrote a woman out it and I was not going to use her again but in the final chapter she wanted to come back and put in her two cents about why she left her husband in the first chapter.

And then there was Garry, the Italian Mob boss. I finished using him to a point where he was going to walk away from a certain situation but he literally told me no that he wasn’t finished and he controlled the story.

Writing a book really isn’t hard. I have never really gotten writers block I just need to be left alone. I can’t concentrate if someone is talking to me. I have written a lot stories and another 13 5 star stories under a pen name.

Only my earlier books were a little bit difficult until I learned these rules I just told you about. I see a lot of writers say they are having difficulty writing their books and I’ve told some of them these rules and they thank me saying that it helped them. Another thing I see with writers is they think the story they are writing is theirs.

Don’t make that mistake, the stories that you write and same goes with me are not ours they are our characters stories. We are just a port hole for their existence. They can’t write so they go to us. We didn’t choose to write our story they chose us to write it for them.

Another thing I believe in is I don’t tell everyone you’re a writer. Literally anyone can write a story but what you want to be is a storyteller. A storyteller has mastered all these rules and some of their own too.

So that’s enough about me and how I write my stories let me get into telling you a little bit about my story Don’t Run.

I actually wrote this Don’t Run a long time ago as a joke about my friend Shelly, I believe she has an original copy of it and since I updated and published it she bought the paperback copy of it.

Shelly was twenty years old and loved Halloween. She loved it so so much that she still dressed up and went out trick or treating but this Halloween night in 1972 could be her last one ever.

The two strange men that lived a few streets over from her captured her and tortured her claiming it was all in the name of science and in the end they wanted to see her dead. They brought her down to their dungeon and made her wish that she stayed home that night.

Thank you for your interest and support in my work.