When I was a kid, writing was my favourite subject at school, even better than art. I really enjoyed creating characters like the ones I read about. My stories, I must admit, tended towards the melodramatic. One I wrote when I was nine years old, told the exciting story of the school burning down (all fiction). There was a detailed description of my teacher hanging out of a window screaming for help. She thought it was funny. My mother was mortified by my disrespect.
Another story I wrote at eleven, had a French boy hiding behind a red velvet curtain as his father was taken away to the Guillotine. What I’d read to make me write that, I can’t remember, but my teacher made me read it to the whole class. Reading out loud was a major trauma to me. That’s the only reason I remember that story.
At sixteen, I wrote a ‘novel’. It must have been all of 15000 words long and was typed on a stack of pink, green and yellow paper I’d been given. The main character was a six-year-old whose father was an alcoholic. Absolute rubbish, but I really enjoyed writing it!
After that though, I wrote very little. I went to University with the idea of studying English, but a year pulling novels and poetry apart and saying what the author ‘really’ meant, put me off English altogether and almost put me off reading. After that, I had no time for writing and found drawing what was in my head far easier. Still I spent a lot of time daydreaming the plots to dramatic stories. But they stayed in my head.
It wasn’t until we adopted Dynamo that I went back to writing. Adoption is a long, gruelling process, requiring patience and a firm belief that it will happen in the end. Once it did happen though, I found that something seemed to be missing. After a while I realised that I had nothing to strive towards any more. I didn’t have a dream to keep me busy. So I took up a writing course and that, as they say, is where it all started.
What about you? What made you take up writing?
6 comments:
I've always loved to write. I remember writing stories w/ my best friend. When she would spend the night we would write stories and read them to each other. I remember writing and illustrating a cartoon called the "warm fuzzies"
I've kept a journal for almost everthing; trips, working through grief, pregnancies . . . etc.
I've always known that I loved to write and wanted to write, but I never had a focus on what to write or how to write it. It wasn't until after I had my 1st child that the focus on Children's lit WAS my focus.
Fun post! :0)
Yes, Christie, children have a way of making you focus on them!
It was the third grade and the boy next to me showed me a poem he'd written about his motorbike. Up till then, I'd never gave it a thought. I love it to this day.
Warm Regards,
Melanie
I always had it in the back of my mind that I would like to do a writing course. I still haven't done one, but we moved to a new area where I didn't know a soul. I went to an author talk/workshop at the local library to get me out of the house.One of the ladies at the talk said she would like to form a writing group. I said I would go to it and just like that I did and still do. I found I love to write and wish I had started years ago. Never did much writing at school but always like to write compositions in English class. So there you are. You don't always know what you love until you try it.
I wrote my first children's book after visiting Glacier National Park here in Montana. I always say a little white mountain inspired me to become a children's author.
Before that, I did a lot of creative stuff with my kids for school, but never really worked on trying to get a book published.
So for me -- it was the goat!
Melanie, I was too busy playing 'kiss chasey' with the boys in 3rd grade to worry about poetry! ;)
I agree, Goldie. I only did art at school because there was no German class at my new school.
Rena...so that explains the picture at the top of your blog?
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