I often find myself wondering, can other writers pinpoint the moment when their inner writer emerged? When they first decided—I mean really decided—to write a book?
Where I Come From
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| The tea bag that started it all... |
I first became aware of my writing self at age eleven, when the sudden, unexplainable urge to write a book hit me. Ideas were known to take leisurely strolls in my mind, but never had I previously considered forming them into a story, let alone a book.
One day, I was home sick. I sat in the kitchen, drinking bottle after bottle of sugar-saturated tea. On my fourth or fifth bottle, we ran out of Earl Grey and so I opted for Celestial Seasonings Chamomile Herb Tea (that’s a mouthful…). The picture on the tea bag caught my eye, and an epiphany ensued: eyes widened as ideas began to swarm my mind, my writing self gaining power over me, ordering me to WRITE, WRITE, WRITE.
Five months later, I completed my first manuscript, a 77,000-word fantasy.
Where do YOU come from?
Please share in the comments section below: when did your writing self awaken? When did you decide to begin writing? And/or, share a moment of creative inspiration. (Inspiration does have a knack for being found in the oddest circumstances!)
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Fourth grade, a few years ago, I thought it might be fun to write a poem. So I did. It was about a horse (fourth graders like horses) and it rhymed and had meter. Everyone loved it, I was praised, commended - heady stuff.
ReplyDeleteFast forward to 7th grade - I decided to write a novel about Hawaii. Actually, I still have it, now that I think of it. I got hooked on composing/creating. The rest is history.
Ah, if only we all had such support in 4th grade! What about Hawaii did you write, if I may ask?
DeleteHi, Lev!
ReplyDeletePretty sure we're on opposite sides of The Pond!
Coming atcha from Liverpool, which I'm sure you're aware is the Cultural Centre of the Known Universe ... even World Time Zones are compared with a line drawn through the UK! LOL
According to my father, I think I probably beat you to the Start line as a writer. He claims to have in his possession a story I wrote as a 7-year-old which filled FOUR school exercise books, called "The Invisible Man" (funny though, when I ask him to find it and show it to me he can never remember where he put it ...!
I have no personal recollection of my early years - amnesia as a result of a serious RTA and 3 months in a coma as a teenager. There's probably a tale in there somewhere,now I think about it, but until LITERALLY this very moment I've never considered it: thanks for the 'nudge' you've given me by putting up this question on the Breakthrough Novel website!
If my father isn't telling "porky pies" that means I've been writing for over 50 years! WOW!
That's a sobering reflection in itself!
My IT-savvy teen daughter has helped me to construct a website/showcase for my scribbles: if you're interested in chatting from time to time you can find a few examples of my work at:
www.baggysbooks.webs.com
I think it would be easier for me to stop breathing than it would be to stop writing. When the family gremlin [arthritis] forced me to retire at least 10 years early from teaching, I started to put together a portfolio of some of my better efforts (or what I personally THINK are my better efforts!). As a result, I've had a couple of 'results' over the last few years: "Peer & Edd" [see website] was a minor success at the Edinburgh Festival a few years ago, followed by a childrens' book "Johnny Dupl'eau" which I'm currently building into what I hope will be a series using the same central characters (pirate crew). Book 2 is currently "doing the rounds" looking for a publisher (the small local press which printed 250 copies of the first book has since ceased trading). They FLEW off the shelves and I had PARENTS asking me to write more ...
Also from the website you'll notice I've had a US publisher [Whimsical Publications, based in Florida] who contacted me and have offered to publish my first "adult" novel later this year. When I say 'adult' I don't refer to "erotica", but literally a more mature adult reader (as opposed to children).
'Nuff about me! Let me know a bit about yourself
Regards
Paul McDermott
...It is even funnier that the story is called The INVISIBLE Man :)
DeleteRe my "nudge" -- As I become more focused on my writing (I am writing full time now, traveling between writing retreat houses across the country), I find myself looking back to see how far I have come. Noveling can become so exasperating; I find it important to look back and realize that steps have been made *See my previous blog post, "Inspiration Station I"*
Congratulations on the publishing offer from Whimsical Publications. Have you signed, or?
Hi Lev, there's nothing wrong with shameless self promotion if done in the right spirit. I can remember the first time I decided I wanted to write a novel. It wasn't that long ago. Within the last 10 years. I had picked up the novel THE LOVELY BONES by Alice Sebold. I was thrilled by the writer's voice. I said to myself, I'd like to try to write a novel. The result was my self published book THE PROSPECT OF MY ARRIVAL which came out October 2011.
ReplyDeleteBoy did it make my day, let me tell you, when I saw that you commented! (I'm afraid your ABNA reputation precedes you!)
DeleteI have seen the movie but haven't read THE LOVELY BONES (I know, shame on me). Though I did have a similar experience with THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini. I was simply blown away by the use of Arabic in the story, which deepened Hosseini's already amazing depiction of the culture.
For me - Probably was in October 2010. I've always had a knack for spelling, aced spelling tests, and was even encouraged to participate in spelling bees. I hated reading though. Never cared much for that. I can still remember a second grade teacher asking my mother if I was a bookworm and the look on my mother's face as she replied, "No, he isn't. I've never seen him hold a book unless it was for school."
ReplyDeleteThen the internet days of the 1990's arrived, when chat rooms and personal webpages were THE things to do online. I joined role playing chat rooms and just had a lot of fun creating characters and playing with other roleplayers.
Once that era died out, some of the players admitted to writing books about what we played but I always thought that a project like that was too much. At some point, I realized that I couldn't stop playing with my characters. I wrote out little mini-scenes here and there.
I remember hearing about NaNoWriMo but I always wrote it off as something insane to do. But then October 2010 rolled around, the hype of NNWM was picking up, and for some reason, I decided to do it. To actually sit down and write a novel-length adventure involving the characters that I couldn't stop playing with.
Succeeding at my first NNWM was really mind-blowing. It was exciting to actually force myself to stick to this adventure where my characters are going through events... I loved it. Then there was CreateSpace's free proof offer which enticed me to smooth out my manuscript so that it flowed from beginning to end with as little errors as possible.
During Camp NNWM, I wrote a sequel to my book but it's just a rough draft. I participated NNWM last year in hopes of getting another CreateSpace code so that I could work on my sequel and get that in book form but no luck there when I found out that CreateSpace changed how their offer worked.
NaNo is just a godsend. I had my 4th win this year (after 2 years sans NaNo due to college applications, and college load the year after).
DeleteThe first year I won (2006) they offered free proof copies from LuLu, which doesn't require you to assign an ISBN (which Createspace unfortunately does). I've come to ignore the free proofs and just order from LuLu.
Lev. Good luck with your blog & all future projects.
ReplyDeleteI was a charity case at a prestigious high school and I had to teach Oren, a younger cousin, maths after school (or I wouldn't have any money at all). Once while he was doing the problems, I checked out his magazine-for-boys which had a fiction section(a short story & a serial)and it just occurred to me that I could write a teen story. So I did. For weeks when Oren read my serial he went, "Look! Look! You should check this writer out!" (well.. everyone thought the writer was a boy)... until the week when I was describing his cats and dogs. It was fun :)
I have only done this maybe once or twice, but if unsure about one of my pieces, I ask someone to read it and only tell them it is mine if they like it.
DeleteAnd good luck to you, too!
My first piece was published in the PTA newsletter when I was seven. The next year my teacher read Little House in the Big Woods to the class. It was then that I really connected with the idea that people wrote the books I loved. That was my "ah-hah!" moment and from then on I wanted to be a writer.
ReplyDeleteI was eleven when I picked up pen and started work on my first book - The Day the World Started Over. I spent many a happy hour working on this simple tome. I never finished it, but I was totally hooked. Nothing in this world was as wonderful as writing!
How has your writing progressed since age 11? Is it better or worse, or less or more fascinating?
DeleteFor me, it's not so much that I remember that one moment where creativity struck, but I can remember a few times when I was given an assignment in school, and I went so far above and beyond what was required because I fell in love with the project. For example, a 5 page origin story for history turned into a 13 page epic that I handed in and then continued to expand upon it for a couple years.
ReplyDeleteAnother time we had to write a journal as though we were one of the animals from Animal Farm. Long story short, I turned in a masterpiece. The teacher loved it so much, she kept it for years as an example for future students.
Unfortunately it has been a very long time since I've felt that incredible inspiration.
Your 13-page epic reminds me of a writing portfolio assignment I had in 6th grade. I turned in a 99-page portfolio and the teacher refused to grade it. Needless to say, I was enraged.
DeleteDo you still have a copy of that animal-POV masterpiece you wrote? Read it--maybe it will provide some inspiration! (I keep that Celestial Seasonings tea bag framed on my writing desk, *see photo above*).
I learned to read quite young and one of the reasons was a cassette/book combination my parents gave me. Every word used in the book was listed in the front; between that list and learning to recognize words from the cassette, I "wrote" and illustrated my first story before I was five. It went something like "up down, bear christmas. gift pony happy present. up down" and featured really hideous (even for a 5-yr-old) pictures of My Little Ponies.
ReplyDeleteI've been writing ever since. I flatter myself to say that I have improved over the years. ;)
That was one of the sweetest stories, Josie!
DeleteI’ve always had a knack for writing, and felt a sense of comfort and fulfillment in doing so. But I never took this seriously until my late adolescent years. When I was young, I wrote poetry, and as I got older I got into personal narratives, wrote hard and soft news articles, and eventually starting writing for various organizations to publicize their company and objectives.
ReplyDeleteIn my first year of college, while abroad, I was helping my friend edit a college essay and she turned to me and said, “Shira, you should become an editor.” I thought about it and realized that writing was not just a hobby; it was my life. My initial career plans in childcare became drowned in my passion for writing. I decided to minor in journalism and I found writing to be an essential part of myself; as a result, I was happier, and felt I had found my niche. Although I’m still unsure what I want to do career-wise, I am confident that the more words I put on paper, the more this will lead me to finding my passion, and my ultimate goal in life.
Writing does tend to provide such peace :)
DeleteI used to write little bits as an elementary school kid, but most of that was what could be filed under the fanfiction umbrella. You know, My Little Pony was pretty popular back in those days, lol.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I went into a lull which also went hand-in-hand with a lull reading books oddly enough where I didn't write anything and I was grasping at words for essays for English assignments. I remember counting all the words you weren't supposed to count to barely make my goals. Then, I think it was some time in high school I wrote this silly story. I don't recall anything about it other than it had Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street in it... yeah, random, right?
It was around this time that I discovered R.L. Stine's books through a classmate. I picked them up and was hooked. I would devour them in a day most times (honestly they are puny books, really not hard to do) and I breezed through the series. It got to the point where I'd guess where the story was going and 9/10 times was right. The times I was wrong I usually liked my idea better, lol.
So, somewhere along that point I decided to try to write again. I had no plot and no idea of what I was going to write. I just wrote and added a little of this a lot of that. What I wound up with was what I thought was my pride and joy.. and at the time it was. Now that I look back on it I can't believe I thought so highly of it. Cliches, Mary Sues abounding and if I liked it, it went in the novel despite the fact that it had about 15 too many elements in it, lol.
Well, I'm now 34 and I can honestly say I've come a long way. I've learned a lot since those days (thankfully) and continue to strive to make my craft better and better. With some luck I've managed to do just that!
Do you think that one's ability to guess what happens next in a story, movie, life (?), correlates with X time spent noveling/story-writing?
DeleteAs for your cliched-Mary-Sue-character-saturated novel...Well, I took a look last week at my first novel (written at age 11), and both Mary Sue and I still think very highly of that project!
And, yes, Jennifer, you have come a long way! (We both have, together.)
I can't really tell exactly when I decided to want to write things.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I wasn't much of a reader. As a kid, I'd read whatever I got my hands on(back then I never really read novels unless I had to) even the text boxes in video games.
I kept a diary. I wrote all my secrets and fears in it. I let my emotions out through it, and writing comforted me. When I was back-stabbed and bullied by my own best friends in the second grade, I wrote in it.
Throughout my life, whenever I read a novel I'd be happy. There was this program that forced us all to read every Monday for thirty minutes. That was the only reason I got excited for Mondays. Yet I didn't buy any novels for myself except for Geronimo Stilton books. I didn't realize that I love reading.
Then in the fifth grade( I was still writing in my diaries) I decided to write a story. It was about a girl who was transported to a magical medieval land and used a sword, but I only wrote the first ten pages. I even drew my character, then I decided to scrap it. I thought that it was pointless. I remember reading a sentence that I wrote without thinking much about it and it was weird because at that time I didn't write the story yet: '' I like telling stories to people, but no one wants to hear them.''
I always had a weird imagination so stories popped up all the time. In that same grade I decided to go watch a Percy Jackson movie at the end of the school year. I liked the movie, then I happened to see the books at the bookstore. My mom suggested that I read them, so she bought them then I did.
The next time I went to the bookstore the second book wasn't available. So I bought a book from a different series that my mom yet again suggested. I decided after finishing both series that I loved reading. Ever since that I became a bookworm.
Then in the sixth grade I decided to write a book and that's when my inner writer was born.