It´s Friday night, a long and productive week behind me and while waiting for my tea to heat up, I am trying to remember when I knew I wanted to become a writer…Going down memory lane. Ready? Hop on 🙂
As a child, I loved to read and make up stories. As a teenager in Junior High, one of my favourite assignment was “composition écrite” or a sort of creative writing. I used to tell stories out loud (even practicing my English or German as I went along). I wrote poetry (either love poems or socially engaged ones :-))
In High School, I started what I thought would be my first novel. I cannot remember why I stopped. Here and there, I tried again. I finished one short story (which I was very proud of and am now thinking I could actually use in a future work).
Two years ago, I dipped my toes into my current WIP, then put it on hold when work got too intense or I let things get in the way. I have seriously dived into it in September. I think somebody asked me: “what would you like to achieve in life?” Of course I said “world peace” (love the movie Miss Congeniality *smiles*). One of the answers was to be a writer. It does not mean I am looking for the money and the fame (even though I would not say no 🙂 ) but it really triggered me to realize how much creating stories, plots, characters meant to me. It is part of who I am, one of my passions and one of my goals. I am glad I decided to be more serious about it and making the time for it. I am happy to have already “met” wonderful support and inspiration in the blogosphere and forums on top of the one I have at home (I know, dear husband, that you will be reading this, that is, after you´re done playing with the PS3)
My tea is waiting for me but before I go, I have a question for you: when did you know you wanted to commit to your writing? Looking forward to hear your stories 🙂
Elodie Nowodazkij 
Nice post!
I love the subject I may have to sit back & see if I can remember when I decided I wanted to write 🙂
Thanks 🙂 And please do let me know when you remember about that time when you knew you HAD to write 🙂
Not to be cliche, but when I was four. I wrote my first story on my baby “bother” (I was an only child ’til age 9) that I still have. I always loved writing and won lots of writing contests at school, although until recently I never really wanted a career as just a writer. As a kid, I wanted to be James Herriot and write books about my experiences as a Veterinarian. Although I didn’t end up going to Vet school, the writing dream is still alive and hopefully that one will work out!
Crossing my fingers for you 🙂 And no I do no think it is cliché to say you started writing so early. I think many of us actually did but only some of us took the quantum leap and try to become “writers”…
Que de réflexions pertinentes !!!!
Merci Mam 🙂
The whole story will probably be in a blog article or two sometime, but to sum up, I’ve always enjoyed writing, and have loved creating stories since I was a child. The idea of actually being a writer, and particularly a fiction writer, didn’t really take hold until maybe five or six years ago, when it dawned on me how much I really enjoy it, and how much writing has been a part of my life, even without knowing it. For me, it’s not so much I decided to be a writer; I just realized that’s what I am.
Thanks for the opportunity to share, cg! 🙂
Thanks for sharing Colin 🙂
“For me, it’s not so much I decided to be a writer; I just realized that’s what I am.” –> very true as well…and very nicely put!
I’ve always been really creative. When i was a kid (maybe 9) i made up sotries with my much older sisters teddy colection at her house. She used to secretly watch me, then years later said ‘You could make a book with what you did.’ When i was in highschool i co-wrote with a friend several part finished novellas and books. It was then i knew this is what i wanted to do. Writing is what got me through my teenage years, i was never a bad teen, i never smoked or did drugs, i never partied, the most i did was skip a few days of school. I put all of my pent up emotion into my writing.
It has just been in the last 18mo that i started taking my writing seriously. I got the inspiration for my WIP mid last year.
Thanks for sharing your story French Maiden 🙂 It´s funny how many of us seem to have been writing for so long and then had a moment where we decided to be more “serious” about it…I used to tell stories with my barbies :-))
I always like to hear how other people got into writing. I also started making up stories when I was young–most of how I played when I was by myself was by making up stories around my toys. I didn’t start writing anything down though until I was in eighth grade. Through high school, I wrote a little bit off and on, and then got more serious when I tried to write my first book for my senior project. I finished it two years later, and then moved on to brainstorming my next book, Star Thief, which is what I’m now trying to find an agent for. My discipline comes and goes depending on how busy the rest of my life gets, but I really made the decision to keep at this when I started Star Thief. Good luck with your own WIP!
Thanks for sharing Robin! I also love to read those stories of how people got into writing…It seems different and similar in a lot of ways. Congrats for already finishing two books and the best of luck with your querying 🙂
What a great post!
Thanks so much for visiting my blog!
Thanks Kelley 🙂 I love your blog, officially became a “follower” 🙂
Love this post, and love your “world peace” answer. 🙂
I decided to try my hand at writing when my daughter was about a year old. I’ve always been a HUGE reader, but hadn’t really tried my hand at writing. I was (am) a stay-at-home mom and needed a creative outlet, something to make me feel productive, so I started to write a story. It flowed naturally as YA before I even knew what YA was. That manuscript has since been trunked (though I’ll always love it!) and I’ve written two others since.
Now, I can’t imagine NOT writing!
Thanks Katy and wow on already writing 3 full manuscripts! I see we have something in common, my first try at a novel (which I promised myself I would finish at some point) was also a YA before I knew what that meant 🙂 Writing is a wonderful creative outlet and I also find it to channel some of my energy which can be good sometimes for my husband (cannot get upset at him while I am writing, that may be why he is very supportive :-))…
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember– my mom has “books” that I used to “write” from the moment that I could hold a crayon. I was that kid who thought that writing a “book” for each of my teachers was a GREAT end-of-year gift (poor teachers!) And, I was that kid who spent most of my class time writing instead of paying attention to those same teachers.
Unfortunately, my dad wanted me to be an engineer. So, all of that writing energy was channelled into surviving differential equations and finite element analysis classes. Ten years post-graduation and I would cry over the things that I wrote in high school because I knew that I could never capture the magic of that voice again. I was a great engineer who would dabble in fan fiction in her spare time.
This past spring, I met a favorite author and, listening to her speak about the publication process, I was reinspired to dig out a plot that I had been working on for years. Six months later and I have one MS with betas and another two WIPs. I’m writing and happier than I’ve been in years!