How did you start as a writer?

[jdlusan]

How did you start as a writer?  Why?  What inspired you?  What was your background?  Did you have a background writing before you decided to get serious?   

[Sasha6]

Seems like you need some comments lol. I Started really thinking about writing in the fifth grade actually. Lynn Reid Banks came to our school for about a week and we had a whole unit on writing before and after she left. My teacher really stressed how writing and books where important and I found that I liked it. So I played around with writing a few things. Then my dad decided he was going to write and incouraged me to write more seriously. So in eight grade I started a book (Which is still a work in progress) and started writing a lot more. Sometimes just for fun. Now I have notebooks full of writing and ideas for stories and just tons of stuff on literature and history so I can learn to become a better writer. Well, thats really all there is to it. I decided that I had fun doing it so I do it more often. I do like writing scripts more though.

[ellie]

Hiya jdlusan,
I started a writing course after my Mum died almost 5 years ago now. It was a sort of therapy to cope with her loss.
Then 3 years ago, I joined an Algarve site called 'Carvoeiro.com'. One day I read on there of another womans experience of living there and I enjoyed it. I wrote to the webmaster and told him, and also added a little story of my own (very very short one), of one of our experiences in living there. He wrote back saying 'have you got any more?'.....
I replied 'loads'! He said let me have them then and he gave me my own page on there 'ellie's corner'.
People wrote to me saying they enjoyed the stories and a few said why not put them in a book. So I did. It took 2 years and then 'Algarve Shorts' was published last August.
I never ever thought I would do it. I was very unsure and a complete novice really.But if I can,then anybody can..I really love writing and Im now halfway through a sequel to 'Shorts'!

[jdlusan]

ellie,
It seems as though you and I have somewhat of a similar story.  My motivation for starting to write came from the death of my son.  Well my wife had a still birth.  We went through a great deal after that and then got pregnant again.  Our second son was born prmature and is still in the NICU.  I thought I could write some memoirs that could help parents deal with either losing a child or having a premature baby.  There are many resources out there for this but thought my experiences could add to them.  Good luck writing and take care ellie.

[ellie]

Evening jd
Just to say, how very sorry I am to hear about the loss of your first baby boy.I can't begin to imagine what thats like to go through,although some years ago, my cousin did go through the same. I think it an excellent idea, to put your experience and thoughts into writing a book as im sure it would help others in the same circumstance a great deal.
I never imagined I would be as devastated as I was, when my mum died.Having lost dad when I was 9, she had been mum& dad to us.. I wasn't prepared for the overwhelming grief I felt. But I did find the writing a wonderful therapy and I feel sure you will too.
I hope your little lad will soon be fit and strong and in full health,
and I wish you & your wife all the very best of luck & the happiness that you deserve,
God bless you all,
nite..ellie
good luck with the writing

[SusieQ]

I was a reader first, read hundreds if not thousands of novels, then I got my first PC, self taught myself all about it, now I can advise or help even the techies.... after reading some ho-hum novels, I thought to myself, I can do this and probably better, and so I did, I wrote a novel, and got rave reviews from friends, family and even a retired editor and her hubby who still writes for a magazine, they feel it would be published if submitted, which it won't, not interested in that...it all just comes to me very easily, my characters talk to me, I can see them and they come to me with names, sometimes they keep me awake. Then I decided to try my hand at stories for children and love writing them, just finished my third, two have pictures to go with the story, and I made my covers on card stock. I have no background in writing, I'm a high school grad. and never worked, I read no how to books, use no outlines or anything, I simply listen to my mind and write. I researched on the web, the guidelines expected by publishers so, I'd get it set up right, but that is all.

[mccpcorn]

I'm a naturally imaginative person and always wanted to do something creative.  However from an early age I found many doors being slammed shut by teachers.  I think when I was quite small my first love was music, but when I tried to get a violin in school the tutor decided I didn't have an ear for it. *huffs*

Back then I believe I could have been a poet because I had a certain flair, but it was not something that I maintained.  My later English classes didn't really cover writing poetry, just deconstructing it.  I just stopped writing it, say about aged 10, and never went back.  It's not something I can do now; I'm competent on a technical level but extremely poor imaginatively wise.

Art was another one.  I always enjoyed it, especially comics.  I was inspired by the comic 2000AD and specifically the series The Ballad of Halo Jones.  But again, art was very basic in junior school.  I enjoyed painting and drawing but there was no real guiding hand by a properly trained art teacher so I never really got any discipline in it.  I could do basic portraits and some excellent copy work but when I try to draw on my own I can't even get basic stick figures right.  I had once dreamed of writing and drawing my own comic but my art skills just were not up to it.

So I ended up writing. ^^

I quickly learned that I didn't need any special equipment to write prose.  I had always shown flashes of it in school, but things were so rigid in there I never really had a chance to write creatively, at least not from a fiction stand point even though my teacher knew I had talent.

Then later on when I was on a youth training scheme (yeah, right, thanks for that Maggie  ) I was doing lots of computer office 'work'.  I got so insanely bored with it that I started writing one day.  No plot, no plan, just started writing.  Got about 60 pages in two months before the idea fizzled out, but everyone was highly impressed with what I did.

After I left the course I lost computer access and knew because I was a chopper and changer it would be futile for someone like me to write by hand.  I had to wait until returning to college in prep for university about 6 years later before I could think about going back to writing creatively, but I hadn't been idle as hardly a day went by when I didn't think about my first story and how I'd love to finish it.

I tried to reinvent that story several times, but the lack of planning and the cliche that underlied it simply made it impossible.  Fortunately I did creative writing at degree level in John Moores University, so I've been able to develop my skills and apply them to my new projects.

Gosh that was a mini autobiography XD

[SuzieHarris]

Hi JD,

I started writing in 1996 following the death of my son, you may have seen my poem for him on the review page (http://www.mywriterscircle.com/index.php?topic=315.0).

It was the catalyst that started the ball rolling, I had so much hurt and anger that I needed to channel. I have now turned that anger into success and it's all for him.

I guess we all write for different reasons, but grief seems to be the number one reason for starting the journey.


Suzie

[Linda Aitchison]

...I started to write for a living when I enrolled on a newspaper's training scheme.

[Bob B.]

How did you start as a writer?  Why?  What inspired you?  What was your background?  Did you have a background writing before you decided to get serious?   

     I started in a rather naive way.  I wrote a college English class essay, an an 18 year old freshman, about a memorable character--it happened to be an old cowboy who worked in movies in the silent era (I've always had an interest in early films).  Anyway, I had some photos of the cowboy as well and I thought to myself, "I'll mail this to 'Frontier Times' magazine.  Lo and behold, they accepted my 600 word essay and sent me a cheque for a fast $20.  Then they editid, refined, transformed, savaged my copy--pick whatever verb you will--so that by the time it appeared in print it was recognizable (but just barely) as my own work.  Still, the effort was good enough and led to a brief series for the magazine. and I've been writing as a sideline ever since--I'm coming up on my 38th year as a writer, and my most recent book, "Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood," is about to go into its second printing.   

[Cathy C]

I scribbled when I was younger - thoughts, idea's, emotions. Sitting by the fire with my little notebook on  my knee I was able to escape into my own world where I pulled the strings, made the decisions (a big plus for the third child in a family of four followed by twenty-two foster siblings). Eventually I gave writing up to become a reader and devoured book after book living vicariously through the characters there. Like most of the posts here I really only got back to writing when my life slipped off its even keel, first with an almost divorce, then two miscarriages. I needed an outlet for my emotions -  one that was private, just for me. That changed when my little sister died and I realised that I wanted my voice heard. Life's just too short to sit in a corner.

[DiFrancis]

Hi
In answer to your question, I don't believe a writer ever actually starts, they simply are. Maybe they never actually reveal their talent or even recognise it, but it is a part of them. However a working writer is someone who discovers the artistic part of themselves and simply works at it.
The rest I am afraid is luck. Your work being at the right place, in view of the right person, at the right time.
Sadly there is also a 'who you know' element to success.
We all read about overnight bestseller first authors. Especially young authors just out of teens and think How?
Usually it is a friend of daddy who is the publisher or agent. Not all comercially successful books are well written, hype is better than talent in the market place.
But if this seems depressing, think of J K Rawlings.
That lady did it! She has given us all hope as well as made herself one of the richest women in the world.
The dream can happen, the dice roll well.
The right place, the right story and the right reader.
Like winning the lottery, we all try because some of us succeed. Its just a matter of never giving up and believing in yourself.
So good luck, Di

[Anthony King]

I began to write during my college years. Before, I find writing as the most difficult moment of my life until one day my English professor obliged us to write and create 15 essays and poems which would be collected at the end of the semester. Though I found it as a punishment, later on, I began to love it and consider writing as a part of my daily routine. My day would not be complete if I don't write. So what inspires me? I think my experiences is my number 1 inspiration. I want to write everything that happens in my life. When I discovered that there's a lot of people who appreciated my works that's the time I decided to get serious. I want to write not just for myself but for those who support and believe in my capabilities.

[jeff]

For my 10th birthday I saw my first James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever. The next monday in school I sat down to write my first novel, Vultures Fly High, starring James Bond.

I wrote nine or ten pages before my teacher said I ought to put it aside for the time being and get on with something else.

Who knows, one day I might finish it.

[SteveJ]

I realised that I wasn't going to make it as a footballer or a guitarist, so writing was third on my wishlist