How did you start as a writer?

[Nelodra]

Erm.. Can't remember.
As stupid as it sounds, I think I was born a writer.
I've been writing for as long as I can remember.

[Skittles]

First of all, i love to read, and i have a good imagination. I've been writing on and off for almost 6 years. I used to write short stories when i was a teenager, but it never went anywhere. I have 3 manuscripts on the go. I'm just doing rewrites on the first one. I took a year off of writing after my dad passed. I'm hoping to get back into writing soon, but i need a new computer first....LOL Mine is very unreliable and i don't want to take the chance of putting my books on it and then having it crash.

Anita

[SteveOsborne]

I was a freelancer for The Salt Lake Tribune when I was a junior and senior in high school. I had always loved writing, but that made me love it even more. But then everyone told me that writing was not an acceptable profession -- that writers cannot support their families and make a steady income. I was dumb enough -- and unfaithful enough -- to believe them. So I ended up graduating from college, having gone through the undergraduate program in architecture. I then spent several years wallowing in the travel and real estate businesses, always knowing I was not doing what I was meant to do. I finally screwed up my courage and took the leap. I started doing copywriting, freelancing for small ad agencies and graphic design shops in town. This led to a lot of magazine work, book projects and so on. Looking back, I had to work very hard, but it was my own work and my own life. And I proved them wrong -- I was able to make a respectable living.

[ed]

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 have always loved writing, only now years later have I decided to write a book

[Hugh]

I discovered I could write creatively in the sixth form.  Our history master had given us each a book to study during the long summer holiday.  We would be tested on it when we returned next term and woe betide us if we hadn’t done our homework. 

Mine was a tome about Frederick the Great of Prussia, the shape and size of a breezeblock.  Just turned eighteen, I was more interested in an altogether different shape, that of the gorgeous girl who lived over the road, with the result that I didn’t look at the book until two days before we went back to school. 

I skimmed through it and naturally homed in on Frederick’s goings-on with various women.  Back at school we were given a question and had to write an essay.  Mine was something like “To what extent did Frederick influence Prussia’s history?”  I hadn’t a clue, but recalled some of his dalliances, so took a flier and wrote a rather steamy essay showing that it wasn’t him, but the women in his life who really changed the course of history, quite expecting to be sent to the Housemaster’s study for six of the best.

I wasn’t.  My essay was read out in class and I was held me up as an example of someone who had obviously studied my book deeply to gain such an insight.  Not surprisingly I failed “A” level History – you can’t bullshit your way through that.

[guess]

I'll be the one to put this back on top.
You have to excuse me I've been away from MWC for a little while and just caughting up.

I have written ever since 1984 with diaries and journals
I only got serious in 2005 when I wanted to write a book for my granddaughter after I decided that I enrolled in a literature course for a year then as of June 18th 2008 I finished my granddaughters book and have three under construction. And five ideas for books on paper for after the other three get done.
I love to write for start, reactions of characters, anxiety attacks in between, and the tasteful endings. Plus when I write I never know whats going to happen next or a lot of unexpected things happen (which is good sometimes) I hate to plan to far ahead for a book. (OUTLINE) But in the end it'll all come together somehow.
I have to write for the love of it because it's not for the money or the rejection slips.
Sharon

[bailish]

I knew I was a writer ever since one day I was sitting in high school English writing class.  I wasn't particularly motivated to write, although I good good marks at it, but my real dream at that time was to be an airline pilot.  Then the teacher came out and said he wanted us to write an essay on what we wanted to be in life.  And he said, "I'm sure all of you are mature enough to have put away your childish dreams, such as being an airline pilot..."

I've visited that school on many occasions, and I've kept in touch with many of the teachers I had, but I never wanted to see that teacher again.

[Talisman]

English was always my favourite subject at school, and I remember a fortune teller coming to the door one day as a child, and telling me that one day I would write a book, but after I left school, I just drifted from one job to another, and forgot all about it. I kept a diary for a while, but that was the only form of writing that I did.

Then after my Mum died at the end of 1999 everything changed. She left me some money and since I had had so many problems at work, my partner persuaded me to take a year out. It was around this time as well that I bought my first crystal skull. After a few months though, I enrolled on a crystal therapy course (I had already qualified in massage and Reiki). Halfway through the course, we were asked to write a thesis on a crystal related subject, to present to the rest of the group, and I chose to do mine on crystal skulls. The more I began to write, the more links I began to find with all these other areas of interest, and I just basically kept on writing. When it hit 10,000 words I realised that it would be a book. The book took around 5 years to complete (I stopped writing altogether for about 2 years when my partner became ill and I went back to work), but the book was finally published in June 2006, with a second, updated edition in May 2007.

I am back at work again, full time, but still find the time to write - I have 2 blog sites, and also act as Editor for my local community newsletter. I have had various things published on others websites (I had an article on Linda Jones website earlier in the year) and spiritual magazines - Paradigm Shift, More 2 Life etc. I don't have as much time to write any more as I would like, as I have quite a stressful job, selling TV's and electrical equipment (we have been waiting for 2 months now to find out when they are closing us down), but I try and blog if nothing else, at least twice a week ! 

[guess]

Hey T while your blogging take a second to jot something down for a book then guess what after awhile you'll have written a book and not realised it.

[Talisman]

Funny you should say that Guess, as I have been wondering of late whether I should publish the blog site. I have had it for three years now and there is an awful lot on there !   

[morningstar]

well Ive always liked writing as a child.but was never really good at it.i only recently began putting my thought to paper so to speak..
i cant write a letter to save my soul,but i sure can write about things that get you thinking..
iam currently into erotic writing...honestly i get so worked up while writing,i have to take a breather...lol...
anyway the person that  inspired me is a man ive known for a few months now...he used to send me little notes via email,talking sexy and teasing me...so we just went back and forth like that for awhile,he told me he thinks i paint a pretty good picture without getting too graphic...

[Jessie]

Everyone seems to have some interesting responses to this questions. Very neat.

I started as a writer by journaling. I have been doing it since I was four and taught myself to read (and at the same time, to  write). I pursued fiction to no real results. Last year, I dumped out all of my writing files.

I knew I didn't want to give up on writing. but none of it seemed to matter.

Then I quit my day job and began a resume writing business that offered other services.

Then, I started taking a freelance writing course at Penn Foster, because I have some complications getting a refund. I had been taking a bookkeeping course there.

So I decided to finance it and started struggling to pay for things, but everything seems to have fallen into place. My life is fantastic now and while I could still see myself doing small fiction projects and maybe some novels, I realize that nonfiction writing is what I really want to do. I write because I want to inform or teach and to share what I know. It is like I have reached a milestone in my writing life and at the same time started anew.

[HeidiC]

I've been a writer all my life - the physical act of writing since I could pick up a crayon (my Dad still has books I wrote when I was five) - the innate, have to imagine a different world/life/story since forever. It's part of me like breathing I do it without thinking. It's on my mind when I wake up and when I go to bed. If I'm reading/watching television, having or listening to a conversation it's scraping around in the back of my mind.

Writing was not something that happened to me, I did not stumble upon it or have a defining moment in my life where it seemed like a good thing to try doing. It has always been with me. Strangely - I was named after a book. My Dad read Heidi when he was twelve years old and loved it so much he decided then if he ever had a girl that would be her name. Twenty years and three boys later I came along - so writing for me goes back even further than when I was born.

[Gyppo]

I write because I want to inform or teach and to share what I know. It is like I have reached a milestone in my writing life and at the same time started anew.

It's pretty compelling, isn't it? ;-)

Gyppo

[Jessie]

Gyppo,

Why, yes, it is. It also makes me work twice hard so that I feel less pompous and more informative.