A couple of recent posts have gotten me to thinking about how we become writers. I'm curious how/why others started writing and if there was a specific moment in time when they decided/knew they wanted to be a writer.
For me, it started with a Christmas gift--a book (Anne of Avonlea), when I was twelve. Oddly enough, I hated reading before this book came along! Something in my imagination was sparked by the story and I began to realize I wanted to try writing my own stories. By fourteen I was working on my first (horrible) novel =) I think writing clicked with me because I had a need to express myself in words not just for fun but for "therapy" in a sense. I've heard people say writing is like breathing--it's something they HAVE to do. That's what it became for me. Been writing ever since.
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When I was three or four, my parents gave me a Disney tape of Cinderalla and also the three little pigs. I listened to them so much that I had them memorized and would tell anyone who listened. Pretty soon I was telling my own stories. But I really didn't write anything down until much, much later in life. Really, it wasn't until my senior year in highschool and then it was only snippets. I still imagined stories in my head just didn't write them down.
I guess I've always created, I just haven't always written it down or told anyone. For me the creation in my head was the therapy, the writing was secondary. Now I'm trying to channel the voices in my head onto paper :)
Sean
It's all down to The Happy Prince for me. As an six year old it was my favourite story. I used to make my Mum read it to me every night. Only she couldn't finish it, it used to always make her cry and my Dad always had to take over. Night after night. Was I evil? No, just fascinated. She still can't read it to the end, breaks her heart.
So, from then I was writing stories. At primary school I was encouraged to a massive degree. Where one poem was set as homework and I would be asked for five. The schools support was phenomenal, and it's only looking back on it that I realise how invaluable that was. I'd write 'chapter stories' that I'd read with my friends at sleepovers. Bless them for listening, they were no doubt awful stories.
Everything changed at my very Catholic High School. At eleven I was disciplined for writing an Easter story from the viewpoit of Judas. Can you believe that? Where I'd previously been encouraged to try things out at this school I was being stomped on. Bloody Nuns!I had one English teacher who was secretly supportive bu other than that I began to drift away towards acting.
I didn't write a word at Drama school, or through the first few years of acting. My creative needs were being met to a degree. However, I began to feel stifled and unfulfilled by acting and quickly returned to my first love. I wanted my own stories, not just telling other peoples which often weren't up to much. Seriously, there are some awful plays out there.
So, that's where my obsession came from. Woah, that took longer than I thought. You still awake out there?
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