Anything I could get my hands on, including the backs of cereal boxes.
Don't remember how I began to write, just that I always have.
Hmm? Early on I didn't let anyone read what I wrote, maybe I was afraid they wouldn't like it. But I do remember the first real encouragement I got was from a Junior High teacher who had me read a short sci-fi story to the class. He submitted the story to Scholastic Magazine but I don't know if they ever published it.
As for the name of the book, I cannot say. The first remembrance I have of reading was before ever I started school. You see, I have an older sister who'd brought home her books from school to practice reading as she sat on my mom's lap whilst I stood behind the chair and watched. You can imagine my mom's surprise when sis stopped to sound out a word, and I said it for her. Moms cannot know how much they incidentally teach the children that are quietly watching.
I hated writing when it was required for school. I have a distinct distaste for anything that is "required", so how is it that I became a writer? It wasn't until I had the good fortune to find a teacher that had an equal amount of disdain for required reading and writing, and chose to allow playful debate on a subject instead, thus invigorating her students into the creative thinking process.
Needless to say, my fellow students were equally thrilled to sit back and watch for an entire hour each day as that teacher and I debated back and forth over the use of the English language. Would that every student might have that same good fortune and find such a teacher. Still, I don't consider anything I wrote in school as where I began to write. Playful debate aside, in the end those writings were still required.
I began writing in that perfect place somewhere right in the midst between sleep and awake. I watched the beginning of a story unfold in what can best be described as a vision or dream. I remember thinking at the time that it would make a good book if only there were someone to write it. I couldn't find anyone in the dream to take notes, so I woke up and wrote it down. Not the whole book in the same night, mind you, but enough of it that I could recall the rest enough to make a start on the book.
I've only let my sister and one other person read the first chapter of the book, just to see their reactions. To hear them laugh or gasp in all the right places was enough to tell me the book was worth writing. My true writings haven't been read by anyone else, or at least not thoroughly yet. Even knowing that I could evoke an emotional response from people I knew wasn't enough for me. I wanted to know from someone that knew nothing about me, what merit my works might have, so I asked an editor of an online magazine to review some my personal blogs and let me know what he thought. He responded by extending an invitation to write for the magazine. My first "professional" article was published in July of 2008.   | | |
My first areas of interest were the Greek myths and science fiction, starting with Jules Verne and followed by writers such as Theodore Sturgeon, J.G. Ballard, Ray Bradbury. My practical father, a reader of U.S. New and World Report and Readers Digest, could not understand my fascination with speculative fiction.
My fourth grade teacher had us write stories using all the words in our weekly spelling lists. I wish I still had some of those first writing attempts! Most weeks she called upon my best friend Joe and me to read our pieces. (I guess that means our classmates were our first audience.)
By high school, the members of our literary club would be the first to read (or hear) what I wrote.
I'm not entirely sure what the author's name was, or even the title. I do remember that it was a Mills&Boon historical romance and it had me totally hooked. I had no idea that such stories even existed.
I started writing in '91 after dreaming about a sequel to "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I know, odd choice, but I loved that movie.
I was keeping a diary at the time, and suddenly found that I was scribbling the entire thing full with this very vivid dream that kept playing through my head. So, I asked to use a friend’s old computer...one of those horrid things where you had to store your data one music cassette tape...and started typing. I was at it for weeks, hacking my way through twelve pages with my limited skills on the keyboard, only to find out that I'd stored it all wrong and that I'd basically lost everything.
I was so very disappointed that for weeks I furiously dismissed the idea of trying EVER again.
The characters kept playing through my head however, and in the end after several months they became too strong to ignore. And so my first novel, “Memories of the Future” was born. The rest is, as they say, history.
My first readers were my family, or course, along with an old school teacher who has been, and still is, a close family friend. She called my writing style a tad old-fashioned, but very good for my age, which thrilled me, of course. | | |
I began like anyone who has a love of books: I read whatever I could get my hands on. I even would sneak into the Adult Section of the local library. I began seriously writing when I was 14 years old. I wrote poems and short stories, with illustrations. My friends & parents were my first readers.
I must have first picked up a 'Dick and Jane' book, but the first things I remember enjoying were my parent's novels. I began to write stories in grade school. My first published piece was in the local paper community forum section in response to an article from a woman upset that some neighborhood kids had thrown eggs at her car. I was 17 and it was titled, "I am responsible."
I really can not remember the first book I read. I do remember reading The Hobit though... oh how I hate that book! Tolken just had a wonderful way of suking all the fun out of having fun. Page after page telling me just how dark the dark f**king forest was.. okay, I get it Tolken, it's dark!!!
I've been devouring books since I was a small boy in Nottingham and at 76 years of age that's longer ago than I care to contemplate! I recall being chided for "always having my head in a book" and once being unjustifiably accused of plagiarism when I handed in a school essay. Eventually my teacher accepted the fact that maybe I had a talent and I guess my love of words led me into writing, although there were other conttributing factors...
As a active sportsman I became known to the sports editor of the local paper and asked him if I might cover a major local event, just to test the water. He agreed, liked what I wrote and offered me a job. That was 56 years ago and I've never looked back.
So my first audience were the readers of the Bermuda Royal Gazette (I'd gone to the island as a policeman but that's another story..)
I am an only child, so the first book that made an impact on me was "One Was Johnny" by Maurice Sendak. It tells the story of Johnny, who lived by himself, until his home is invaded by various creatures. He gets angrier and angrier as each creature arrives. So he boots them all out, one by one. I realize this story is supposed to teach kids how to count. But at five-years-old I loved it because Johnny lived by himself, and to quote the book, he "liked it like that!"
My love of solitude and exploring places on my own is what compelled me to write. I'd take a journal with me everywhere and write down bits of conversation I heard on the bus or in cafes. I think a writer has to be interested in people, but removed enough to write about them.
The first people to read my work were my parents and some very cool English teachers.
I began reading as a young child, and was immediately drawn to the sensitive poetry of Rod McKuen. I began writing my own poems at 12 years old, showed them to family and peers, and was published in the local newspaper and school anthology.
When I was younger I used to really skip reading although sometimes I would always check out the book called "The lady who swallowed the fly." I think that was what it was called, but for some reason I enjoyed that book. Then I tried to get in to the Nancy Drew mysteries because of my mother like those books. But I like the Alfred Hicthcock mystery magazines and a lot of Steven King short stories and novels.
I began to write in High School when my teachers would have us keep a journal, so I would come up with short stories for children, a couple of jokes and a lot of poetry. As for who were the first to read my writings my family, mainly my mom she read and edited my poems and the first of my two short stories that I attempted which were murder mysteries. I then had the opportunity to have my peoms published in the local newspaper, then I sent them in for a poetry contest which I won honorable mention for two of them.
Quite frankly, I don't remember not reading! I read like a hungry wolf eats - fast and greedy. :) I'm a glutton for books.
I began to write in grade school. Inspired by Wonder Woman comics, I drew my own little comic book. Then in junior high, I tried to write mysteries. As for readers, well, I didn't show too many people my stuff. I knew there was a lot to learn.
I read as a boy much of the things that most of us read--nursery rhymes and children stories and school books and religious tales, and when I was a boy a story I read for a class inspired me to write a fiction story about an African safari, and later--when I was 15, 16, 17--I read the essays of people such as Joan Didion and Gore Vidal and Richard Wright's books Black Boy and Native Son and science fiction, historical novels, and John Irving's early novels, as well as Hollywood movie magazines and art film catalogs and much else. I received some encouragement from a couple of teachers and a librarian. I wrote poetry and lyrics and plays and short fiction scenes. I started a very short-lived high school publication.
Everything I could find in the library in my School. There were not enough books in that small library. I started writing my own stories when I was ten years old. My friends were the first ones to read them.
I started reading at a very early age, around age two. My mother told me I loved books so much and couldn't get enough of them. That continued through my scholastic career. One of the first chapter books I remember reading and falling in love with was To Kill A Mockingbird, in grade four. I had to write a report (short story) creating a new chapter at the begining of the book and a new ending. It was then I hooked on writing. From grade four on I constantly wrote. I wrote lyrics to songs, poetry and short stories.
It wasn't until I was sixteen and a reporter for the Vancouver Province read an article I wrote toward the fight for GVRD housing to allow its members to keep their animals when a ruling came down telling us we had to give all our pets up. That article sparked controversy and BCTV contacted me for an interview with my furry friend whom I was so aggresively advocating for (my cat Spooner) and the ruling was overturned.
Everyone got to keep their pets and that was the first time I realized the power of the written word, it's motivation for others to understand things, the entertainment it can bring and so much more. I've been writing ever since. | | |
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