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Paula explains when and why she started to write.
Some people say, “I decided to write when …” or “I became a
writer when …"
When I see comments like this, I’m very aware that I never ‘decided’
to write, and I never ‘became’ a writer. I’ve always been a writer, at least
from the time I learnt to write. Before that I created stories in my mind,
inventing adventures for my dolls and Teddy bear. It was a natural progression
to write some of those stories and when I was about eight, my class teacher
wrote on my report card, “She writes very good stories.”
Maybe I was blessed with an over-active imagination, or maybe,
as an only child, creating and writing stories was my way of not being ‘alone’.
I was also a voracious reader and, inspired by Enid Blyton (a prolific children’s author in the UK at the time), I wrote dozens of
‘spin-offs’ from her stories, before progressing to stories about my own
characters. I still remember a lot of my first full-length 'novel' (probably
about 50K words) which I wrote when I was 10 or 11, about a group of children
who converted an old barn into a theatre and produced their own plays in order
to convince their parents they were serious about acting. I was stagestruck
even then!
Once I reached my teens, I discovered romance, and wrote
(very cheesy!) romance stories for my friends to read each morning on the school bus. I
also wrote detailed diaries, first about the teachers I had a crush on, and
then, of course, about boys. Wish I still had those diaries – they would
probably be hilarious to read now!
When and why did you start writing stories?
I understand the 'only child' and writing to have adventures too. Somewhere I still have the book I made about a Spanish dancer and a crime. I was probably still in junior school.
ReplyDeleteThat's far more 'exotic' than my early stories!
DeleteI've been writing forever as well, although I never liked writing in a diary--I felt too much pressure to keep it up.
ReplyDeleteNot sure why I felt the need to write down every night about what had happened that day - including who said what to whom (etc) - but I did that in a 'page-a-day' diary for about 5 or 6 years from being 11.
DeleteI wanted to write children's books when I was young. I loved writing and reading. Then life got in the way. I wrote for work but never considered writing novels until I had my horoscope read by a big name astrologer. She said, with Uranus in the 9th, if I wasn't writing, I should be. The light turned back on, and I started taking classes.
ReplyDeleteI was too busy writing essays etc when I was at Uni, but started writing fiction again when my first daughter was a baby. i think that was a kind of escape from baby-talk all day!
DeleteI started writing in high school. It all stemmed from being a reader. It was then that I started reading romance, and the mantra "someday I want to write one of those" began beating in my head.
ReplyDeleteI still do have those first attempts, and they are VERY cheesey, but I love taking them out to look at every once-in-a-while.
Your barn/theatre story sounds fabulous! Have you ever thought of dusting it off and revisiting it to publish?
My first published novel was partly based on one of my teenage cheesy novels!
DeleteThe barn/theatre story would be fun to revisit, but I think I'm too out of touch now with today's kids to make it realistic.
I remember creating comics for my sister and friends. I would be under 10 then. I also wrote little plays which we performed around the school.
ReplyDeleteCarol
I loved writing plays too, and we performed a couple with my Girl Guide unit when I was about 12 or 13.
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