When did you start writing?

Seriously. Have you been writing for years? Is it something new? Is it a hobby or a retirement project? Were you interested in writing as a kid?

Let's hear how we started writing and tell our stories as writers.

I actually did some writing as a kid. A lot was for school, but I did have some ideas that I pursued. Even did a script for an English project that was my own take on a sequel to Star Wars (only the original was out at the time). Taking up RPGs (e.g. Dungeons & Dragons) helped a lot, since I got into world-building and would plot out adventures much like an open-ended, choose-you-own-adventure type story. And eventually, probably in high school, I started actually writing stories. That continued on and off through university and early adulthood. However, having kids kind of kiboshed it for a while but now that I am an empty-nester, I have been able to take it up more consistently and seriously.

I only began writing in later life, around ten years ago, quite by accident.

Back in '85, I was detached to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands for four months. I was a Royal Air Force propulsion engineer. In my spare time, I wrote poetry that was inspired by my surroundings. Back then, there were no personal computers as we have now, and all those poems were handwritten in a notebook.

Sometime after my return, my other half and I had a blazing row and the notebook was destroyed in a fit of rage. The poems were lost forever. I was so angry that I swore no one would do that to me again, and I wrote no more.

Fast-forward to 2013. I 'met' someone online whom I began to converse with. My emails were like micro stories and she liked them so much that she said I should publish them.

That got me thinking, and I found a now-defunct website and began to write short stories there. Those stories were erotic stories but I soon found that it wasn't the 'naughtiness' I enjoyed but the pleasure of writing the background stories. Maybe I could write a real story, I thought. The result was 'The Nurses and the Surgeon', a short story of 5000 words.

Again, it was well received and the bug had well and truly bitten me. It wasn't enough. There had to be more to that story, and so, it became an epic tale of some 390.000 words!

In those ten years, I have written three other novels, a novella, and many short stories and poems, all of which are backed up in so many places and devices that they will never be lost... and one, as you all know, is now published. 😉

When I was about 10.

I detested writing when I was young. I remember I started to like writing around 6th grade and it really took off in 8th grade. I loved writing during high school; for my classes and I was on the board for my high school's poetry/literature magazine. I then went off to college where I obtained my BA in English; Creative Writing. I've been blessed with some phenomenal teachers throughout my life.

I don't remember when I started writing exactly but it was before high school. Other than basic grammar and composition I haven't had any formal writing instruction, it was just something I always enjoyed. I had an awesome teacher who really encouraged me. When I was in Grade 11 I wrote a story in English class that used the word "F***", something that was absolutely unacceptable at the time. The teacher loved the story and asked me to read it in class including the f-word. I got a standing ovation from the class although I'm pretty sure it was because I got away with swearing in class rather than the story itself. I didn't think that at the time and I think the reaction was a big factor in continuing to write. It was the first time I ever shared anything I wrote publicly. (A variation of this class reading crops up in a story i am currently working on.)

Quote by tinhatcat

I don't remember when I started writing exactly but it was before high school. Other than basic grammar and composition I haven't had any formal writing instruction, it was just something I always enjoyed. I had an awesome teacher who really encouraged me. When I was in Grade 11 I wrote a story in English class that used the word "F***", something that was absolutely unacceptable at the time. The teacher loved the story and asked me to read it in class including the f-word. I got a standing ovation from the class although I'm pretty sure it was because I got away with swearing in class rather than the story itself. I didn't think that at the time and I think the reaction was a big factor in continuing to write. It was the first time I ever shared anything I wrote publicly. (A variation of this class reading crops up in a story i am currently working on.)

Great story in and of itself. I did some writing through school but was too much of a nerdy "good kid" to have done that. Then in university I actually started toying with writing explicit sex and that sort of thing. Thanks for sharing your story and hope to see some writing from you on here.