I have been writing stories since around 2004, so about five years now. It’s one of my biggest passions even though it didn’t start out that way. In elementary school I was LUCKY to get a 70% or a B- in English. In fact I always did better in French than I did in English! I really hated how wordy it had to be; it felt like no matter what I wrote it was never right. Which really sucked for me because I was your typical nerd who was outcasted by the other kids, so grades was all I really had…
ANYWAYS, so I get to grade 8-9 and I start reading fan fiction. That’s when I realize that writing could be interesting! That it wasn’t all boring readings that teachers gave you where you had to analyze and answer questions. Granted the first couple of fan fictions I read were horribly written and horribly thought up. But hey, it was the first thing that actually spiked my writing interest.
Then around the end of 2004 I started to write my own fan fictions. I always had ideas on how to change anime to my liking, and admittedly I had usually put myself as the main character. But then again I still do that in my current stories; it helps me to understand how the character is supposed to be feeling. (For instance, Yuri appeals to my more shy and emotional side).
That’s around the time I started to pay attention in English class! I wanted to get better in English because I started to realize the suck that was my writing skills. And because of that my English marks rose up into the low 90’s or an A.
So now it’s about five years after I started and I’m still writing fan fiction. Well only my Shikamaru story and that’s because I want to finish it. It was always a series that I loved to think of ideas for. And in the past two months I’ve written about 60 pages worth for it. I was a little worried with the dry spell I had in 2008 that I was losing my passion for writing. As in 2008 I wrote a whopping 4 chapters, but when I wrote 5 chapters in a month for Sky’s Content I realized it was just the situation I was in at the time.
But now it’s about time for me to branch out of fan fiction and to write my own original stories. Which, will hopefully one day become my own novels.
I’ve been working on this idea for a story for about a year and two months. It originated from a role play a friend and I started back in 2006 I think. I just loved the concept and we never finished roleplaying what I had planned out for the story. So now about a million setting changes, and about 10 main/secondary characters later, I’m pretty sure I’m ready to start writing.
Although, I have to admit at this point I have NO clue if the story is any good. But if it’s managed to keep my interest for more than a year, that has to say something right? I think I have only told about 3 people little snippets of plot details here and there (In a year!). Even then, some of those plot things has changed since I told them. But they seemed to like the concept so hopefully it’s not that bad! Haha.
But before I want to write the story I want to do a TON of reading. Reading is a major step in improving your writing. You get introduced to not only different writing styles, but different types of voices, and not to mention you generally widen your vocabulary. I know my voice, I just gotta concentrate on the style now 
But yeah, that’s basically writing and how it relates to me!
Question for the comments: If you write, how did you get started?
By: Angela @ http://sayarynth.com
ReplyDeleteThis was your most enjoyable post to read. Whenever someone talks about writing, I sorta get all excited and jittery.
Let’s see.. I got started with writing.. I was in second or first grade.. Not lying.. I have always been obsessed with fantasy (and was teased a lot for that) and it just so happened that I didn’t particularly like the world that had been handed to me. So I began to create my own world. My first story was SOOOOOOOO lame. It was about this girl who had to collect these pieces of a necklace to save the world from some impending doom or something lame like that.. But it was advanced for a seven-year-old. From there, writing just seemed like the most natural thing to me. I guess it’s always spurred off of me not liking the idea that world was just handed to me and I had no choice in the matter. Writing became my choice. Even though I’m getting into web design, graphic design, anthropology, chemistry, writing has always been my main passion. I just feel at home when I write.
I went through stages. When I was in sixth grade, I switched my from fantasy novel to poetry. My teacher called me the poem lady. Now, I have to say this, just for the record, I don’t really like poetry. But writing it often feels as natural as writing novels to me. The thing with poetry is it’s a burst of emotion and it’s short-lived. So I’ve gone through three stages now of poetry writing, sixth grade, freshman year, and a small portion of last year.
I also have a hard time writing when I read a lot. I do agree that reading makes a good writer but in the past, I had to read for a month, write for a month. Doing them at the same time was trying and it just didn’t work for me.. I don’t know why. I just lost inspiration when I read. And then 2007-2008, I went through my depressed stage and hardly wrote a word. That was the year I got straight As on my report card. No A-’s, just all As. But now I seem to be getting in the swing of it again.
A year in planning.. Yeah, that’s how it’s been with Nightingale. I came up with the concept last summer and have had about three people give me feedback and ideas on it. I’ve written a tiny bit of it (like 12,000 words) and I think this is the summer that it needs to take flight (haha, a pun).
As much as I frown upon fan fiction, I do understand the thrill of it (and have read a few myself) and I’m very glad it got you into writing. It’s all about finding that joy because most people hate writing. I remember last year, my teacher made us write for 15 minutes, sometimes freely, sometimes about something and then she’d ask for people to share. I shared once and there wasn’t a writing period after that the class wasn’t begging for me to read my piece.
I think the thing with writing is that it’s intensely personal and can be fulfilling in that regard, but it is also intensely public and getting praise from others motivates you that much more.
Lastly, I don’t care the genre of your story, I would very much like to read it so if you were to post it online one way or another, I would love to see it!
This post was delightful to read. You have the spark. That’s so exciting!