Stories You Wrote As A Child

[Dreity]

I know there have been threads for this in the past, but I've never been able to make a contribution until now. (I don't even know if this is the right place for them. Mods?)

I visited home last week, and one of the things I brought back was my first grade creative writing anthology. My parents and I busted a gut reading my first forays into the craft. I wrote a blog post about them that adds some commentary, but I figured I'd share the juicy bits with you guys.

I kept in all the spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. The first story is true; the second one is rather obviously not.


Conner Prairie Visit

When I visited Conner Prairie I got to carve wood three times! And I saw a man making potery. And then I went to this little tiny log cabin and on the seling I saw a lot of animals skin. And there mugs were made of clay and we saw Dr. Campbell. And he had a large house! and we learned how they made clothing and then the best part of my life. I bought a doll and a bonet and candy stick.

At The Circus

Once upon a time I went to the circus. I saw the clowns do silly things. And when I saw the lions, one of them begged me to get on his back! And when I got on his back he ran all over his cage. So I quickly got out and ran straight to the monkeys. But when I got to the monkeys, one of them grabbed by hand and swung me all over there cage, Hellllp! I said as they swung me around in circles, so I gragged the bars quickly. and got out fast and went to see the elephants, but when I got to the elephants, one of them caght me by his trunk, and picked me up I think now would be a good time to leave I said.

***

These were even funnier when I showed them to my husband and he read them aloud in his Serious Narrator Voice.

Anyone else want to share their EARLY, early work?

[folkchick]

I wish I had the poems I used to write at twelve. Really flowery, sensitive stuff. Raindrops and fairies and forests. . . Then I wrote a little mermaid book complete with drawings. Man, where is all that stuff?

[AshleyEpidemic]

I wish I could. I remember writing a rather depressing story in the 6th grade or so. I have been desperately trying to find it, but I think it has been lost in the ether. I think I still have picture books I used to write when I was about five. When I go home for Christmas I will dig one out and post it.

I find I am proud of what I wrote when I was little.

[Dreity]

Originally Posted by folkchick

I wish I had the poems I used to write at twelve. Really flowery, sensitive stuff. Raindrops and fairies and forests. . . Then I wrote a little mermaid book complete with drawings. Man, where is all that stuff?

Originally Posted by AshleyEpidemic

I wish I could. I remember writing a rather depressing story in the 6th grade or so. I have been desperately trying to find it, but I think it has been lost in the ether. I think I still have picture books I used to write when I was about five. When I go home for Christmas I will dig one out and post it.

I find I am proud of what I wrote when I was little.

I used to have some composition notebooks filled with stuff I wrote when I was 10-12. I remember them being very purple and melancholy, sort of abstract too. There be must be something about that age that makes many of us write that way? At the time I was very embarrassed when other people read them, but now I really wish they were still around.

[rwm4768]

I'm not sure where my earliest stories are. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with weather, so I wrote a lot of stories about tornadoes.

When I was 11 or 12, I made my first attempt at a novel. It turned out to be about 45 pages handwritten in a notebook. I did not understand what pronouns were apparently. I also didn't create separate paragraphs for every new speaker in dialogue. It was pretty bad.

ETA: Tornadoes still show up in my work every now and then.

[RedWombat]

When I was about eight, I wrote Watership Down/Star Trek crossover fanfic. I had no idea what fanfic was, of course, I just wanted to write a story where a transporter accident turned Spock into a rabbit.

It was three pages long, which for eight-year-old me was like writing the Illiad.

In many regards, my life as a small girl got easier once I figured out how to draw horses...

[Kitty Pryde]

My first coherent story attempt was historical fantasy about Christopher Columbus, and his magical talking compass who did all the hard work for him.

[Sunflowerrei]

I remembering being about 11 and writing a story about vampires. I wrote a "novel" when I was around 11 or 12, too, about immigrants sailing over on the Titanic. It was 5 pages, typed.

[AllieKat]

I've been writing "books" since the age of eight. No, I don't want to share any, though I do get a nostalgic buzz out of looking at old things I wrote once in a while.

That, or I dance around the room gripping my hair tightly in embarrassment. >.>;;;;;

[Atlantis]

When I was about 7 or 8 maybe I wrote a short story about a group of intelligent, talking, white unicorns who lived alone on an island. A man in a boat discovered them and took one of them back to a big city. I can still vividly remember day dreaming about this book and picturing one of the horses shouting "Nooo!" as the boat speeds off with one of the horses bundled in the back. It was 5 pages or so typed on my dad's lap top.

When I was 12 I wrote my first novel called The Perfect Prince. It was 185 pages, hand written, in coloured pen on blank paper, each page a different colour. It was about five fairy sisters who all carried magical rings. The eldest, Tinkerbelle, finds love with a fairy prince. It involved castles on clouds and dragons that ate fruit. These characters were actually my make believe friends at the time and I would spend my lunch times at school sitting alone happily telling myself stories out loud. The other kids avoided me and thought I was nuts. Ha ha. But I was just in my own little world.

[desia]

When I was a kid I used to make short stories for my teachers and bind them to tiny books made from a single A4 paper. Too bad I don't remember a thing about what those stories were about. Earliest one I can think of was a comic where some little critter gets captured and growls in the cage "Hey! I have sharp teeth, you know?!" and a random hand appears out of nowhere with a speech bubble of "Oh right, here's a toothbrush." What a pinnacle of comedy, I remember being quite embarrassed about it couple years afterwards.

Originally Posted by RedWombat

When I was about eight, I wrote Watership Down/Star Trek crossover fanfic. I had no idea what fanfic was, of course, I just wanted to write a story where a transporter accident turned Spock into a rabbit.

I just wanted to say, that sounds absolutely amazing.

[aixsponsa]

I've been laughing so hard! All of these sound great.

The earliest story I remember writing was about a foal (baby horse) who wandered too far from his mother and fell in a hole. He couldn't get out, then either got out/was rescued. It was a lesson about safety, complete with an accompanying illustration of said foal floundering about in the hole. I think my family still has it somewhere...

[jeffo20]

My sister and I used to write Brady Bunch 'scripts' that, most fortunately, appear to have been lost forever. I have what I consider my first 'serious' story, written early in sixth grade. It can best be considered as 'Scooby Doo meets Stephen King.' I posted snippets on my blog several months ago. It's horrible, for all the wrong reasons!

[gingerwoman]

When I cleaned my mother's house out after she passed away I didn't find the story I had published in the children's pages when I was ten.
The bizarre thing is that I remember now that that story was about flying around the world in Santa's sleigh and now my debut novel is an erotic romance about half-fae flying around the world in Santa's sleigh delivering sex-toys.
I did not do this on purpose. I'd forgotten about the other story. I had a second story published in the paper when I was 11, but then I became depressed at age 12, and with a few exceptions I didn't really get into writing again until I was in my 30s. (Although I daydreamed about it an awful a lot and read craft books.)

[Hip-Hop-a-potamus]

I was obsessed with Nancy Drew. My mom had a bunch of the old 1940s editions on war paper, and I read them all and then bought the rest myself, one week at a time with my allowance.

My first was a Nancy Drew ripoff that I worked on for about 2 years (from ages 8-10), with hand-drawn illustrations and everything. I still have it!

Wish our scanner was working, I could at least scan some of the pix I drew. Someday...

[OhTheHorror]

Originally Posted by Kitty Pryde

My first coherent story attempt was historical fantasy about Christopher Columbus, and his magical talking compass who did all the hard work for him.

That sounds awesome!

I remember writing a fairly gory (for a kid) story about a serial killer when I was 13.
Even back then I was a bit

[Dagrami]

I found my first ever sci-fi story the other day! I would've been seven or eight when I wrote it. It was about two brothers who had an inventor for a father. They accidentally used his teleporter machine, and ended up on this alien planet.

It had rings around it like Saturn, and they had to jump off them onto the planet's surface. Then, of course, they met some aliens, which were all different colours with loads of eyes and tentacles.

One of the brothers got goo spat at him and started to turn into an alien himself – which I remember thinking was the most truly horrifying concept ever.

Funnily enough, a lot of my current-day WIPs still deal with the idea of losing your humanity...

I remember the first story I ever wrote was called The Lost Deer. It was a flap book which I wrote and illustrated.

[amrose]

The first story I ever wrote was called The Skeleton with Eyes because the cover of Evil Dead 2 and Dead Alive scared the shit out of me when I was little, but whenever I went to Blockbuster I could not stop myself from toodling down the horror aisle and staring at them obsessively.

The Skeleton with Eyes featured a flashback sequence that was demarcated in the MS with swirly lines and starbursts. When I read it out loud to my third grade class I made a bloo-bloo-bloo noise at that part.

I also wrote Mary Sue Vampire Chronicles fanfic when I was ten and scripts for Sailor Moon episodes and Assassins (that movie with Juilanne Moore, Sly Stalone, and Antonio Banderas.)

When my dad typed up a sci-fi action adventure (Starship Troopers rip off) I wrote for a sixth grade assignment, he thought I was a genius. Love you too, dad!

All of those stories have been shredded. So glad I never knew other people wrote and posted fanfic to the net when I was that age.

[Goldenleaves]

As a teenager I created a Willy Wonka type world to stave off my sister's nightmares. Everything was edible and fairies lived there. You could have wings if you liked and the animals could talk. The clothes were amazingly glittery and airy as I recall. I made it up to stave off my little sister's terrible nightmares.

She was much younger than me. I made it soothing, fiercely pleasant and convincing because she was afraid to go to sleep. I convinced her that this land was where we went when we slept, told her stories about the things we did night after night and the nightmares soon stopped.

Now she hates me for it, blames me for a weight problem in her youth and says it was evil to lie to a child that way.

Ah well. At least she got some sleep.

I have to say though, it was the hardest story I ever made up. It just wasn't the kind of thing I'd naturally create.

[lemonhead]

I wrote my first "book" at 8. A young adult suspense complete with drug smuggling over the Canadian border via small aircraft landing on a small lake right over the border. It included such wonderful tropes as "agnsty teenager sent to lurk around her aunt's house (on aforementioned lake) who then intercepts drug smugglers" and "super hot local boy who plays back-up".
I'm not sure what happened. I remember getting bored around page 12.

I also went through a Edgar Allen Poe knock-off short story phase around age 12. I kept writing horrible mash-ups of americana ghost stories (re: headless horseman) and the beating heart under the floorboards one.

[kkbe]

I wrote a play that ended:

"Absolutely, Mr. Dithers?"
"Positively, Mr. Dunn."

I remember a poem I wrote, "Dem Kids":

Dem kids. Ten is mine, ain't dat fine.
Dem kids. Walk around all over de ground.
Dem kids. Drink fruit punch right befo lunch.
Dem kids. Talk all day wit nuttin to say.
Dem kids. Ten is mine, ain't dat fine?

[WeaselFire]

Originally Posted by Dreity

Anyone else want to share their EARLY, early work?

I can't find my early work. I have enough trouble finding my published work.

But I can quote one from memory. Third grade:

"When I grow up I will be an astronaut. I will go to the sun. It will be very hot there, so I will take along an ice cube."

Two years later we landed on the moon. I still haven't become an astronaut, or gone to the sun, but I'm not dead yet.

Jeff

[IAMWRITER]

I always used to write spy stories that always had the same plot but different characters. I thought they were so good at the time but now...ew.

[Myrealana]

I don't know where any of my early writing might be. My mom probably has it stashed in a box in the basement.

I do have some of my work from high school, which had earned high praise from my English teacher and various others. It's almost painful to read knowing what I now know.

[Susan Littlefield]

I wrote poems as early as eight or nine but I don't have the first ones. Packed away I do have a notebook of poems I wrote when I was a teenager.

How wonderful that you have such a treasure!