What made you start writing?

These are all excellent questions that are better suited to the Roundtable forum, so we'll see what the folks there have to say.

Actually I've always wanted to write, but when I was in high school I let my family influence me. The whole "You'll starve" really did something to my self esteem. Now I'm 37 and I almost died of a thyroid storm. Well, In that moment I said, Wait, I have so much to say. I had to search deep inside and realized I needed to start writing again. Once I started, I just couldn't stop. Am I saying anything important, not really just stories. But I gave birth to them.

I always enjoyed making up stories and writing them down, but for a very long time it never occurred to me to really try and do it professionally. I wish I could say precisely why it changed, but I'm still not sure. Eventually I simply set my mind to it. If not now, when, right?

nybx4life said:

I'm not sure if all you guys here just decided: My life's calling is to be a writer!

So what I wanna know is, what made you start?

Was it due to anybody you know? Possibly a favorite book of yours?

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As far back as I can remember I loved to tell stories. I was also a voracious reader. When you put those two things together I guess you just naturally get a writer!
Linnea

I was always telling stories to my little brothers, and my favorite way to put myself to sleep is still to try to unknot a difficult plot problem. Ten-one I'll fall asleep at the most interesting part...
I dabbled in writing when I was young, but I got put off when my parents thought I was only doing so to copy my older brother (also a writer... though he has since rather dropped his novel). I was always trying to emulate him, and wile what they were trying to say was that it was okay for me to do my own thing, the comment did nothing for my self esteem.
After that, my next foray into the world of writing was a short story competition in my early teens. I got an honorable mention. I then played around with short stories for a few years before settling down and writing my first novel. I don't know _why_, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Since then, I've become an addict. I carry a notepad wherever I go, and I just can't stop!
But looking back, I think I've always looked at things and tried to see the story behind them. It was just waiting to get out.

I have absolutely, positively no idea.

Between the ages of 4-6, I wrote (not funny) funny plays. I don't know why I wrote them and I don't know why I moved on to poetry.

Moved on from poetry to novels and then decided I wanted to win a Pulitzer. Had the acceptance speech written out and everything. Are you even required to give a speech for a Pulitzer?

Started short stories, articles, poetry, novels, and everything else in between and realized that, while I had no idea why I started, what was important was why I continued: I wanted people to see and feel the things I did. I wanted to tell a story and entertain people. And maybe get famous. But mostly just tell a story. Hey, why are you laughing?

I've been writing at least as far back as late primary school, like 9 or 10 years old. I don't know what started me initially. I'm an only child and lived in a different village to everyone else at my school, so had to find ways to occupy myself, I suppose. Then I read 'Lord of the Rings' when I was 10 and was bitten by the fantasy bug, and wanted to create a world like Middle-earth. I used to make up notebooks and folders' worth of stuff about this world and ended up writing lots of short stories, then finally a novel when I was about 17ish. My WIP now is a totally different universe but there are still some elements of the old world in there.

I realised I wanted to write seriously when I was in high school, probably first or second year (sort of 12 to 13 years old) but I do remember thinking I would need a money-making career too.

OK, so 15 years later I'm no further on than I was then, but hey, still trying...

Writing (and English composition) was something at which I always excelled in school, and it was always an interest teetering somewhere in my mind, but I never really thought about it being my life's passion. I DO remember my mom always, always told me, "You should be a writer." Then after I got married, when I started looking to the future and deciphering what my "purpose" was, writing became a clear part of the picture.

I didn't really start writing until my first year of college but I've always wanted to write. My home life was not conducive for me to do or succeed at much of anything and I'll leave it as that.

I read the "Little House on the Prairie" series. I had most of it memorized although not verbatim. I could relate it to any conversation I had with any one person. Laura wrote so that children would know what it was like for her to grow up along with America.

I felt my voice wasn't being heard. Although I do not write memoirs or biographical work. I'm a speculative writer I figured my voice was still being heard. So yeah I lot of it stemmed from my growing up years and being treated as if my opinion was of no consequence and it didn't matter what I thought.

I wrote my first creative nonfic essay when I was 6; I still have it. It sucked, of course, but I loved doing it. I wrote off and on as a hobby from then until I was about 21. Then I started a short story that was inspired by a really freaky dream that my brother had. That short story evolved into a novel.

What made me realize it was what I wanted to "do" was the fact that it was the only thing that I had ever done where I hadn't asked, "Why the hell am I doing this?" To date, every other job I've had has brought that question--but never writing.

When I was 15, I had read TLOTR for the first time- I was mesmerized. When I found out how little Tolkien wrote, I was crushed. I scoured the book stores, lingering in the fantasy isle looking for something comparable. When I couldn't, i decided "I can do that!' Yeah- right-

Anyway, after writing a very bad fantasy book- I started a thriller a few years later- now thats pretty much all I write- So blame it on Tolkien, I guess.

Hollywood movies with unrealistic physics.

No that's just the engineer talking . I really got into writing because I'm an idea machine. Like I always have ideas constantly churning in my head(I'm always tapped for designing RPG campaigns for friends and such), and over time this gradually devolved into me having to write stories for the backdrop.

This led me to investigating fanfiction as a means of practicing campaigns(since some of them take place in pre-existing universes, although most of my campaigns are one off jobs). And that's where I currently am. I write some fan fiction, but I also am starting to write a lot more short stories, and am beginning to outline a novel.

Hopefully, assuming I can keep my self motivated this summer I'll make some progress on all of my different writing projects.

I remember loving telling stories as a kid and getting people's attention. I remember dressing up in this uniform jumpsuit and telling my neighbor I was actually in the army. At the time I thought she believe me and what a sucker she was. More specifically I recall reading books and being annoyed or inspired by their endings. So I started doing short stories and fantasy when I was around age 10. In middle school I did more fan fiction work. High school I started several novels but did not push myself until my friend told me it was writing book. Whatever it was competitive jealousy or whatever, I sat down and spent the next 3 years working on it.

Its all been down hill from there ;-)

I needed a job.

What made me start writing?

A man. Pointing a gun at my head. Write you &&%#/$&#.

Inspiration from a bunch of books that I read when I was younger, that oddly enough, aren't all that inspiring anymore.

Also, my degree is in art & design. I ended up working in advertising as an art director, pimping my creativity for my clients. Writing became a creative outlet that I could call my own.

I don't know...I"ve just always had a pen in my hand. A blank sheet of paper is a beautiful thing to me and always has been. I've always been writing.

jannawrites said:

Writing (and English composition) was something at which I always excelled in school, and it was always an interest teetering somewhere in my mind, but I never really thought about it being my life's passion. I DO remember my mom always, always told me, "You should be a writer." Then after I got married, when I started looking to the future and deciphering what my "purpose" was, writing became a clear part of the picture.

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Pretty much the same as Janna. Of course, now that I'm actually writing, my mother keeps saying "See? I TOLD you that you should be a writer!" as if it's all her doing.

But what started me actually putting my B in the C was the fact that my youngest kid started kindergarten this year, and I suddenly had free time on my hands. Hmmm...go back to work? Still a possibility. But for now, I'm writing during the day.

Lifelong love of books combined with all these people and places and things that live in my head. I figure it is much better for my mental health to have them live on paper.

I don't remember. I used to type out stories when I was five? six? I don't know what compelled me. As I grew older, my teachers always exclaimed over how well I wrote. I never put too much stock into it myself. It was easy. I didn't read other students' work so I didn't know how different my writing was from theirs (until my senior year of hs). I kept writing though, until shortly after high school. Something made me stop and pull into myself. I think it was a word of discouragement that wasn't even that bad, but I was apparently feeling sensitive. A few years later, I realized that the language easily at my fingertips was no longer so accessible, and it pissed me off, so I started writing again in protest. I still don't know why I write stories, but they show up so I let them out.

I don't know. But I'd like to go back in time and choke the shit out of whatever it was.