Flashback
Sometimes, especially when I find myself grasping for the next story to write, I think back to when I started writing.
I suppose you could say I started with fanfiction. When I was still in the single digits as far as age, I decided the story of the three little pigs wasn’t at all fair and that the wolf had a story to tell. When I was about twelve years old, I wrote my first two real fanfiction novellas based of the Animorph series by K. A. Applegate.
In remembering that, I went back to how I wondered why I wasn’t living my own fantasy through my words, and the wonder I felt as I wrote my first novel. It was a power only a writer would truly understand, but the ability to be able to go anywhere, do anything, and be anyone I wanted was addicting. I never wanted it to stop, and with me in control, it never had to.
That joy, that ability to go wherever I wished and to take others with me, is the reason I started writing. Those memories are what often gets me through any anger or annoyances I have with writing.
So the next time you’re struggling for one reason or another in regards to your writing and wondering why you got into this in the first place, just look back and see how far you’ve come thus far. Do go back and remember why and how you got into things in the first place. Even if you’ve never been published, just remember that even being dedicated to one thing for as long as you have been dedicated to writing is an accomplishment in itself.
beginning writer, growing writer, writing fiction, fanfiction
December 5th, 2006 at 11:31 am
Your version of the three little pigs sounds interesting!
I have just recently given myself permission to write my fantasies, changing the names and the plot but basing it on my longings, for my novels. And it is working amazingly well.
That is what I used to do in high school and since then I have never be able to write as easily.Until now.
And you are right, there is power in that.
December 5th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
Hehe. Yeah, the little girl me just didn’t think the story gave the wolf a fair chance.
The key is to give yourself permission to write anything. Besides, what you start out with is rarely what you end up with.
December 5th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
Yes! The Animorph series! Oh how I loved it so! Until the end that is. Gr.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:25 pm
My friend and I were so into that series! Like you said, until the end. Hehe.