Aww, thank you! Like I said, I ramble about so much on this, I would be surprised if anyone who's been on my friends list for any length of time had anything to ask!
But, ooo, that's a good question. OK, here goes:
I started writing... before I could write, really. I've always "had my head in the clouds" as Mum puts it, and I remember right from a very early age that I would be narrating a story to myself in my head about whatever I was doing at the time. In fact, I still catch myself doing that from time to time. (Louise walked across the room and stopped at the computer desk.... no, *paced* across the room, and *paused*... no... argh, I'm doing it again! Stop! ...she said to herse... ARGH!) It gets a tad insane. *g*
So, as soon as I could write, I did. And did, and did. I remember, in both infant and junior school, whenever we were given a creative writing thing to do, I'd go way over the top with it - it'd end up much longer and more detailed than the teacher had been expecting. Usually it was some kind of fantasy-adventure story. I was always very influenced by the type of thing I was reading at the time, and from the age of six I was addicted to Enid Blyton - Famous Five, Secret Seven, that kind of thing! Then by the time I was ten or eleven, I'd moved on to spy stories (Alaistair MacLean, Jack Higgens... Mum's bookshelf was never safe again). In a way, you could say that I've always written fan fiction, because I'd invariably write in the genre and style that was my current favourite.
This carried on through senior school - in the lower school (1st-3rd year) I had a very encouraging English teacher who got me into writing poetry as well as fiction. That was when I wrote my first - and so far only complete! - novel: a teen fiction type spy story, which of course I wrote all by hand. Can't imagine doing that now!! However, once I went up to the upper school and started on my GCSEs, my focus moved more to music, and I think most of my creativity went into that rather than writing. Well, it's a different kind of writing - composing and arranging. And the fact that GCSE and A level English concentrated more on Literature than Language / Creative Writing sort of squished my fiction writing. I found the Literature and essay writing much harder! (As to whether I was any *good* at it at school... I wasn't bad. I got good marks for creative writing, but less so for essay writing - I got a D for Eng Lit A level in the end *g*. But I also did the Scottish Higher (our head of English was a Scot) which concentrated much more on the Language side, and got an A, so who can tell really?)
So anyway, I wrote very little - mainly only noting a few ideas down - during that time, and then not at all for about five years until I discovered fanfiction and got inspired to try writing again.
(this comment got so long that I'm having to chop it in two... and this is the most logical place to do that)
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branchandroot
Writing Pt 1
Date: 2006-04-25 06:06 pm (UTC)But, ooo, that's a good question. OK, here goes:
I started writing... before I could write, really. I've always "had my head in the clouds" as Mum puts it, and I remember right from a very early age that I would be narrating a story to myself in my head about whatever I was doing at the time. In fact, I still catch myself doing that from time to time. (Louise walked across the room and stopped at the computer desk.... no, *paced* across the room, and *paused*... no... argh, I'm doing it again! Stop! ...she said to herse... ARGH!) It gets a tad insane. *g*
So, as soon as I could write, I did. And did, and did. I remember, in both infant and junior school, whenever we were given a creative writing thing to do, I'd go way over the top with it - it'd end up much longer and more detailed than the teacher had been expecting. Usually it was some kind of fantasy-adventure story. I was always very influenced by the type of thing I was reading at the time, and from the age of six I was addicted to Enid Blyton - Famous Five, Secret Seven, that kind of thing! Then by the time I was ten or eleven, I'd moved on to spy stories (Alaistair MacLean, Jack Higgens... Mum's bookshelf was never safe again). In a way, you could say that I've always written fan fiction, because I'd invariably write in the genre and style that was my current favourite.
This carried on through senior school - in the lower school (1st-3rd year) I had a very encouraging English teacher who got me into writing poetry as well as fiction. That was when I wrote my first - and so far only complete! - novel: a teen fiction type spy story, which of course I wrote all by hand. Can't imagine doing that now!! However, once I went up to the upper school and started on my GCSEs, my focus moved more to music, and I think most of my creativity went into that rather than writing. Well, it's a different kind of writing - composing and arranging. And the fact that GCSE and A level English concentrated more on Literature than Language / Creative Writing sort of squished my fiction writing. I found the Literature and essay writing much harder!
(As to whether I was any *good* at it at school... I wasn't bad. I got good marks for creative writing, but less so for essay writing - I got a D for Eng Lit A level in the end *g*. But I also did the Scottish Higher (our head of English was a Scot) which concentrated much more on the Language side, and got an A, so who can tell really?)
So anyway, I wrote very little - mainly only noting a few ideas down - during that time, and then not at all for about five years until I discovered fanfiction and got inspired to try writing again.
(this comment got so long that I'm having to chop it in two... and this is the most logical place to do that)