How did you first get into poetry/writing?

[WhispWillow]

For poetry, if was in english class, where we were told to write our own poem and I had an idea which I wanted to get down on paper and I have been writing ever since. I often wonder if I would be into poetry had it not been for that class.

In reguards to writing, I first got interested by a competition which is held throughout primary schools in Ireland to wirte-a-book and that is how I got my passion for writing.

Any one else?

[dkincy]

I too wrote my first poem in English class. If it hadn't been for Mr. Coletta, who saw something in me that I didn't know I had, I wonder if I'd have continued. That was 35 years ago and I've never stopped writing poetry.

[Vignette]

I've written freeform poetry for as long as I can remember. I got hooked on pantoum poetry about 2 1/2 years ago after reading an article and outlines on how to write pantoum.

Novel writing is coming slowly to me, but I hope to finish one very soon!

[WhispWillow]

Same for me. I am planning to do a full novel, but sadly, I am not very motivated,

I must try however.

[Spherical Time]

I've been an idea person ever since grade school. However, I don't have artistic talent as a drawer, painter, sculpter, or animator, so writing was always really where I think I was supposed to end up.

[Peter]

I was ten when I first realised how incredible literature was, after reading Roald Dahl's "Matilda". After only reading Primary school books about big red balls and the like, I was completely gob smacked to find this entire world within just a couple of hundred pages. I began reading and writing soon afterwards, reading Stephen King about a year later.

I stopped writing when I was sixteen (though I still have a lot of stuff I wrote in my youth, most of it cliched horror rubbish), and only started up again three years ago when I was twenty two.

[d00m5day]

I was ten when I first realised how incredible literature was, after reading Roald Dahl's "Matilda". After only reading Primary school books about big red balls and the like, I was completely gob smacked to find this entire world within just a couple of hundred pages. I began reading and writing soon afterwards, reading Stephen King about a year later.

I stopped writing when I was sixteen (though I still have a lot of stuff I wrote in my youth, most of it cliched horror rubbish), and only started up again three years ago when I was twenty two.

That was quite the same thing that happened to me. I was reading boring books, and i found a novel, i think it was.... magic tree house. its a series for small kids, but somehow, i got hooked on it (hey, what can u say? i was in grade 3 :P) I kept on reading, and two years later, i was reading stephen king, and lotr (i liked stephen king a lot better :D)

writing... we had to write a short story in class, and somehow, im always into writing fantasy. thats how i became to like writing (obviously i liked reading before i liked writing)

[Daniel]

I originally started writing songs... that was the first thing I wrote non-school-related way back when. Then poems, then short stories... all sorta branched out from there.

[Sapphire]

I don't do poetry because I suck at it.

For writing, I started getting into it at a young age but I really never put forth the effort until about five years ago when I was about ten or eleven. My dad is a children's book writer. He's trying to get published but he hasn't succeeded in doing so yet. He always used to read me his stories and tell me how he got the ideas from it, so it really gave me an encouragement to do that and really discovered my imagination. Both of us are really into science fiction and fantasy genres. I began to write and my first fanfiction was an anime fanfiction which got along in the anime-forums pretty nicely, and then I started working on a original story which people began to like, so I gained confidence that I can get better, which hopefully I have done thus far.

[Laimtoe]

I'm not into poetry.

However, I started writing when my oldest brother, Luke wrote a rather long short story that he later lost down the road. He claims it wasn't well written, but I was interested in the way he was telling the story to me, and how he was litterally editing the story the way he wanted it to go as he was telling it to me.

The story somewhat mirrored HIM because my brother is a freack of nature. The story was about a girl who found out that there was a monster living under her bed that would steal all of the spoons in the house and hord them under her bed. (Luke had a sweet tooth and would take all the spoons and ice cream and the spoons would always wind up under his bed).

Basically she finally discovers the stupid blue monster and it runs over to the kitchen sink and runs its finger along the drain as if expecting to escape her through there.

There was more to the story, but I thought that was a curious thing. I'd never even thought that someone would write a book. I just figured that books just WERE what they were, and only those that were highly brilliant wrote books.

But I realized that those that are considered brilliant may be inteligent in one way but abolute idiots on other regards.

[Forgetmenot77]

In eight grade I had a very good english teacher. She made a big difference in my life. I had lost my father and was living with family and was feeling lost but she gave me hope and taught me about poetry. Now, there are so many different styles of poetry that it makes my head spin. I have not tried to write a story yet but I have started to and it will most likely be a short one.

[InsanePain]

Writing poems and stories began as something I had to for my English class in grade 7. My teacher liked my work so much she asked me to start writing for the school newsletter, and it became my thing. I started liking what i write, and it started being being my only hobby.

[Little Miss Edi]

I started writing when I started reading seriously. Poetry is something I do as a challenge for myself and OH as it keeps the brain sharp but I can't say I'm anywhere near as good as he is. I didn't really start writing poetry outside of school until I met him.

I'm also an ideas person, like Spherical Time, and although I can draw and am alright at scultping (such a rubbish painter it's embarrassing!:redface:)I don't have the patience to turn those mediums into the visions at the end of my ideas. So I write :)

[star_fire]

i started writing in third grade. that year, the movie [I]dinotopia[I] premiered on television, and i fell in love with it. unfortunately, though, [I]dinotopia[I] ended with a cliff hanger. i was absolutely disgusted. so i simply picked up a spare notebook and started writing a sequel. i've been writing ever since (though i've never written poetry. maybe one day i'll attempt it....)

[Benska]

I guess it's because I'm an ideas/creative person. I love art; mostly sketching/drawing and I love playing music: guitar, piano, bass, harmonica, singing, and other stuff.

But none of those things, in my opinion, have the almost endless imaginative posibilties of writing.

I've never really been in to poetry or short stories. I like the more complex nature of novels =]. Poems and short stories might be complex too, I can't really pass judgement on that one... I just like novels better =].

[Gannon]

Another vintage thread here.

Anyway, for me it was through the enthusiasm and encouragement of a good quality (high)school teacher. You never forget a good one.

[Mello]

It mostly came from my love of reading, and then it stopped abruptly at the age of 12, when I realized my ideas were basically formulated from all the books I'd read. That seems to be my biggest flaw, and it really made me feel terrible at the time. My writing started up again when I was about 14 or 15 and had gotten a lot of encouragement from teachers who said I had a natural skill in it and just needed to practice a little more. So I've been doing as much writing, reading and workshopping as I've been able to since then, and, thankfully, have developed my own style.

[Heather Louise]

For writing, it was in year four, so I'll have been around .... 8 maybe. We were doing descriptive writing about Mars, and I realised that I enjoyed doing it. It alos helped that the teacher was lovely about my work, so I sorta thought that perhaps it would be something I could do.

As for poetry I'm not sure. I remeber when my granddad died writing a poem for him, and being asked to perform it at some talent thing after someone had read it .... but that was years ago so it was a childish sort of good. But again, I think perhaps that year four class as we did a poem on our sences, and that's the first poem I remeber ever writing.

[Carmina]

I started dictating stories to my mom to write down for me when I was 3 or 4. Once I learned how to read and write, I did it myself. I started poetry when I was around 13 or 14 (really bad angsty crap). I don't actually remember a time before I started writing.

[Xeno]

I started because I got an A* on the first piece of coursework I did for English. So I just carried on with that. I got almost half a book done before I got bored and chucked it. Now I just write for fun.

[mammamaia]

i started writing little poems for my first 5 kids, to go with stuffed animal toys and things i sewed/crocheted/constructed for them on b'days and xmas, since we were too poor to buy much in the way of new toys...

then, i wrote appeals to my hard-to-reach second husband, hoping the poetic form might touch a heart that seemed to not exist [didn't and didn't, sad to say]...

after a decade of vain attempts, i took my two youngest of the final 7 kids and left, to make a life for myself as a writer, writing 'serious' poetry along with just about anything else that takes words... i've been a 'serious poet' ever since, though what i write i call 'philosetry' since my 'day job' is being a full time philosopher...

[JGraham]

I have always been good at writing. And I have always been very creative. It also helped that two of my best friends were writers and we all discussed ideas. English has always been easy for me, and I love being able to do anything, change anything in my stories.

[Scarecrow28]

For me, it began after reading a lot of Tolkien books and Harry Potter around third grade. I had ideas that were kind of burned into my consciousness and the only way I could get them out of my head was to write them down. I loved transfering the ideas on to paper. Of course, I was around ten at the time so they attempts sucked terribly. A few years later, my grandfather introduced me to Clive Cussler and some other thriller authors. After that, I branched out from short-lived attempts at writing high-fantasy to writing thrillers. Originally, these stories were little more than attempted novels that failed quickly. I did some short stories but barely managed to finish these. Yet, after a few years, I got the hang of writing well and figured out just how important outlining is to success, at least in my case. Following this, I finished a bunch of short stories and a rough draft of a novel.

[Cady36]

For poetry, well, I've written one free verse poem in my entire life and boyyyyyy was it sappy.

I started writing songs when I was about 10. I can still sing the very first song I wrote...I could absolutely picture David Cassidy from the Partridge Family singing it. I picked up guitar at 13 and wrote many dozens of songs up until I was about 21. (Some were actually pretty acceptable.) I think I've written two in all the time since then.

For fiction, when I was in third grade I wrote a scifi/fantasy story called "Kidnapped by the Wind." In writing that story, I learned that it's not "wah-la!" it's "voila!" That error got me an A- and the story got my mother a parent-teacher conference. The minus on the A ticked me off, so I only wrote when forced after that.

I wrote a bit in my 20s, but rarely showed it to anyone. Once I did, a friend sent a story to a local arts magazine and it was published. That was cool. Still didn't really get going...sort of on again off again. I'd started a novel, got bored and dumped it, and gave up writing again.

In my 30s, I was approached by a publisher of college graphics applications text books to wriite-for-hire and edit text books on Photoshop, Quark, etc. (The email said "Make $$$ for writing!" I almost threw it away as spam.) It was lucrative, but rewriting the same crap every time a new version of software came out got tiring. The company was finally sold to Prentice-Hall, so I escaped.

I've written for clients' newsletters, annual reports, websites, etc., but I wouldn't call me 'into it". lol

A couple of months ago a plot idea started nibbling away at me. It was getting so long and convoluted that it was distracting. I decided I wanted to know how it ended. So about a week ago, I signed up here.

How did I first get into writing? I'm 48. In all my years, I don't think I ever did. I'm having fun now, though, so I hope it sticks this time. :)

Cady

[Neha]

I still remember the first poem I wrote-it was rather silly in fact and I was bored with my then curret passion, French, so I wrote the poem-in French class about a princess and cold weather-it was weird.

[Daedalus]

My love of movies actually was the biggest contributor to the start of my writing "career". From I was sixteen until I was nearly eighteen, I wanted to make a movie. I bought myself a cheap camera, got a few friends and family to act out roles, and made a rather lame attempt at an action movie. I came to the realisation that movies were expensive to make and that I would never make one good enough to send to a movie producer. So, I decided I'd write one instead. I started reading scripts on-line to see how they were done. After a few months, I was confident to write my own.

It never came to be, though. Something strange happened when I started writing the first few pages of that script. I realised that I had a love for writing, and that a script was not technically "writing". I changed my ideas completely, deciding instead to write a novel. About fifteen months later, I churned out the first draft and I haven't looked back since.

[Gone Wishing]

I just always loved to tell stories. Even before I was in school, my family would sit around and I would make up stories on the spot (and yes, we had a television - it was just something we thought was cool :p)

I've tried my hand at almost all artistic pursuits at one time or another, but writing is the only one I feel I have any particular talent for.

[EmmVeePi]

I suppose the same way that everyone here wont admit, I was forced to for school. But eventually I found myself writing more than I had to, and then I was writing simply to pass the time and soon enough for my own enjoyment.

[Carmina]

I suppose the same way that everyone here wont admit, I was forced to for school

I didn't. I started writing before I even went to school.

[yellowm&M]

I alwyas loved reading and I'd always kinda liked writing stories, then in 6th grade we had to write a 16 page "book" and I had alot of fun and thought maybe it might be cool to become an author, and somewhere between then and now, especailly in eigth grade, I realized how much I loved it, and all of last year and this year it has become really big, with the help of my amazing past confirmation mentor who loves writing also. Shes like my personal editor :D

[izzi]

I thought books were boring until I read the good ones.

Truthfully I'm much more an of an illustrator than a writer. (I wrote papers and essays in school, nothing of any merit.) However I created some characters to draw and then they would develop over time. Well any well-rounded character has a background which means they have a story. So I was inadvertently creating stories.

[Frost]

I wrote songs before I wrote poetry, and I wrote stories before songs. But I wasnt very good at stories and rarely write them anymore. Only songs and poetry.

[Dice]

Well for me I started with a very poor attempt to write a pokémon story, getting the idea from a pokémon fan fiction, that was years ago
Now it's because I have a lot of ideas, my imagination seems to run wild almost all the time and it's a very good, unrestricted outlet

[Mercurial]

My best friend at the time --six or seven years old-- loved to write, so I tried it for myself. Eventually, we started compliling our little stories, and we still have them saved somewhere in her basement, along with our Barbies and horse figurines. "Hi, my name is Julya, and I'm thirteen years old. I have strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes..." Thank Maude my writing has improved! :p I just continued from there. I've now graduated from thirteen year old characters to post-apocalyptic fiction and metafiction.

And as for poetry --I'm not much of a poet, though when I do actually write poetry, it does come rather naturally-- I remember being read a few of Frost's poems back in primary school and wondering if I could do something similar.