Self explanatory question really, something I'd like to add on to it though is how did you build up to it?
I guess a combination of amount of effort involved, time spent on and purpose for the piece. Obviously if you just write for fun then I would say the first story you actually were prepared to show to others.
Mine is a fantasy - 17 year old rite of passage story charting the rise of Angus from rebellious teen to wise king. I have just rewritten it and sent to an agent and a contest. It is now 80,000 words long. It has spawned a world and characters that are capable of supporting several other stories (one YA, one spy, one time travel and another YA based around when Merlin dated Alice in Wonderland who has peagreen hair and doc martens). I only started writing last year - the only for fun non serious project i started has turned into an amazing story. It has become very serious.
Well, every since I wrote my first story "Let there Be Light," my parents always told me to publish the story, because it was one of the best stories she and my friends ever heard. That kind of inspired me to write again. I have left writing for a while and never returned, and then I came back to see if I still have the skills to become a writer, and it seems that I do not, but that doesn't mean that I'm giving up. I just want to see how far I can go with the new novel I am writing. The new one I am working on right now is a YA fiction about a 17-year old teenager seeking peace because of the brutal life he has. The teenager decides to moves to Kentucky to stay with his mother to find peace there. This is my first serious project, and I put forth effort in trying to make it the best I can make it. I hope I don't end up giving up writing about the YA fiction novel like I did Let there Be Light. Maybe I was very young at the time and just gave up on it.
Oh, that's easy, then: my master's thesis, or to be more precise, my Diplomarbeit. I've shown lots of stories to others, but probably the first work of fiction I was really proud of and really wanted to get published (and now have, albeit by self-publishing) is a soon-to-be-available short novel about a special forces team investigating the North Korean nuclear programme. How will I build on that? Well, I have two outlines for sequels in mind, which are currently still full of plot holes, but which I may write once I find a satisfactory way of closing them. This first novel of mine I like to think of like a sounding balloon. See where it goes, whether anybody buys it, etc., and if it does take off (even moderately) you have something to point to when you are ready with the next one.
If we're including academic work, then my final year dissertation on causes of the American Civil War. Otherwise, the first writing I shared with people (as an adult) was a collection of about 30-40 poems. Some of them I've since adapted into song lyrics. I've shared parts of my current would-be novel with a couple of people. I'm still editing at the moment, but I can see light at the end of the tunnel.
Oh academically guess mine would be a dissertation on ugh can't remember exact title something like how the family produced the basis for roman society allowing women a power base. The title was much more interesting and elegant lol Also did one for fun on Pictish stones. My best piece though I think was in my first year on Pliny the Younger's wife Calpurnia - I just felt a huge connection to that woman I loved telling her story.
My first serious work was 'Alexis, the princesses of nature' lol, It wasn't really serious since I was 10 and had really bad grammar but I did write about 18,000 words so I guess it can be taken seriously lol. Not to be confused with the Alexis I'm writing now..that is just completely different.
To me writing seriously means writing something I am proud of, writing something people would like to read. My serious project was when I was asked to write two 1000 words pieces for a magazine. How did I built up to it? I had no confidence in my writing but I wanted to write. So, I did the next best thing: write a personal blog. People appreciated what I wrote and that's how it happened.
Well, I think I'm starting to get serious with my colonial mysteries. As for the other story ideas? They're just milling around in my head. Academic wise? Well, the last time was when I had to write a paper on the 1066 conquest of England by William I and his band of Normands. I feel bad for King Harold.
first really serious one was a novel, 'casa eva'... it was my own 'self-test' to see if i really had what it takes to build a career as a writer... i simply sat down and started writing...
My current WIP (Titled Operation Orpheus, subject to change) is my first serious project, currently have 11K words and counting. I've written lots of excerpts and short stories for school and stuff, I've just never really nailed myself down and written a novel properly. I've decided that it's time to finally do that.
I never did the serious thing. Not as a "first time" at least. I just wrote. I wrote with my friends, for the fun of it and suddenly i realised that a lot of my documents were 200 pages long. And that was it.
My first serious story would be the story I started three years ago, also known as my "baby". If I someday do decide to publish something, it will be that story. It's changed a lot over the years. Can barely recognize it Not sure how I built up to it though...
A few years back I got about 1/3 of the way through my first novel attempt. It was fantasy, and was going to the called, "The Forest of the Following Eyes." The story was too generic, I didn't really believe in it, and I never finished the rough draft. Still, it was my first attempt at a full novel, and I did learn a thing or two.
That's how it was with me. My first novel was about 95% complete and it was utter crap. But I loved it.
'Self-test' is a good way to describe my first proper attempt. I just wanted to see if I could finish something novel-length. Was your novel published?
I have been writing poems and short stories since I was a child, but I suppose if I had to pick one piece of writing that I felt was my first serious effort, it would be my first novel, called The Dead Lie.
It depends on exactly how you define "serious." I'm sure I thought the stories I wrote in first grade were quite serious at the time. However, I guess my first real serious project was the first fantasy novel I wrote when I was around 15 or 16 years old, because of the time and effort I invested. It was crap! But two of the characters later became important to the series I'm now working on, so it wasn't a total waste of time.
vm... i left all of my old life's work with my agent when i dropped out of the material world, so i doubt it was ever published, though at the time, he was convinced it would be...
My first serious writing project was last year. It's called Gently Down the Stream. I did a little research and some planning before I started, and to be honest I think it did rather well.
My bad. I assumed "serious" was synonymous with "paid". For serious writing, I've got a memoir that is nearly complete. Of course that won't be published for many, many years since I'm still young (41 y.o.) and have many adventures left in me. But I've done some crazy-a** stuff in my days on this planet and sometimes feel very lucky to still be drawing breath. I've kept a journal since I was 11 years old. I ran away from home at 13 and lived a couple of weeks with a drug dealer, and that is some of the more pedestrian crap I got involved with over the years. My memoir is probably the hardest thing I've ever written. Most of the people in the stories are still alive. But that isn't the hardest thing about writing a memoir, it is confronting my personal demons and stupity as I've traversed through my time here. I have to fought the urge to make myself look better in the eyes of the reader, but I'm not an objective writer since it is my life I'm writing about. My self esteem issues tend to get in the way, a lot. I'm tempted to re-write my own history to make it less foolish or depressing or idiotic. And there is the fallibility of memories. People remember things in different ways. A scene from my life might be unrecognizable if it was written by a different POV character (such as my mother). By far my memoirs are the hardest thing I've ever written. Good thing I don't plan on publishing while I'm still alive.
