What was the first story you ever wrote that you are still satisfied with today? What things about it were appealing to you? And more importantly, how old were you? This is just a well needed trip down memory lane. Every writer should appreciate and remember their humble beginnings. Have fun guys!
I am still in my humble beginnings. I never enjoyed writing, probably because everything I ever wrote was some form of an assignment for some core English class. Not until a few years ago, I just started writing this curious idea inspired during an Archeology lecture, and I'm still writing it, will probably be my best work since I enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.
If we don't count school or university I have only written a few pieces since. 1st was a story written the month before 9/11 it was a satire based on archaeology and it's evidence. However I blew up the twin towers and destroyed New York. Have yet to revisit that one it would have made a good flash fiction post apocalypse for here but still left it. 2nd was Someone Else's Life and I have completed it and now has been sent to some agents and publishers. I am really pleased with it. However it is nothing like the pre first draft I started with not even in the same genre.
All stories are fine. They can be ones you wrote when you were young or ones you wrote in your early elementary school days. I wrote my first story when I was nine or eight. It was about a golden band (a ring for crying out loud) that fell through a floor crack into the dark basement below. In that place, he met a rat who later devised a plan to return the golden band to his owner. Yeah, it's kinda silly, I know. But it was my first story. The only reason I can smile at it now is because I like the way I resolved the situation. I had the rat shut off the lights from the basement fuse box. Of the course the owner had to switch the lights back on and voila! He found his golden band right inside the fuse box! Ha, ha. That's my very first story. Anyone else want to share? This is a show-and-tell kind of thing. Don't be too embarassed to share yours T
Yours actually sounds pretty good, Tayleea. Better than most of the plot summaries I see on the shelves at work, and to think you were only 8/9... My very first... I guess I was around the same age, but I can't really remember. At any rate, it was Halloween, and I'd just had my first experience with actually liking a book: Harry Potter. That got me in the mood to try it myself, and since it was Halloween, I decided to write a "scary" story. It was hilarious. It consisted of everyone I knew from school out trick-or-treating, finding a spooky mansion, going inside (because we kids can be quite dumb sometimes) and encountering a cornucopia of scary things. I don't remember any of the details; it was so long ago it feels like it was from another life. But I feel like if I were to find it again today, I'd burn the evidence and attempt to drive it from my mind. But that was just an experiment, and back then, I figured I didn't like it too much; it wasn't half as easy as playing video games. I didn't really, seriously start writing until around 13. My first story at that age featured two typical fantasy heroes, one of whom was a distant descendant of the other living hundreds of years in the future. Through the magic of... well... magic, they had to work together through the centuries to defeat your typical evil sorcerer-king who was master over time and space... I didn't get very far in that one. It was too complex for my skill level.
Hee, hee. That's so funny! And if you do find your first story, for heaven's sake - DON'T BURN IT! It's a time capsule of who you were when you were young. If your wife gets to read it someday, she'll think it's the cutest thing in the world. Your kids might think it's funny too. As for your second story, I know what you mean. I tried helping my sister with a story of hers, but I had so many crazy ideas that I was creating more of a problem than a story. Time related stuff like that is always complex. Even for me. But cool. Your stories and ideas: they are what they are. They can never be too silly to try. And my idea sounded good? Thank you. You work in a publishing house or something? I'm just curious Honestly.
Nah, I work in a grocery store. But to be fair, it's a very large grocery store (one of the largest in the southern US, if I'm not mistaken), and we have a surprisingly big book and magazine section. So it's not exactly Barnes and Noble, but we have a decent variety. If only more of the books themselves were decent.
My first was from the 6th grade and the teacher gave us creative liscence to write a story/poem/article or whatever. This was right around the time when the first Friday the 13th movie came out and me and my buddies had all decided to try and "out-gore" each other, by having all of us as characters, getting knocked off, one by one in the most awful ways imaginable. Listening to my friends talk about what they had planned, I realized that they had me out-gored, so I had to find a way to make my story stand out. So I tried to actually develop a couple characters, and focus on the storyline rather than the gore. (though I did include plenty of gore I remember us all reading our stories in front of the class (my teacher was way cool in that he let us blood-thirsty little bastards cut loose with our full imaginations) The gore pretty much won the day and got the biggest roars from the class, but I was pretty proud of my creation none-the-less. Can't remember any of the details, but damn it was fun to write.
The first story I recall writing was way back in the fourth grade. My teacher brought in a large green vegetable (squash?) and asked us to write a story about it. Mine was titled "The Martian Hotdog". I really don't remember much else about the story, but I do remember the teacher complimenting me on it. So that was cool.
LOL! The Martian Hotdog? It was probably funny and good, especially if you're teacher complimented you on it. Too bad you don't have it. Those blast from the pasts are always fun to experience.
It sounds like you're getting there Pallas. Keep writing I've got a ways to go too. Elgaisma That is wonderful Charlotte! I'm on my first book as well. But I 'm not in the postion right now to be able to explain it in detail. KP Williams and Naiyn great job and I commend you guys for starting first on this thread, pride or what other embarassment aside! I particularly enjoy the fact that you included friends in your stories. I did write some extremely small stories when a kid involving my siblings, but I never finished them. And Chudz what a hilarious story! Very original.
Mmm...the first story I finished that I liked would probably be a little short story that I wrote for my cousin called Money, Ropes, and Pillowcases. It's nothing great, just a silly little thing that I wrote in installments for him when he was visiting from Wyoming. I was probably like 15, and we'd never really spent much time together, so being the painfully shy person I was, I was terrified of him. He started trying to get me to talk to him and busted me writing something, so he asked me to write him a story...it turned into this big thing, the whole family (like 50+ people) would all gather around after I finished part of the story, my aunt would read it out loud, everyone would laugh...it was a nice family moment.
Oh, that's so cool! LOL. That is the kind of "bullying" cousin any person could use: someone to get you out of your comfort zone and finally get you to release those jewels and diamonds in your head. Hee, hee. Cool. P.S. Nice family. They can be a bother at times, when you're put into that kind of situation. But they sure can make you laugh at times
Well, I wrote a story (with drawings) about a nightmare I had about a lion biting my leg off. If I remember rightly it was a recurring nightmare, and it was when I was very young. I was pretty proud of that and still am! Anyway, I'd probably say the earliest story I'm proud of is one I wrote in Year 6 (aged 10/11) about a boy who wants a dog or something, I think there's a part about a circus too, I can't quite remember exactly. But I'm quite proud of how well I wrote it (although embarrassed by spelling mistakes), it obviously needs editing/a bit of work but I think it could potentially be a story for children.
The first story I ever wrote (that I can remember) was probably for a test we did in the infants, when I was about 5 or 6. Mine was about a monkey in a zoo, which transformed into a magical fairy at night. But hey, I got top marks for it! Another that I remember was when I was about 11 years old, just started high school, and we had to write a horror story for English. I loved it, my family loved it, and it went on and on and on, lol. I ended handing a wad of paper to my english teacher, who probably never even read the damn thing. Still, it was fun for my family to read. The first story I was really proud of should've been the one I got praised for by my tutor at uni, but it wasn't; I knew I could do so much better. And I did, when I got my first publication aged 19, just a couple months ago. My very favourite, oddly, is a vampire story that I wrote last night. Right now I really adore it, but that could change, lol.
I wrote my first story when I was in pre-school (I think I was four). I can't remember what it was about to be honest, although my Mum told me my teacher was impressed with my 'development' (something along those lines). I do remember that when I was in primary school I used to write silly little books non-stop. I'd write one on the weekend and bring it into class the next day. My year four teacher used to put them in the class book shelf, along with the other books, for my class mates to read during 'reading time' after lunch. I remember feeling pretty smug about that, haha. When I was in year five I won first place (in my age category), in a Western Australian story writing competition. I felt proud of myself because I got to fly all the way to Perth from my remote, in the middle of no where, mining town, and attend a big ceremony to receive my award.
You were five or six? That is amazing. And what a neat idea That kind of fantasy always gets my attention. Isn't that the greatest? Being able to use a story you wrote when you were so young? Good on ya! That's the best thing about families. They are the most supportive audience any writer could ever get. My sister constantly pushes me to write and not be afraid. I should try harder to listen to her. Congrats on your first publication, Ashleigh! That is just awesome And good for you Eoz! I bet you felt on top of the world that day. And the greatest thing about that is, no one can ever take that first, greatest, gratification away. You wrote it Wow, that is great! Thank you everyone for posting here. I hope more people post and enjoy this as much as I have already. T
Thanks taylee. It was a good feeling, nice to be noticed considering I'm a small-town girl. Nice thread btw.
Thanks Taylee. It's quite nice to know that all my childhood scribbling has started to pay off....just goes to show: practice, practice, practice. I remember spending break and lunch times on the computer with a couple of friends, all of us writing out joke stories, or our attempts at Jacqueline wilson stuff. One time, we played a game where we each wrote the next line of a story, but deleted the one before it so that the teacher couldn't see anything if he walked passed. He caught us, and pressed ctrl Z a hundred times, reading out each line to the class. We were in trouble, but our embarrassment was so funny that even the teacher was laughing. Good times....I wish I was a kid again.
Probably exaggerating but I think it could work out. It's great to hear about other people's writing successes, some at such a young age.
My daughter has a folio of stories we have been composing together since she was about three. She is doing more solo at seven, but I would write her words and she would then illustrates them. She has a whole collection of fairy, unicorn, alien and animal stories she has written. My favourite is a band of unicorn pirates being attacked by fairy pigs lol
lol Aw, how wonderful! That is such a magical age, being seven, and how beautiful that you and your daughter are writing. Who knows, Charlotte, you might be nursing a protege. I wish every kid had a writing streak. Somehow it gives them a different grip on life. I know mine is very different because of my good childhood.
I have yet to meet a little one that can't tell a good story, they just need help to get them out, down on paper and not be accused of lying or told not to make things up. As parents I think it is important to learn what is a story and what is a lie. Anything that doesn't have malicious intent should be allowed in my book Ellie does seem particularly talented with art, music and stories but I am biased lol well actually her music and art is good that has been assessed by teachers and people who are professionals.
i'd say it's the first serious bit of writing i ever did, a novel called 'casa eva' that i left behind with my agent when i gave up writing for money and dropped out of the material world... what appealed to me about it and still does is that it was a good, dramatic story with mystery and romance, exotic locales and a suspenseful ending, based in large part on my own eclectic and way-out-of-the-ordinary life and some of the people in it... i was 41 when i started it... took over a year to get from the germ of an idea and the first jottings, to the polished ms submission stage...
I think it's about time I brought this thread up again. There are many new people on the forum, and I still think it would be an enjoyable exercise for everyone to discuss the half-written, half-edited pieces of literature that may or may not have reached the shelves of Barnes and Noble. My first story is my current WIP. It's also my first NaNo novel. Nothing exciting really. Just another theme about getting second chances in life. SO . . . what was your very first story?
