How did you learn to write? |
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WoodyGS
NYC Midnight Groupie Joined: 28 Jan 2020 Location: San Francisco Status: Offline Points: 192 |
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fan fiction
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vanwijk88
NYC Midnight Regular Joined: 16 Jul 2017 Location: Auckland, NZ Status: Offline Points: 456 |
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When I was seven years old, starting school in a new country halfway across the world from anything I'd known so far, I started writing a "novel" in class called the "space pyramid" as my young mind was obsessed with both the stars and ancient Egypt. My teacher not only let me work on it during class time but encouraged me to continue it - which I did for about 3 months - and I think it was "published" in the school magazine. I sometimes wonder if I still have a old copy of that somewhere.
At age 11, my last year of education's first era, I graced the school magazine again with a descriptive piece from a task we'd been given. The prompt: describe where you would like to travel. My answer, as it remains to this day, was the world of my imagination. Around the same time, the school librarian had allowed me access to the "big kids section" containing all the books for the high school, to feed my voracious appetite for fiction. Alas, I was a pretentious egomaniac who read books such as the Da Vinci Code, just to be seen reading them. Let's not discuss how much I actually understood. It was at the start of middle school, a year later, that got "that English teacher". If you were lucky enough to have one too, you know what I mean. He didn't just introduce me to language, he helped me understand it. Before then, I was wielding unbridled power, letting words fall haphazardly onto the page. He gave me structure, the tools to temper my language and craft it in stronger ways. 14, I was, when I got my one and only 100% in an English exam. The fabled beast, only spoken of in whispers down school halls. "It was perfect", teachers would always say as they handed back an 80%. You see, there was a secret level beyond perfect, one that really did exist. Although I never reached it again - no one did - it was already too late. I'd tasted those heights, I was spellbound. The trials of a teen at fifteen turned me to poetry. Under the starlight, I sought a release. Language became not about telling any old tale, but my story. Words described not fantasy, but truth. At that time, I unlocked something within myself that would never recede, never withdraw again. I discovered an ability to communicate directly from my soul. A warm summer, leisurely youth, the lack of responsibility in a sixteen year old life, these were the ingredients for my next recipe. In the way that only the young really can, I just decided to write a novel - a proper one this time. No concerns for the behemoth task before me. No questions of capability. I wanted to do it, so I did. I still miss that carefree spark of childhood. As adulthood realities approached unbidden, I've been forced in recent years to step back. On the side, I sharpen my skills, whilst learning how to live as a man. I still have my youth, but perhaps not my innocence. That said, this journey has no defined start or end. The question proposed was how did I learn I to write? The simple distilled answer is that I have learnt in many ways, at many times. I will learn again in many ways more, in whatever times await. The real answer however, like almost all things in life, is much, much more complex.
Edited by vanwijk88 - 24 Jul 2020 at 12:38am |
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Bowbina76
NYC Midnight Groupie Joined: 27 Jan 2018 Location: Albuquerque Status: Offline Points: 207 |
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I've loved writing since I was in middle school. My first love was poetry and in HS I got third place in state competition. I was actually a slam poet for a while in my twenties and then started working on short stories. Then art kind of took over my time for awhile. However, I'm currently attempting a novel but want to really work on my skills. So I've got a handful of stories I'm working on and contests like NYC. Best way to get feedback.
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You bought and paid for your essays and term papers?! No! Just no!! EDIT: Oh, good, the scammer's gone!
Edited by Zelda - 25 Jul 2020 at 1:14pm |
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Scrib
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 12 May 2020 Location: London Status: Offline Points: 1512 |
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I loved reading and writing as a young kid and l would send fanmail letters to poets! (I was about 8 years old -email didn't exist) Then in secondary school, I learnt how to analyse in English Literature classes and realised that authors have a point of view, experience and research- that they are not just trying to emulate someone else like I was. So I stopped and didn't write a story until 20 years later, in March this year. I've written so many technical papers and professional reports, agonised over numerous diplomatic emails for work. I just thought what if I put as much effort into my old childhood love for writing? I'm learning through these NYM competitions, the forum and trial and error!The 100MF was such a great experience I came back for more!
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nod1v1ng
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 26 Jul 2016 Location: ChillybytheSea Status: Offline Points: 12497 |
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I always love when this topic gets revisited, because it reminds me that there is no wrong or right way to take this journey. My mom was an English teacher so our thank you notes were scrutinized at a young age. I learned grammar and vocabulary (and tact) in the guise of thanking Grandpa for the Christmas dress that would never fit and even if it did, I would never, ever wear. Honestly though, after high school assignments I left creative writing behind in favor of the glorious world of biochemistry. And a crazy desire to become a polyglot. And then got sucked into the remarkably nerdy world of robotics. And my intellectual self overshadowed my creative self. It wasn't until I was, ahem, a grown a$$ woman with some serious baggage, that I started writing. You know, the angry divorced lady blog that is the requisite part of the healing process if you do not have the money to pay a shrink to fast track the process. I built a bit of a reader base, not because the writing was any good, but because I wasn't afraid to be furious and rude and raw and honest. (Perceived anonymity will do that for you.) A reader told me that I should try this thing called NYCm Flash Fiction contest. So I did. And got assigned a ghost story. WUT? But it was fun. And so I wrote more and more. I always knew how to write a well structured sentence, but as I practiced and failed and tried again, I learned the art of storytelling. And I learned the magic is in the practice. The thing that is clear to me is that there is so much yet to learn. And so I keep on writing and failing and trying again and publishing and failing and trying again. Every success and every failure make me a better writer. TL;DR? I learned to write by writing. |
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