Stay to the Lights

Tomorrow's skies

I loved to write ever since grade 2's writing class where we all wrote stories, etc. I had such epic ideas, and I was vastly more creative at that age.

trucherrygirl

I have always wanted to be a writer. Ever since third grade. One of the earliest stories I remember writing was a fiction short story called "The Queen and the Maid," which I must have written when I was about nine years old. It was written on lined notebook paper along with 2 yellow pieces of construction paper as covers. I kept a journal/diary from third grade until about twelfth grade. In high school, I got busier and my journaling became a lot more infrequent than in my elementary and middle school years.

In third grade, I remember starting to write a lot of short fiction stories and plays. I also used to perform the plays with my friends for small audiences (usually family). I really enjoyed writing plays from a young age. Although creative writing assignments were few and far between in elementary, middle and high school, I always excelled in them. English was always my best (and favorite) subject.

Around the age of 15, I started writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction before I even knew what it was. About a year or so after that, I discovered Fanfiction.Net and have been posting fanfiction for various fandoms there for almost 10 years now. Fanfiction and fandom has always had a very significant influence in my life. In fact, fanfiction has influenced much of the original fiction writing, blogging and scriptwriting I do today.

I continued to write fanfiction throughout high school. However, I also started writing articles and got my first article published in a now defunct magazine at age 17. Since then, I've written and published other articles online (including TV show reviews, autobiographical articles and articles about aspects of New Age/spirituality).

It was my junior year of high school and the year after Buffy ended when I discovered the TV series Tru Calling, which later inspired me to pursue a career in writing for television. I went to college with the intention of being an English/Creative Writing major (and later thought I'd pursue an MFA in Creative Writing - Fiction), but that changed.

I ended up studying film and disability studies in college, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies with a minor in Disability Studies. Because of my interest in scriptwriting, I actually taught myself how to write scripts first before taking any screenwriting classes as an undergraduate. Unfortunately, being a Film Studies major at my university meant that the majority of the coursework was film history/theory and highly analytical. Not what I wanted to pursue.

I applied to graduate school and am about to enter my fourth semester as an MFA in Screenwriting student. Writing feature screenplays has made me want to adapt my work into novels and has thus awakened my passion for writing original fiction - a passion I had difficulty finding in years past.

Ultimately, I want to write for television (supernatural strong girl drama series ideally) and maybe write some novels, too. I am trying to work on my memoir, but haven't gotten very far on it yet. I would love to become a professor at the university level, teaching courses on disability portrayal in the mass media and anything to do with the portrayal of disability and the study of creative writing.

Which means that someday I'd like to get my Ph.D, too!

So yeah. That's my writing journey thus far.

Ethereal

I used to answer the question of 'what do you want to be when you grow up' as 'author' from age 6 onwards. As soon as I learned to write, I was writing little stories. Most of my stories were influenced by my favourite authors at that age, Enid Blyton and Carolyn Keene.

I continually wrote little books and sold them to my friends...yes, sold, for a few cents (Australian).

I had a 'book' I was trying to sell confiscated when I was 9 by a teacher who saw the transaction but she had a look at it and then asked if she could keep it to show to her class!

But when it came time to choose what I would do after high school, I had become very interested in the idea of being a lawyer, I studied law. At the university I studied at you had to do a dual degree with law at that stage so I did a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts with a major in journalism.

Fast forward to 8 years later, things haven't worked out as intended in the legal field. It's alarming to have spent so many years studying and not be working in that field. I went back twice for postgraduate qualifications when I couldn't find work, the highest being a Master of Laws. Still seems to mean nothing to employers. I've always had work, just not the legal work I was looking to have. I decided to take the focus away from what went wrong and return to what I have always loved.

I've been writing a fiction for my own pleasure for a number of years now, it's currently far too long to be even a long novel so if I ever decide to publish it, it must be culled and edited extensively.

I'm currently writing a non-ficiton book, I'm aiming to finish it by March actually, at least the writing part. It's based on my own experience as a graduate and everything that happened and is a collection also of the stories of others who have had the same or similar experiences. I'm still seeking participants though, I don't have enough yet.

violasghost

Waves hi to all the fellow writers. I recently stumbled upon this place and look forward to checking out more.

Did you always want to write? if so, what/when made you decide this choice? Hmm, I guess yes and no. I wrote for my high school newspaper and even messed around writing a dark fairy tale when I graduated college but I never thought anything would come of it. It was always more of a hobby or something to kill time.

By profession I work at a veterinary school and am a freelance graphic designer. But one day I stumbled upon fan fiction and thought it was kind of a cool creative way to spin stories around and see them from different angles. So I dabbled in a bit myself. It allowed me to form and exercise my writing chops.

Then I began to start to imagine my own characters, and a world which they could belong in plus a plot and decided to try my hand at getting it down in type. It turned out once I started the words came pouring out and didn't stop. My first draft started at over 200K words, lol. It has since been paired down substantially, While waiting for the publisher feedback I have also written 2 more books making this series a trilogy. I should say I'm not quite done with the 3rd book, maybe 75%, but it has been a great learning process for me and some day it is a dream of mine to see them all in print.

For now I'm trying to finish up the 3rd book, trying to find another editor for my 2nd book, still sending my manuscript around, and have an idea for an entirely different story/characters kicking around in my head, lol. I guess when you get the bug you get it good. Who knows if anything will ever come of it, but thankfully I enjoy writing so its a win win situation for me.

I may possibly check out the beta thread on this board when the time comes as well because I love my betas, but most are good friends and I could use some fresh blood, lol.

One of my favorite quotes and is oh so true: “Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.” -Winston Churchill

Stay to the Lights

That's great guys. It's always nice to read what others have to say and how they came into writing!

Tomorrow's skies

It's nice to hear your stories.

Stay to the Lights

Any new stories?