Sunday, September 2, 2012

When Did You Know You Wanted To Be a Writer?

When I was in junior high, I started writing my first erotic romances. At the time, they were just fantastical stories about my friends and me running off with our favorite members of Duran Duran, but my friends loved them. I remember sitting on the phone with them, reading what I had written, and them saying, "Hurry and write some more." So I would set the phone down and quickly scribble in my notebook (we didn't have computers back then, but at least we had indoor plumbing - ha ha) then pick up the phone a few minutes late and read to them again.

As some of you may know from my bio, my friends informally voted me Most Likely to be a Romance Novelist when I grew up.

I was reminded of my childhood story-writing this morning as I was emailing my editor the first chapter of Return of the Assassin. "Do you think this is catchy enough? Will readers be emotionally vested and curious to see what happens by the end of chapter one?" I asked. Then I realized that, in a way, emailing her the pieces of my chapter as I finished them was sort of like reading my stories to my friends over the phone while sitting on my bedroom floor...with my tiny black-and-white TV turned to Friday Night Videos, or whatever else was on the five channels of TV I could get on the TV in my bedroom (only the living room TV got cable — yes,cable. Not satellite TV).

Thinking about those early years of my writing, I was reminded once more just how deeply seated writing is in my blood. If I had been paying attention all those years ago, I would have known I wanted to be a writer and could have saved myself a lot of time. At least then I would have known what to study in college. Oh well, hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it? I was born a writer, and while I should have know that thirty years ago, at least I know it now.

When did you know you were meant to be a writer? How did you come to that realization?

Happy writing!

-D
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4 comments:

  1. WriterGirlSeptember 3, 2012 at 9:07 PM

    I started writing when I was 10 or 11. My mom was worried that bad things were happening to me at school because of the stories I wrote!! :)

    Great post! And I am a John Taylor fan!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Donya LynneSeptember 4, 2012 at 9:13 AM

      Thank you. :) And, yes, John Taylor was my fave, as well. Although...Simon Lebon occasionally swept me off my feet. Thanks for stopping by.

      Delete
    2. Donya LynneSeptember 4, 2012 at 9:13 AM

      Also, I'm curious how your mom could think bad things were happening to you because of your stories. LOL.

      Delete
  2. UnknownApril 16, 2014 at 9:09 PM

    I realized when I was about 11 or 12 that I wanted to write. I've always had a passion for reading, my mother told me I was reading when I was 5 years old on my own. It wasn't just little books but multi-chapter stories that a 5 year old should have had a bit of difficulty with. As I grew I realized that there were so many ideas floating through my head that i had to get them on paper. Of course, as a child my spelling wasn't perfect and my penmanship left something to be desired but I still put forth the effort.

    As an adult I still enjoy reading and writing and one of the biggest reasons I love to read is to see other's writing styles. Every author has their own and it's wonderful to find similarities and differences. I write a lot-actually I spend close to 8 hours a day typing and editing-and I hope to someday become an accomplished writer.

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