Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Tell Me About Yourselves

As I'm visiting everyone else's blogs, I've been wondering a lot about what everyone writes and how much experience they have.

I've been interested in art for most of my life. As a child I played music, and as a teenager I painted. In college I continued to study painting and sculpture, but I managed to take one creative writing class in the last quarter of my senior year. For whatever reason, I've stuck with the writing. I 've been doing it seriously for about eight years. I try to write literary fiction, almost always with multiple main characters. I love the idea of writing an "epic."

What about all of you? How long have you been writing and what do you mainly writing? What turned you onto writing in the first place?

17 comments:

  1. I've actually been writing on and off for the past fifteen years or so - not professionally as I have yet to have anything published anywhere.

    It started when I was nine, I liked to dream about adventures in far away places and one day sat down to write my first novel; I usually stick to fantasy, but I think the most recent WIP might be more science fiction.

    It's just something above the different things I've tried that I think I can do pretty well, and I like doing.

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  2. I have been an avid reader all of my life, which prompted me to major in Humanities and English Literature. About five years ago I became an English teacher, and about 2 years ago I decided to write my first novel. I have dabbled in writing here and there but never seriously the way I do now. My genres of interest are women's lit, literary, and historical fiction.

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  3. I've been writing stories since I was very young. Bad stories, mind you. Then I began my career as a speechwriter and did that for many years. I'm back to fiction writing now and I try to write daily. This is an interesting topic as I just wrote a blog the other day about the birth of the creative spark and how I knew I wanted to write around age 12. I wonder if most writers have that inner tug at an early age.

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  4. Avid reader, avid writer all my life. And with both I've always preferred MG or YA, especially SFF (how's that for some abbrev.?).

    I wrote my first novel, er, 2002? That sounds right. Somewhere around there, sophomore or junior year of college. It surprised me. I thought it'd be a short story, but the story kept going.

    I've got stacks of novels finished but not revised, stacks of rejections, and (fortunately) at least twice as much determination.

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  5. I've been writing since I was about 10. I don't know what started it. Probably movies and books. I had to decide between being an art major or an English major, and I chose English.

    However, I LOVE art in all its forms. I tend to go in cycles in my life, concentrating one form and then another. My house is decorated in artwork I've done, and now I have novels under my belt. It's very hard to choose one thing to really focus on. Writing seems to be that course, though. It has lasted longer than all the others.

    Glad to get to now you better, as well!

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  6. I am a newbie and an ESL writer. I started writing about three years ago. I love it, can't believe I ever lived without it. Got my inspiration from my then nine- year old daughter, a master of writing, winner of several writing contests. I’ve finished one novel and am editing my second. A few short stories and an essay that aired on NPR. And an endless enthusiasm!

    I read literary fiction, not too heavy on descriptions and also commercial bordering literary. Absolutely love poetry. (And photography.)

    What started my writing career? A book with an ending I disliked. Hey, I can do better than this. So I tried. And haven’t been able to stop ever since.

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  7. Charlene, Finding something you do well and that you enjoy is so important...and so rare!

    Litgirl, I think the best writers are readers first. When I was very young I read a lot, but I didn't read as much in my teenage years.

    Karen, I didn't think I wanted to be a writer at an early age. I knew I was interested in art, but I didn't know what form. I told people I wanted to be a lawyer. :)

    Beth, go determination!!!!

    Lady Glamis, your journey sounds very similar to mine. At one point I just told myself to pick either writing or art and focus on it. I felt like I really had to narrow down my interests if I wanted to get good at anything.

    Krisz, that's great that your daughter inspired you. I wonder if she still writes and if the two of you exchange stories.

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  8. What turned you onto writing in the first place?

    Three things:

    I felt like a loser.
    I had a story to tell.
    I thought writing sounded easy.

    "How long have you been writing[?]..."

    I've been writing since near the end of 2007. My favorite way of putting it is I've been writing since I was 24. I'm now 25. Ha ha.

    What do I mainly write? Fantasy and Science Fiction. I haven't made much of a splash yet, but I'm gaining weight as we speak.

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  9. I've loved reading and writing since grade school, and while I've written tons of short stories and unfinished novels, I didn't finish one until 2007.

    I guess I got sidetracked by my theatre major in undergrad and then going to grad school for film. It's all part of the creative journey though, at least that's what I tell myself when I write the checks for my student loans:P

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  10. I am art obsessed in a way. I've sung since I could carry a tune, I started piano at 8 and trumpet at 12. I've been a photographer since I was 11. Got very interested when I was 13 and then really focused on it in high school (old school in a darkroom--I'm 43). I have often thought I should do it professionally, but when I researched what it entailed, I didn't like what I had to do to make it happen. So now I take pictures of what I like and am learning how to use the digital age darkroom (photoshop). I also paint with watercolor and have several of my painting hanging in my home and others' homes.

    I've been an avid reader my whole life and started writing creatively when I was about 10. I especially enjoyed writing poetry then and in college. I took a creative writing class in college and did well in it--short stories and poetry. Around the time I graduated I read an interview with a famous author (I can't remember who.) that said if you can live any other life than that of an author you should live it. If you can keep yourself from writing you should find something else you can do. Write only as a last resort and only if you have to do it. I've been trying to avoid writing ever since. (I taught Latin in high school and college.) I can't keep silent anymore. I have to write, and the chips will just have to fall where they may.

    Sorry I got so carried away, but you did ask. :)

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  11. My brief bio: Everyone in my family is a voracious reader. When I was a little kid, I would make chapbooks (no idea what sort of stories I wrote in them) and liked to see my name on the cover. Likely that was when I really decided I wanted to be a novelist. As a teen, my brothers and I would write (awful) parodies of books we'd read. Somehow I got sidetracked by visual arts and then rock music and then classical music (I wrote a bunch of piano sonatas and four string quartets and other junk) and then life in general. In my mid-30s I wrote a bad novel, then some short stories and essays which were better and I have a couple of unimpressive pub credits to my name. Now I'm in my (late--sigh) 40s and I have finally figured out what a story is and hope to have a book on the shelves sometime next year, if I can finish my current rewrite.

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  12. I've always been interested in many art forms, too. Read a TON through grade and high school, and now I get books from the library constantly but don't read as much as I'd like.
    I decided at 11 I wanted to be a writer. I majored in Writing, and I have a bunch of short stories and unfinished novels, thanks to NaNoWriMo.
    I also like art, and I want to be able to sew and knit. And I'm taking violin lessons! It's super hard to focus on one thing.

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  13. Oh, I forgot to say, I'm also trying to write literary, many-charactered, epic stuff, too!

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  14. I wrote my first short story when I was 3. All my early stuff was fanfic (though I didn't know what it was called then).

    Short stories and rewriting movies/books was the limit of my writing until I had kids. Then my imagination started going crazy and throwing ideas and characters at me without mercy.

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  15. I am that epic writer (ten years typing) ((sigh)) - but with a full time job that actually pays the bills it will probably be ten more year before I get anywhere near done.

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  16. I can't remember how old I was, I guess around 5th or 6th grade, my Mom took me to see my Dad's new office. He wasn't there, so I left him a note making fun of his office furniture - or lack thereof. He had a desk and only one chair for himself, and I remember asking what he did when people came to his office...did they play Santa clause and sit on his lap?

    Around that time, one of my friends was taking drawing lessons, and I really wanted to take them to. I overheard my mother talking to someone about my desire to learn to draw, and she mentioned the letter I wrote my Dad, saying something about the letter I wrote and how impressed she was. that was the first indication that I had some writing talent.

    In 7th grade I wrote a lot of short stories for my friends. They were mainly horror stories, I would try to gross them out (usually succeeded).

    I picked up bass and guitar when I was 16, and I started writing lyrics. That was my main writing outlet until my 20's when I wrote a couple short stories while I worked at a restaurant, using all of my co-workers as the characters.

    I had an idea for a novel, and one time during a walk in the woods I mentioned it to my wife, expecting her to laugh it off and recommend I work OT at my day job. I was surprised by her enthusiasm, though, and ended up starting it that day.

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  17. Hi Davin.

    I found your blog recently and have enjoyed reading your posts and gleaning much from your musings.

    I've been an avid reader all my life. Dabbled here and there with writing, but nothing seriously. I happened upon National Novel Write month back in 2007 and decided it would be a great challenge for me.

    I discovered how much I loved writing and I haven't stopped since. I am very much a newbie at the craft and appreciate all you, lady glam and so many others have to share.

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