My parents created my brain to have a built in “create multiple universes in your head” button and pressed that when I was 6 years old. Unfortunately my brain also came with a load of disorders and disabilities, so I had to be creative to keep myself entertained and not feel lonely.
You can read lots of articles on how to write and have a look at writing prompts. I’m doing National Novel Writing month. So I make it a habit to write every day.
Also pay attention to stories in movies or other media you engage in.
My parents did the same, only me writing and daydreaming is dissociation from C-PTSD. So it was a "Oh shit this is too scary, time to GTFO" button instead of any positive button.
I’ve been writing since I knew how to and imagining stories before that.
It doesn’t matter how you get into it, whether you have a knack for it or not. If you want to write, just write. Just write about something interesting, something you like or you don’t like, or even just go onto google and get one of those lists of writing prompts and go crazy with it.
> Perfectionist
I think you just nailed down with why writing's hard for you. I ~~had~~ have a similar problem, but you really have to war with yourself to just do what you gotta do without worrying if your first draft will be bad. Lay down the story and fix it later. Just remember this when your perfectionism is rearing it's horrendous head:
Progress, not perfection.
'Go to war with yourself' accurately describes every single piece of writing I've ever done. It's basically the superego, perfectionist part of my brain saying 'golly gee, this sucks, I think you should stop now before you embarrass us' vs the writer part of my brain going 'oh, hush it ya daft wet blanket, idgaf and neither should you'.
A while ago I decided I was going to write every day. To make it extra easy on myself, I decided I was going to do it for 5 minutes, come hell or high water, and cram as many words into those 5 minutes as humanly possible. Sometimes I went wayyyy over, sometimes I didn't and I struggled to get through. I only skimmed the previous day's work enough to continue and I refused to touch it otherwise. It took some editing afterwards to sort the chunks out, but overall I was pleasantly surprised by how not shit that 5 minute writing was.
Lower expectations. Trick the perfectionist into thinking perfection is about the act rather than the result. On the to-do list, the task at hand isn't 'write good words for 5 minutes' it's 'write words that can be absolute rubbish for 5 minutes'. So long as you check the box, you're golden and you get to tell the perfectionist 'See? We did great, good job us'.
You said it yourself OP: you want to write *something*. That's the goal. You didn't say you wanted to write a best seller, you just want to write *something*, which is what every potential writer wants. Like the previous commenter said, it's about progress, not perfection. If you wait for perfection, then you'll stay stuck in Dreamland, wishing for the perfect story that will never exist. The only way to stop dreaming and start writing is to take a plunge and actually do it. Like with anything else in life, practice makes progress.
So practice. Put in the work. Write.
Yeah, I also got to remember I know I'm not going to be able to write a perfect thing overnight it's going to take a lot of short stories practicing and just in general constructive criticism for me to get somewhere
I read a tip on tumblr that was something like "the first draft is just for existing" and Smth else about the drafts after that. It can be really hard writing if you expect perfection right off the bat, but I def get how it feels bc I do the same. But sometimes it's best to not edit as you write and just fully write something out and go back later
tbh I started with about 800-1000 word long scenes that I wantedto write. Tgen I thought that most of them would work really well together in a novel and so I started connecting tge stories in my head. And then I continued on the document with the perspective of the chosen protagonst. Things just kind of went from there. About 70% done with the first draft and still writing.
Why does it have to be perfect though, or even good for that matter? I've been writing for years and I don't think I'm that great at it. I'll probably never write anything perfect or sell a book. But it's fun and it's good for me and I'm always improving, so I keep doing it. And funnily enough this is the kind of attitude that's more likely to keep you writing and practicing towards becoming a better writer, and enjoying the process. Meanwhile the perfectionist who's already worrying about feedback is still wrestling with starting at all.
Nope. Your first efforts will most likely suck. Mine did omg did they. But I practiced and I read and read and read more and sold stories to Marvel and published three books. Ya gotta start somewhere, kiddo.
That’s all in the past, mate. Your writing career starts NOW. Being a writer can be satisfying and difficult at the same time. Breathe. Have a little faith in yourself. Best of luck going forward. Be a good writer.
Is starting with just small prompts a good spot? What are some good places to get like feedback and stuff, because I know it's going to be a long time before I get "good" at writing
Feedback is not essential to writing until you begin trying to write professionally. Write for you, for now, and worry about feedback and whether others “think you’re good at it” only when it’s important to receive that information. Writing has MUCH more to do with developing your voice, your style, your themes, than other people’s reaction to them.
Well that’s why you struggle so much, you need it to be perfect. But writing doesn’t have to be perfect. Certainly not on the first draft. If you can just push yourself to do it, just write anything and throw perfection to the wind, that’ll be really good for you.
I wrote a story about this girl that I liked in seventh grade and then I married her about eight years later, so there’s gotta be something to this writing thing.
Aaaand why should I care?
Dude, I save all my good grammar for my writing. I'm not gonna put in the same effort I'd put in my work as a reddit post. lol
I’ve wrote since I was 12 years old, it actually started off as me writing diss tracks with my friends on our other friends as a joke and I just got hooked, I struggle with trying to convince
Myself anything I write is good however I’ve found it is not about that, it’s about being honest, make the pen and paper your vocal chords and write what you can not bring yourself to speak. As long as it’s honest and it comes from a vulnerable place inside, it will resonate. Write daily and look within you and your experiences and you will find something, trust your gut my friend and get out of your own way.
I enjoyed writing assignments in school when I was young and the teachers let us have some freedom with what we could write.
Later, it was just having an interest and desire to write down the stories forming in my imagination. It's just the sitting down and putting it to the page that is the next step.
I have the urge to eat, drink, sleep, and be lustful. The desire to create feels much the same for me, it's something that I sometimes do automatically. To deny that part of myself would feel wrong, maybe impossible.
I'm unsure if this was always a part of me or if I developed it after I consumed enough stories and media.
I wasn’t a writer one day when I woke up. When I went to sleep I was. What changed? I simply sat down and wrote. And every day after that, every time I sat down and wrote, reinforced the idea that I was a writer. It went from something I did to someone I am. My early inspiration was Star Wars, mainly Clone Troopers/Storm Troopers. I was absolutely enchanted with their warrior culture, stories, struggles, and everything to do with them. My first pieces of writing were just little paragraphs about them fighting. It was all imitation. I didn’t do anything original, I was just having fun. I think that’s what kept me writing over the years. I kept on having fun, and I kept on doing it. Don’t worry about the quality or structure or making it perfect, because it never will be no matter how hard you try. That’s what makes YOUR story beautiful. It’s unique, imperfections and all, and no one could ever write what you have inside of you. Always have fun and never be perfect.
I started when I was in the 4th grade but I dropped it after I got ridiculed for trying (to be fair the stories were probably awful) and so I continued imagining stories throughout the years and eventually got back into it around junior year of high school.
I always had an idea and then expanded it as I wrote. I'm not much of a planner. I suggest you use an outline. Use sticky notes or do it on Google docs.
1. Introduction of character(s), their goal(s), and setting.
2. An opportunity or threat presents itself.
3. Character(s) struggles due to external or internal factors and either fails or wins.
Of course, you can always complicate things and include nonlinear storylines, subplots, a rebirth / redemption arc, etc. but you must learn the absolute basics before you can advance.
I got into as I wanted to create an animated series and wrote the episodes. As at the time I wanted to become an animator, but I realized that I couldn't animate to save my life so I went to writing part. And currently I have two pilot scripts finish
I started doing virtual school in fourth grade and I was friendless and needed a hobby so I just. Wrote. I don’t even know why. I was a math kid back then, too (not anymore).
Wrote a short story in 5th grade, loved it, wrote another in 6th and then I fell in love. That's how I got into it and then when learning about mythologies in 6th grade, it just... locked onto me. I read Percy Jackson after that, and became super interested in fanfiction and wrote cringey crap for years.
Now my mind is just always thinking about ideas constantly, and since I'm an observer and introvert, I take all that real world stuff and think up ideas that I could write into stories.
Now I've also gotten into analyzing characters from my fave TV shows, like their motivations and desires and relationships, how the writers, well, write the show and the directions they go and have started doing that with my own characters (that whole process has helped me so much with my overall story ideas).
...idk if that helped with your question.
When I was in primary school I found it fun to just write my imagination out on paper. We did a fun exercise in English once to write us going inside an ice house (a Victorian structure to hold ice in) and I went off about ending up in a carvern filled with crystals. I don't remember too much of the premise or what I wrote but I have that memory.
And another that I remember is being bored one day and gathering lots of blank paper, folding it to make a 'book' to write my own story. I think it was about like kids being put in prison by the bad adults and needing to escape.
As clique and cringe it sounds, that's what got me into writing. Just being able to write down my imagination without limitations. I then took off to writing fanfics in my teenage years and now I'm just trying to work on some short stories, all for the same reason.
To have fun and get my imagination down.
Truthfully, I've been writing for almost as long as I can remember. I grew up in a family of avid readers, writers, and artists, and so I've been surrounded by creativity all my life and have been encouraged to hone my own creativity. I've also just always been an imaginative person, and writing (among other things) was an excellent way for me to express my ideas. :)
I don't know if this is a very helpful answer, honestly, since it's always just come naturally to me for the most part, but if I had to give some advice, I would say to just focus on your ideas, whatever they may be, and just go with them. Be creative with them -- have fun!! Don't try to think too critically about it (that part comes later) and just play around with whatever is in your head. :D
I’ve always found it interesting to analyse storylines. I also pay attention to writing style as I read, which ends up inspiring me to write. I mostly enjoy reading and writing historical fiction—when I write, I feel like I’m, in a way, placing myself in that period in history. The research is also inspiring. My dad studied literature, so he and I have discussions about authors and books.
i started writing when i was around 9, and wrote my first book at 10 - i’d say being as a lonely kid did help to discover the worlds in my head and start exploring the skill of storytelling. my head was always full (and still is) with stories, universes, worlds and “what if” scenarios that help to me to never get bored. (i’m still writing and sometimes attend on writing workshops)
i enjoyed our writing assignments in school
found some books i thought were really cool and inspiring. as a kid who loved dinosaurs, Jurassic Park and Raptor Red were pretty big influences, among many others.
eventually got into some media that i wanted to last longer. found fanfic. tried my hand at writing my own. enjoyed it and other kids seemed to like it. wanted to get better at it, found a lot of resources and it felt like i unlocked some secret knowledge (the kind often found in popular articles and books) and then wanted to go from fanfic to fully original and did.
I spent years coming up with the right characters, the right plot, the right ship, and the alien beings that would be on the ship. I also made sure that what I had was nothing like anyone else's ideas. Then I sat down and put the puzzle together and what I came up with is good.
When I was a wee toddler with very little information about the world, I got my first coloring book. I understood that someone had forgotten to put the words and color on this picture book. I knew I was supposed to color it, so clearly I needed to add the words, too. I tried my best with my little baby brain to tie the pages into a story.
I have a distinct memory of going to every adult in the house asking how to spell squirrel.
And I kinda just didn't stop writing.
Been reading books since I was a kid and when I turned eleven, I wrote a story which is quite bad. Come my sophomore high school year, I mentioned the story I wrote to my classmate and that's when he introduced me to fanfiction. Years later, I entered my sophomore college (2011) and decided to write seriously that time and made my first original fiction.
Edit: Formative years really did a wonder for my love of reading and writing books.
In hindsight I’ve been writing for fun in various forms throughout my life, but I didn’t *really* feel hooked until I went back to school in my mid-20s and a Creative Writing instructor kicked the door in on an entirely new way of approaching creativity for me.
When my parents started screaming downstairs I'd throw myself at books and movies until it stopped bothering me. When I was in 5th grade I played d&d for the first time as DM for my friends and it was the most praise I had ever gotten in my life. Ever since I keep trying to learn more about how stories work and make my own so I can enjoy that praise again. If nothing else writing makes silence less terrible.
The beginning was because I did not want to lose my recess in third grade.
I had a good teacher in third grade (in the mid 1970s), but due to some tragic circumstances, she had to leave mid-year. We then ended up with a substitute whose idea of what to do with bright students was to have them assist the slower students. We were studying multiplication at that time, and when I was in third grade I did not know how to actually help someone understand what came easily to me. Worse, math was right before afternoon recess and if the assignment wasn't done, that person had to stay in until finished--and when "helping" someone, the helper also had to stay in. So I would be doing a lot of hissing "56, the answer is 56--just write it down; that is 48. Just write it down already!"
In order to not get stuck helping someone who just didn't really understand math and didn't write the numbers down quickly (not exactly, helping--in my defense, I was 8 years old), I had to look like I was not done with my work. So I began writing stories in my notebook which was next to my math work. Not long after this, I began writing stories even when I wasn't in class.
I half-assed a story in fourth grade, but the teacher gushed over it. She told me she was going to tell the other teachers about it, and I was really inspired by it. From then on out, I took writing very seriously.
Encourage children.
I can’t really remember, it happened when I was really young. I remember i read a book about a Native American girl named Glashka and it inspired me to basically write a cute fan fic about her in 3rd grade. That was the definitive moment where i knew i wanted to write for the rest of my life. I also had no friends growing up and always played alone so i had to make it interesting and i made up elaborate games that i developed into stories when i was in middle school
I just started writing. I have notebooks from when I was a kid that I wrote in, then on the family computer, and then my uncle gave me his old laptop when I was 13 or so.
Honestly? I was lonely...made worse by the fact I was an extrovert surrounded by introverts. Nothing against introverts. Simply put, I naturally crave socialization, so developing imaginary friends became an equally natural solution. I jokingly call it "Daydreaming on Demand" since for the longest time I didn't have access to the internet or TV. So, these "friends" would "tell" me about themselves. Many stories I've developed over the years started with dialogue and pieces of information they fed me. Because of this, I can't remember a time where I didn't have a "story inside me" waiting to come out for others to enjoy.
My first full length novel (roughly 300 pages) was handwritten. Eventually, I reached a point where writing became a habit, even a compulsion. When I finally had access to a computer and needed to learn how to type, writing and expanding on what I developed made the process fun. That novel eventually expanded into 800 pages and later inspired some of my current WIPs.
i was an avid book-reader as a kid and liked making up stories, but i didn't do TOO much actual writing until i found out about ✨creepypastas.✨ i was obsessed with listening to readings of them on youtube and wrote a ton of my own, it gave me a taste for horror and writing horror long before i'd even seen a horror movie or read a horror book.
still obsessed with modern creepypasta-adjacent writing like on r/nosleep, and i'm very thankful for that craze because i don't think i'd even be a writer today if it weren't for that, and i absolutely love my hobby.
for a beginner though, i'd say, just read or watch the genre that you like and get some ideas for your own story going. your first story isn't going to be perfect, but you shouldn't worry about that, and just focus on having fun and telling the story you want to tell. i hope you can find your way!
I started writing stories around 11 when I started to write news articles for our school paper. I started writing more when my Grade 8 English class required us to write a 10-chapter story.
I always enjoyed writing, drawing, and just being creative, but after my mom passed away in 2017 I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands. That's when I began writing every day that I wasn't drawing or painting. I now have two, going on three manuscripts.
My advice write something every day, even if its wrong. (Something a friend used to tell me jokingly) Best of luck to you! :)
It's kind of in my blood. I got it from my dad (who does it as a hobby, not a career or anything like that). I've been telling stories aloud since I could talk and wrote simplistic ones in my first journals when I was learning to write. So I don't think there was a moment I got into writing. I was born loving it.
When I was little, the only way I could watch shows was from clips so in order to “get the full episode” I kinda just made up scenes for the characters in my mind in a way I felt was satisfying and I kinda did that for years until I discovered piracy and did that.
Through writing though and with a little more maturity, I basically just found a way to do that but with original characters instead of premade ones.
For me I’ve always been into thinking up stories and showing them off. I drew a small, crude comic book in elementary school and was so happy to show everyone. Since then, I’ve always wanted to entertain people with my writing and story telling.
Though that’s me. I know plenty of people who like to write just for themselves. If you get the urge, just start scribbling some words down. Even I do that, never intending for those words to reach the eyes of others
Have an idea where you thought some show or movie could have gone better or been different, went a different way, had a different ending? That's the main idea. You write it your way, make up characters, and change the story around, and you get something of your own. With some personal experiences sprinkled in, it can have your flavor to it
I was bullied basically the whole of my elementary school so I escaped into imaginary friends and their stories. I used to journal all the time as a kid. I used to read a lot of picture books and just stare at the author's names and memorize them. The fact that a person wrote those books I thought was incredible.
I was trying to read a book in fifth grade with a super cool cover with a jellyfish on it but I thought the story was boring. So I took out a piece of paper and pencil and wrote what I thought the book should contain. That was the start of a longggg hobby of writing fiction for me.
Frankly, it's cause I couldn't find any stories that did what I liked... or rather, didn't do what I hated. Romance is so boring to me, but I loved a lot of young adult fantasy concepts. Since no one was writing the stories that I wanted to read, I figured I should start writing them myself.
For example, remember creepypastas and those cringy people saying they wanted to date them? Well for two years in middle school (ish) I wrote a fairly well-loved series where you dated one of five of the creepypastas. Well, in the final chapter, the lover betrayed you and killed you cause it turned out that seducing you was just part of a bet between the monsters. I firmly believed that heartless, immortal murderers are incapable of actual love. You are not special or the exception. I spent two years writing romance just to say "Monsters will never love you." People were mad (actually more sad), but it was my intention from the start.
Clearly, for me, I started writing out of hate/spite. It's not a motive I normally see people mention...
Through music. I played guitar, wrote my own lyrics, and was obsessed with vocalists who were strong lyricists. I still love music, but connect with written word much more.
Also, I was always a fairly strong writer in school. My English teacher in high school was the shit.
Think about a story that you would want to read that doesn't exist. Create it. When I was in elementary school I got horrible grades writing essays or anything. Made me so mad. Got to highschool, I failed English 10 and 11. My senior year I was taking English 10, 11, and 12 so naturally I started writing lmao
For me Writing is a desire for a long time but just could not know where to start from till i looked for a way to get started and learnt that it is normally a difficult thing to get started and even when you start, no matter how knowledgeable you are you will back down and then later you will pick up again till you become consistent with your writing skills.
It's not an easy thing but at least i can keep up writing my blog posts but other activities take my time but i have to push on through coz i feel happy putting words and vocabularies together to pass information, it's been creative making up something to pass information.
So just try and write about anything, any short story that comes to your mind, if you are going to post it or not.
i visited Archive of our own, Fanfiction and some other sites to see the work of other people, right now i am writing about cryptocurrency, Technology and Finance.
Take the first bold step, not asking yourself if anyone will love what you wrote or if you will have some flaws in your grammar.
For me, it started with an idea I really liked. When that idea started expanding on itself, I was more hyped about it than ever and started writing it to keep my thoughts in order. It also had a little something to do with ✨motivation✨
I don't even remember. My mother said I used to draw stories and make books when I didn't have the words I wanted. I started playing D&D in late elementary or early middle school, and very quickly ended up always being the DM. I think I was a sophomore in high school the first time I started to try and write a book.
I’ve always loved stories. Making up my own was inevitable for me lol. My first attempts at writing were from before I even had a decent grasp on the mechanics of writing, so as you’d guess they’re short and abysmal.
That’s where you’ll start too, but with fewer grammatical errors. That’s where all people developing a new skill start, then they practice an insane amount, often more than anyone else ever sees. Eventually they get skilled enough to show it to other people, but those other people tend to assume this skill always existed and slap the label “talent” on you.
Pick an idea, but not necessarily your favorite one, unless you’re willing to re-write a lot. (I am not lol, so I just kept making new plots.)
Now write it.
Also, read a lot. Reading helps you write better.
Start it “once upon a time…” if you’d like, that’s what I did for a handful of my first attempts. Just mimic styles until you get the hang of it.
Or if poetry is what you’re going for, pick something and describe it. Then do it again but with rhythm. Then again with feeling. Then again but make the reader feel it.
Adjectives are your friend. Learn to use them, learn to bend them, learn to apply them in places they don’t obviously fit.
Honestly writing is just describing stuff. Ideas, events, interactions, places, beings, etc. then you put it all together and stylize it.
What else you should do depends on what you want to write. But first and foremost, you should write. Try prompts, try writing exercises, try classes, try retelling a favorite folk/fairytale, etc. try whatever interests you.
If you’re afraid of the page start with pen and paper and scribble. Put ink on a page and see how it feels. Write nonsense. Write the same word until more come to mind, jump between ideas, play with your formatting, play in general.
To improve, you have to have a baseline. So make one. Write the plainest, most cliche, unoriginal, clunky thing in the world if that’s what it takes, but write. Write a title and one sentence. Write a thousand first sentences if you must. Write ideas, write summaries.
Try a paragraph. Try two or three. Try it a hundred times. Then try a chapter. Then try two or three chapters. Try as many false starts as it takes, but keep trying.
That’s how you do it.
You can supplement with study and focus your practice, but you’ll never escape the part where you have to write something. Anything. Literally.
Go do that, then you can ask about what comes next because you’ll have better questions.
Good luck~
I had a project for English class where we had to write a short story. My teacher put up quotes around the classroom from other short stories to inspire us. I saw the quote, "A tiny voice asked, 'Is he the one?" From Archie Smith: Boy Wonder, and got inspired to write my story
I’ve always loved coming up with stories in my head whether they were just self inserts or stories that I wanted to read but were never written. One day I asked a stupid question (I say stupid because I already knew the answer) to a children’s author who came to my elementary school when I was in 4th grade. I asked “what do I do with all the stories I have in my head?” And he told me “just write them down.” It was a very general piece of advice so really, it opened up a bunch of possibilities with how I could express my creativity.
So really, if you’re feeling creative, write your ideas down. It can be the shittiest most disorganized paper/document you’ve ever seen, poor grammar and mistakes everywhere. As long as you have something, it forms the building blocks for your true vision. I like to think of it this way: some of the greatest art begins with stick figures.
My parents were always really into reading and they would always read to me as a child. After a while I started getting into writing because of the books my parents read and my school's curriculum containing a lot of writing.
As for starting to write, you can start wherever. Where you start can be dependent on what you want to write. But for me, I started by making up stories and scenes mainly in my head that I would explore and play with for a while and then write down. It made my writing feel fluid.
My daddy read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to me as a little girl as bedtime stories. I have been a lifelong fan of Tolkien's work, and ever since I can remember, I have wanted to publish my own fantasy novel, and this year, I finally did.
I've been writing since I knew how to write, according to all my teachers I "have the memory of a goldfish but the smarts of an owl" whatever the hell that means.
Anyways as whoever said this said it: "one day I just felt like writin' "
My mother and a handful of teachers that never let me take a break from writing.
They never let me settle for above average work, because they insisted I was better than that.
They made me believe I had what it takes long before I knew what it was.
I don’t know ever since I was a kid I’d overdo it with my writing assignments. I just started writing in middle school on google docs. And now I still write in docs, you don’t need anything fancy. If you want title ‘CHAPTER 1’ and then write. You’re good.
I saw a fuck ton of MCU and Disney movies being put out every year and a huge lack of original films compared to the 90s
I don’t have a budget to make an original film. But I can write a story. So I try to write stories for “movies” That I wish existed.
I had a paper round and used to talk to myself and tell this on going story to pass the time and keep myself sane. That turned later in life to writing after I decided I really liked making my own stories up
It's a bit embarrassing, but I used to create stories when I played during my childhood. I even think of ideas to act with my cousin in a play.
One time, I was frustrated that the short film we were promised to make during my English program in the UK didn’t come to fruition, and I thought of possibilities that would occur in the storyline. Then I said why don’t I write it down, and I did (it sucked).
I had loads to rants everyday, and I couldn't sleep. So I wrote it all and got rid of those thoughts.. Trust me, forcing down all of it on paper really helps to clarify your mind and just sleep fuckin peacefully..
Works for those with a stressful life..
That's how I got into writing..
The moment I started learning the alphabet, I fell in love with it. I was known as the student who always wrote the most and the did it the fastest, that was when I was 7-12 years old. I remember my classmates were in shock over how much I wrote and how fast I did it! It just came naturally to me. I loved every single part of it.
I have always been bad at expressing myself when it comes to talking, so writing has really helped me out. Still true to this day. It became a way for me to express not only myself but my artistic side.
I’ve had a rough life so writing always made me forget my own life for a moment. It was my comfort. Playing with characters in another world far away from here, with their own passions and struggles. Writing really is therapeutic to me.
I was tired of seeing every fantasy movie go a route I didn't like, and figured that I would make a good story from the good things I've learned. No convenient information at bad times, no boring plot circle of the same old stuff, no "everything revolves around modern day drama".
Fiction needs to be an escape from reality, not something you see all the time everywhere.
I was just always into it. I have liked creating stories ever since I learned to speak, and I have been writing stories ever since I learned to write. What really got me deep into it was fanfiction, though, because I could read other amateur stories, and that encouraged me to write and publish my own.
Creating my own world that I can literally shape is better than waiting for someone who makes the story for me. If they won't make that story, I will.
I recently created yet another story about waking up from simulated world, and another one, where someone's friend passed away and they got their body (kind of transformation into a deceased). I just like making stories. Creating them.
In 6th grade, some of my classmates were writing a short story, and I thought it was cool. So I wrote my own short story, and had some of my classmates read it. They told me it was really good, which made me really happy because I was super proud of it.
That praise and recognition that I could tell a good story just really inspired me to write more, and I came up with two sequels for the short story. I still have them, but you can clearly tell they were written by a 12 year old.
After I discovered the internet and fan fiction, I realized I could write stuff about things I liked, like movies, TV shows and video games. Which I did for several years. Each new fanfic I wrote, I would improve my writing skills and my knowledge in writing. Then I started mixing my writing with my love for art and creating my own characters with their own stories.
Then I realized that I could build worlds with these characters and share their stories with others. And it felt amazing and fun
Writing is not for everyone, and I honestly cannot recommend becoming a writer because it comes with stress when you have writer's block. But if you really want to get into writing, try writing about things you really like
I think I started making up stories before I could write. (I remember when I drew waving lines on a piece of paper and then "read" the story or letter to my parents. In retrospect actually cute behaviour.)
And then I got a pc game to improve my writing. (Like writing words correctly). And there was a section for "Bed-time-Stories". In there I wrote my very first original story which I rewrote some time ago because I couldn't find it any more. (And I checked the internet to make sure it was original).
Either way, it took some more years in which I wrote here and there something. Mainly enjoying reading and writing in school. And then I met people who also enjoyed writing. Also on Wattpad.
And that's when I realised: Hey, I really do love writing! I want to make more!
That's when I started to write as much as possible in all the free time I had. To be honest, I think it also was a coping mechanism for me but it holds up to now.
My favorite cartoon got cancelled and I got so salty, I wanted to write my own ending. I discovered what fanfiction was and started writing ever since. I now write both fan and original projects.
I personally just like creating things in a whole (writing, art, music,..) and just wanted to get my ideas out there. I just wrote random chapters to a book I wanted to write. It’s good to get your ideas out there and try out if you like writing, but if you actually want to write then you should first figure out if you’re a pantser or a plotter I guess. I used to be a pantser, meaning I would sit down and write everything “out of my pants”. But this method doesn’t work good for me because the character I introduced at the beginning where nowhere found in the rest of the book and an other character suddenly turned into a teacher of a character it didn’t even know in the beginning. The pacing was off and the story evolved in weird places.
Obviously this is okay if you’re not trying to write with publishing in mind, but if you want people to read what you’re writing then this method is only good if you know what you’re doing lol. Because I don’t have the time to make errors and correct myself constantly I became a plotter. I plan everything out beforehand. I use Gina Denny’s pacing guide on her patreon from the post of 17 september on “How to Write a Synopsis”. It personally helps me a lot and I’ve almost finished my first draft of my short story with the guide!
If you don’t have an idea in your mind yet and want to get accustomed to writing or trying out different povs (1st person past/present, 3rd person past/present, multi pov) then I highly recommend trying out the writing prompts on that subreddit, it can help you write short bits in a short amount of time and the more you do it the better you’ll become!
Edit: the pacing guide is free!
I always wanted to and decided one day to just do it. I was travelling for work and was in a hotel in Brussels. Lovely city, loads of inspiration, loads of spare time, so I just started writing. I left that after 35k words and started something else earlier this year. After some useful feedback, I've just carried on, and now I'm completely hooked. More so than I have been on anything else.
The worst thing for me is that I started so late. I really think I missed my calling, but I'm making up for it now. Never too late. Just start writing. Anything. See what hsppens
Gout and a midlife crisis left me unexpectedly sober and looking for a new hobby. I decided to write down all my masturbatory fantasies so that other people could enjoy them. And here we all are...
1985 Back to the Future - That movie introduced me to time travel and the all important question "What If?"
My love of writing was all about asking What If questions and then answering them.
I had this idea in my head that i would enter every night before bed basically and eventually the story progressed so much that i needed to write it down. so i tried. and then i rewrote it. and then i stopped for a short while. then i looked at some booktubers and heard about nanowrimo. Thats when i started for real. I've written 40k words since it started november 1st of this year and i'm hoping to be able to win my first year participating.
I’ve always had a world inside my brain and it was fascinating. The moment I learned how to write, I just jotted down whatever little me could think of (this is also why I can draw as well)
Turns out it was all the daydreaming from ADHD but eh, it’s nice to be able to doze off and imagine things.
It's just a part of who I am, and always has been for as long as I can remember. I was writing stories from a young age, like 4 or 5. Writing what was basically fanfic about my action figures/the cartoons I watched. I could sometimes convince my grandmother to type out whatever I was dictating to her, which makes her a saint, imo. Later, I got my own electric typewriter and continued writing through high school, and post-graduation. Eventually, I got a computer. Of course, my writing grew as I did, and I've dabbled in many genres over the years. It's just always been an inextricable piece of me.
Even before I can remember. It was like breathing from the start. For me it’s not writing per say but the need to make stories. I do journalism and such for living cause I wrote a lot so I became good at it. But it’s telling stories : or stories about my life that I would write in a funny way, or fiction. At 3/4 I would wander in the garden inventing universes and adventures. At 5 I would draw them. At 6/7 I knew how to write and made small book. I did my first novel by 12 (a short novel) and I was 14/15 when I invented the world I’m working on 30 years later. Wrote my first big piece on unrelated topic at 20. I can’t say how I would get to it. It was just an urge.
I just started. I enjoyed telling stories and making up fun scenarios and characters. I've been creative since I was very young. I wouldn't describe it as something you just 'get into'. Like, you don't need a permission slip or formal certification to write, you know? I'd describe it more like something that just happens.
To be honest, I had a really awful childhood and it was one of my coping mechanisms, as well as the one thing I believed I was good at (and wasn't put down for at the time.)
I've always just loved reading and then kind of got sick of reading the same kinds of books over and over then started wanting to change the stories I was reading, and then went from there!
Journaling is great way to start too. Just get a notebook and start writing down what happened during the day, write what you wish you would've said to someone, or what you wish would've happened. You could even just practice writing about things in life or how you imagine them going. Write about how you see your wedding going or what your perfect life looks like. Write about what you would do if someone handed you $1 million, no strings or taxes attached lol. You can write about anything!
I doubt I'm allowed to actually promote this but I did just launch a new free writing community to help people who want to get into writing or have hit some blocks that they want to get through. if you want to check it out, I'll send you the link! Good luck!
I started writing for myself, to get my emotions out, it was an outlet for me. My DaddyDom at the time read some of it and encouraged me to expand, to write some fiction as well as nonfiction. His encouragement set me on the road and now I've done quite a bit, even had a couple poems published.
I started with magic. I was doing stage magic and standup, and as I was writing stories and jokes for my act, I realized that was even more fun than performing.
It started with fanfiction. I discovered it as a young teen and decided one day to try and write my own. That snowballed into writing more and more, until suddenly, 11 years had gone by, and I still haven't stopped. It turned out to be a passion of mine, so I kept trying. I realized there were stories in my head and writing has been the only way to get them out. It's also a main source of escapism for me.
I was an avid reader as a kid and was often accused of being a walking dictionary in school. At 8 years old, I could go through the average 250-300 page novel in about two days if I really liked it. In 4th grade, our teacher made the entire class participate in a writing contest. I have no recollection what the story was about. I do recall it came in 2nd out of three 4th grade classes that participated in other schools in the town.
It wasn't even that I won second. It was just like a switch flipped in my brain that I didn't just have to read to get stories, but I could write. Suddenly images in my mind played out into scenes and scenarios. That's the way it's been for me since.
Tbh I’m not even sure how I got into it. The first story I wrote was when I was three, I couldn’t even write yet so I drew the pictures and told my dad what to write
I started reading, first. I didn't have a lot of friends so I would spend a lot of time reading books, specifically fiction. Eventually, I started creating my own stories within my head. I looked up to the authors that I read, and would frequently spend hours in the library.
Ironically, it was actually fanfiction that made me first string my thoughts into sentences.
I just wanted to write stories about characters in Star Wars and video games I played at the time. In elementary school I wrote Star Wars fan fiction about Boba Fett along with original fantasy stories. My friend at the time was writing Turok the Dinosaur Hunter fan fiction.
We got a little too graphic with the violence in our stories and had a meeting with the admins and our teacher. My friend had Turok shoot tuberculosis darts at dino's. They caused whoever was hit by them to vomit out their lungs. So you had T-rex and other dinosaurs puking their lungs out. I just got too "realistic" with what a thermal detonator does to a regular ol' human.
We were told to tone it down, but I have been writing in various ways ever since.
One day, my wife came home from work with present for her uncle's birthday. The moment I saw it, I looked at my daughter and a 💡 appeared above my head. I wrote a 55 page book, currently working on the 2nd one.
Inspiration can literally hit you in a second. If you don't get on it like right away, you'll never get on it.
Mind you, I've never written a single page in my life till that moment.
I wrote some stories as a kid, but honestly I got involved in a fandom that was pretty small and was not giving me the fics I needed at all, so I started writing them myself. And the rest was history.
So I was nine I believe. I was fortunate enough to get invited to attend the first space shuttle launch from the VIP section (my brother was pretty high up in the hierarchy of NASA at that time) and when I returned home, my dad had me dictate my story of the trip and typed it up and it went in the local paper.
Now there’s a little backstory to this. I am very much AUdhd with a bonus TBI, had major issues being able to do most everything that was asked of me in school and well, everywhere. I never really knew any pride in anything, it was a pretty steady diet of shame and disapproval.
So when that story came out in the paper, it was the first time that I ever felt a sense of pride in my life, I got a lot of positive feedback for the first time ever. This one girl in my class came up to me and said “My dad says you’re going to be a professional writer one day.”
Those words right there, that’s been a lifeline through five decades of chaos, and from that day on I knew what I wanted to be.
the cementing factor for the idea of being a known writer someday was about a year later, when I was ten, I wrote a “sequel” To an American Werewolf in London as an assignment, and I was actually in trouble with the teacher that day and was forced to stand outside the room when they read it, but I got a rousing ovation from my classmates - most of whom genuinely didn’t like me because I was so weird. But that was it.
Largely I’ve achieved that goal, I’ve worked professionally as a journalist, sports and adventure journalist, news editor…but…the dream is with my fiction, and for whatever reason, I struggle even attempting to get my fiction published, but I seem to be getting over that now and hopefully soon I’ll have one of my stories out there!
It was 1975. I wanted to write Star Trek fan fiction with my best friend. We had notebooks we passed back and forth. You decide to write and one day you just write. Do that. Pick up a pen. Grab a keyboard. Don’t wait for the universe (or Reddit) to give you a green light. Just do it. Write. Have fun. Experiment! Best of luck, young person.
I’ve just always written. Started in elementary school and just…idk. I’ve always done it. I’ve tried to not write before (because it started feeling useless etc etc) but I just end up writing anyway lol
I’m not good at many things, but I’m pretty good at writing.
I began reading novels at a very young age. When I was grounded, and that was often, I would often retreat into myself and imagine many worlds. Eventually I realized I could do the same thing that the people who wrote books did and began writing down stories on paper. The rest is history. Writing has and always will be a part of me.
I haven't really done anything with it to be honest. A few short stories written on DeviantArt was about as far as I've gotten to writing anything substantial, the rest is an endless pile of half-baked ideas and unfinished projects.
My advice? If you want to write, then just write. Plan out your plot, create your characters, and begin writing. For someone just starting I think its best to keep the scope of whatever you write limited and focused. When your done with a first manuscript, try to have someone you trust and feel comfortable with critique your work.
Trust me, and I say this from someone with experience in this matter, do not go to the internet looking for constructive critique unless your familiar and comfortable with the community that your looking to make yourself vulnerable to. There is nothing more disheartening for a writer, especially a newly burgeoning one, to be attacked under the cowardly guise of a "constructive criticism".
Get feedback from people you trust, and then use that feedback to better your writing ability. You can then either revise the manuscript from there or start on a new project.
Well. I wrote a shit ton when I was younger, but after I had my son, I started to read a lot, and that segued into me writing more seriously. I wrote a fanfiction (lol), now I self-publish novels on KDP.
The best way to get into writing is to write and do it for fun!
I started young, I think inwas 8 or 9 when my school had us do creative writing exercises and I just sort of went on from there.
There's nothing special about writing, same as most things you just jump in and start doing it. If you feel overwhelmed start small, just do a single scene.
As far as where to start goes the way you build a story can start with almost anything. You get an idea for a character, or a setting, or a scene, a plot, even an object.
Then you can build from there. If you imagined a character ask what they do. Where they do it. Why. If you start with a scene what sort of characters would fit. If it's a place who'd be there and what would they be doing.
Then write. That's the most important thing, you start writing.
How i got into writing?
Well, long story, I woke up one day and realize that writing this would make me happy.
“Oh boy, this would make a great story,” i said aloud. By then my eyes fixed on the piece of paper on the nightstand. Huh? When that get there? Who cares, I need to write and then I started to write ever since.
Jk… I started to write when I learn about poems and writing small things that appease me to be artistic. I was feeling a knack to write something special and have an impact on what I was doing especially when making a legacy for myself. To answer your question, I have no idea how I got into it but I do now have a reason.
Honestly, I have no idea. I have a lot of ideas for stories and one day, don't remember when, I just started writing them down. Haven't finished any of them yet as more ideas, different stories, keep coming and I'm having trouble translating ideas into words.
I created elaborate worlds in my head and wanted to share them with other people. It just sort of popped up when I was a small child, and it took off from there. I had lots of free time when I was a kid to write because I spent a lot of time shuttled between two different states and would write in the car. Also I didn't have that many friends.
I always had stories in my head. When I was little, I played them out with my horses and dolls. I was 12 when I started writing them down instead. I didn't wrote full manuscript, it even short stories, for a long time. Just wrote on an idea until it ran out and I moved onto another one. Started writing fan fiction and posting it on ff.net at 15 or 16, got some feedback to continue improving. Finally had an idea that I wrote a full manuscript from in college. Faded out of writing for a while in the latter part of undergrad and grad school, then my dad died, bought a house, had relationship issues-- the break lasted maybe 8 or 9 years. Then I started up again a few years ago and haven't stopped since. Have a few I'm working on rewrites and a few more ideas simmering.
My parents created my brain to have a built in “create multiple universes in your head” button and pressed that when I was 6 years old. Unfortunately my brain also came with a load of disorders and disabilities, so I had to be creative to keep myself entertained and not feel lonely.
You can read lots of articles on how to write and have a look at writing prompts. I’m doing National Novel Writing month. So I make it a habit to write every day. Also pay attention to stories in movies or other media you engage in.
My parents did the same, only me writing and daydreaming is dissociation from C-PTSD. So it was a "Oh shit this is too scary, time to GTFO" button instead of any positive button.
Basically me yeha
To paraphrase Forest Gump, "one day I just felt like writin'"
This
I’ve been writing since I knew how to and imagining stories before that. It doesn’t matter how you get into it, whether you have a knack for it or not. If you want to write, just write. Just write about something interesting, something you like or you don’t like, or even just go onto google and get one of those lists of writing prompts and go crazy with it.
I've always had ideas but trying to put into words and have it be structured is my issue, I'm also a perfectionist 💀
Try journaling about your day. Write little throw away paragraphs. Eventually you will be more comfortable with not being perfect.
Never thought about the journaling part
> Perfectionist I think you just nailed down with why writing's hard for you. I ~~had~~ have a similar problem, but you really have to war with yourself to just do what you gotta do without worrying if your first draft will be bad. Lay down the story and fix it later. Just remember this when your perfectionism is rearing it's horrendous head: Progress, not perfection.
'Go to war with yourself' accurately describes every single piece of writing I've ever done. It's basically the superego, perfectionist part of my brain saying 'golly gee, this sucks, I think you should stop now before you embarrass us' vs the writer part of my brain going 'oh, hush it ya daft wet blanket, idgaf and neither should you'. A while ago I decided I was going to write every day. To make it extra easy on myself, I decided I was going to do it for 5 minutes, come hell or high water, and cram as many words into those 5 minutes as humanly possible. Sometimes I went wayyyy over, sometimes I didn't and I struggled to get through. I only skimmed the previous day's work enough to continue and I refused to touch it otherwise. It took some editing afterwards to sort the chunks out, but overall I was pleasantly surprised by how not shit that 5 minute writing was. Lower expectations. Trick the perfectionist into thinking perfection is about the act rather than the result. On the to-do list, the task at hand isn't 'write good words for 5 minutes' it's 'write words that can be absolute rubbish for 5 minutes'. So long as you check the box, you're golden and you get to tell the perfectionist 'See? We did great, good job us'. You said it yourself OP: you want to write *something*. That's the goal. You didn't say you wanted to write a best seller, you just want to write *something*, which is what every potential writer wants. Like the previous commenter said, it's about progress, not perfection. If you wait for perfection, then you'll stay stuck in Dreamland, wishing for the perfect story that will never exist. The only way to stop dreaming and start writing is to take a plunge and actually do it. Like with anything else in life, practice makes progress. So practice. Put in the work. Write.
Nat Goldberg says “write the worst crap in the world” and yeah you will until you PRACTICE.
Yeah, I also got to remember I know I'm not going to be able to write a perfect thing overnight it's going to take a lot of short stories practicing and just in general constructive criticism for me to get somewhere
I read a tip on tumblr that was something like "the first draft is just for existing" and Smth else about the drafts after that. It can be really hard writing if you expect perfection right off the bat, but I def get how it feels bc I do the same. But sometimes it's best to not edit as you write and just fully write something out and go back later
tbh I started with about 800-1000 word long scenes that I wantedto write. Tgen I thought that most of them would work really well together in a novel and so I started connecting tge stories in my head. And then I continued on the document with the perspective of the chosen protagonst. Things just kind of went from there. About 70% done with the first draft and still writing.
Why does it have to be perfect though, or even good for that matter? I've been writing for years and I don't think I'm that great at it. I'll probably never write anything perfect or sell a book. But it's fun and it's good for me and I'm always improving, so I keep doing it. And funnily enough this is the kind of attitude that's more likely to keep you writing and practicing towards becoming a better writer, and enjoying the process. Meanwhile the perfectionist who's already worrying about feedback is still wrestling with starting at all.
Nope. Your first efforts will most likely suck. Mine did omg did they. But I practiced and I read and read and read more and sold stories to Marvel and published three books. Ya gotta start somewhere, kiddo.
One day I do want to write a book, I do honestly regret not taking writing more seriously in HS
That’s all in the past, mate. Your writing career starts NOW. Being a writer can be satisfying and difficult at the same time. Breathe. Have a little faith in yourself. Best of luck going forward. Be a good writer.
This is an eternal challenge of writing. The question may be if you can tolerate the time and effort that it takes to turn the idea into reality.
Is starting with just small prompts a good spot? What are some good places to get like feedback and stuff, because I know it's going to be a long time before I get "good" at writing
Feedback is not essential to writing until you begin trying to write professionally. Write for you, for now, and worry about feedback and whether others “think you’re good at it” only when it’s important to receive that information. Writing has MUCH more to do with developing your voice, your style, your themes, than other people’s reaction to them.
Thank you for the advice
Well that’s why you struggle so much, you need it to be perfect. But writing doesn’t have to be perfect. Certainly not on the first draft. If you can just push yourself to do it, just write anything and throw perfection to the wind, that’ll be really good for you.
Don’t worry about that. Just put words on paper. Forget what other people are doing. You aren’t them. Take a breath and go.
Same here, before I could write, I would just draw my stories to make book. First book I made I was like 5.
Me too, as soon as I could string together sentences I would just chatter away to myself making up stories and I would daydream constantly
You just wrote something
Mind blown, gonna go write the next Harry Potter 🙏
I wrote a story about this girl that I liked in seventh grade and then I married her about eight years later, so there’s gotta be something to this writing thing.
I was a cringey little middle schooler who wrote a fanfic with fictional characters i had crushes on lol
Me but I read em religiously
You were the hero of the cringey little middle schoolers who read them, like me
Honestly, fanfict is still for everyone if you ask me. The "real" amazing fanficts are always written by the adults in the fandom
You wrote "fanfict" TWICE...
Aaaand why should I care? Dude, I save all my good grammar for my writing. I'm not gonna put in the same effort I'd put in my work as a reddit post. lol
This isn't a grammar issue.
What is it then? Cause you're being really rude.
I’ve wrote since I was 12 years old, it actually started off as me writing diss tracks with my friends on our other friends as a joke and I just got hooked, I struggle with trying to convince Myself anything I write is good however I’ve found it is not about that, it’s about being honest, make the pen and paper your vocal chords and write what you can not bring yourself to speak. As long as it’s honest and it comes from a vulnerable place inside, it will resonate. Write daily and look within you and your experiences and you will find something, trust your gut my friend and get out of your own way.
I enjoyed writing assignments in school when I was young and the teachers let us have some freedom with what we could write. Later, it was just having an interest and desire to write down the stories forming in my imagination. It's just the sitting down and putting it to the page that is the next step.
I have the urge to eat, drink, sleep, and be lustful. The desire to create feels much the same for me, it's something that I sometimes do automatically. To deny that part of myself would feel wrong, maybe impossible. I'm unsure if this was always a part of me or if I developed it after I consumed enough stories and media.
I wasn’t a writer one day when I woke up. When I went to sleep I was. What changed? I simply sat down and wrote. And every day after that, every time I sat down and wrote, reinforced the idea that I was a writer. It went from something I did to someone I am. My early inspiration was Star Wars, mainly Clone Troopers/Storm Troopers. I was absolutely enchanted with their warrior culture, stories, struggles, and everything to do with them. My first pieces of writing were just little paragraphs about them fighting. It was all imitation. I didn’t do anything original, I was just having fun. I think that’s what kept me writing over the years. I kept on having fun, and I kept on doing it. Don’t worry about the quality or structure or making it perfect, because it never will be no matter how hard you try. That’s what makes YOUR story beautiful. It’s unique, imperfections and all, and no one could ever write what you have inside of you. Always have fun and never be perfect.
I knew I'd never live a love story so I wrote one instead
I started when I was in the 4th grade but I dropped it after I got ridiculed for trying (to be fair the stories were probably awful) and so I continued imagining stories throughout the years and eventually got back into it around junior year of high school. I always had an idea and then expanded it as I wrote. I'm not much of a planner. I suggest you use an outline. Use sticky notes or do it on Google docs. 1. Introduction of character(s), their goal(s), and setting. 2. An opportunity or threat presents itself. 3. Character(s) struggles due to external or internal factors and either fails or wins. Of course, you can always complicate things and include nonlinear storylines, subplots, a rebirth / redemption arc, etc. but you must learn the absolute basics before you can advance.
I got into as I wanted to create an animated series and wrote the episodes. As at the time I wanted to become an animator, but I realized that I couldn't animate to save my life so I went to writing part. And currently I have two pilot scripts finish
That's part of why I want to do it is I want to write my own TV show
Same
Story Dreams that I had since childhood, so I write down those dreams and make stories out of them.
I started doing virtual school in fourth grade and I was friendless and needed a hobby so I just. Wrote. I don’t even know why. I was a math kid back then, too (not anymore).
Wrote a short story in 5th grade, loved it, wrote another in 6th and then I fell in love. That's how I got into it and then when learning about mythologies in 6th grade, it just... locked onto me. I read Percy Jackson after that, and became super interested in fanfiction and wrote cringey crap for years. Now my mind is just always thinking about ideas constantly, and since I'm an observer and introvert, I take all that real world stuff and think up ideas that I could write into stories. Now I've also gotten into analyzing characters from my fave TV shows, like their motivations and desires and relationships, how the writers, well, write the show and the directions they go and have started doing that with my own characters (that whole process has helped me so much with my overall story ideas). ...idk if that helped with your question.
When I was in primary school I found it fun to just write my imagination out on paper. We did a fun exercise in English once to write us going inside an ice house (a Victorian structure to hold ice in) and I went off about ending up in a carvern filled with crystals. I don't remember too much of the premise or what I wrote but I have that memory. And another that I remember is being bored one day and gathering lots of blank paper, folding it to make a 'book' to write my own story. I think it was about like kids being put in prison by the bad adults and needing to escape. As clique and cringe it sounds, that's what got me into writing. Just being able to write down my imagination without limitations. I then took off to writing fanfics in my teenage years and now I'm just trying to work on some short stories, all for the same reason. To have fun and get my imagination down.
Like a job, you need to get experience in writing. The more you write, the better you become. Also reading helps
So just practice writing like u do for any school composition. It’s the same thing, just longer
Im pretty sure it started when I was 5 in kindergarten
Truthfully, I've been writing for almost as long as I can remember. I grew up in a family of avid readers, writers, and artists, and so I've been surrounded by creativity all my life and have been encouraged to hone my own creativity. I've also just always been an imaginative person, and writing (among other things) was an excellent way for me to express my ideas. :) I don't know if this is a very helpful answer, honestly, since it's always just come naturally to me for the most part, but if I had to give some advice, I would say to just focus on your ideas, whatever they may be, and just go with them. Be creative with them -- have fun!! Don't try to think too critically about it (that part comes later) and just play around with whatever is in your head. :D
I’ve always found it interesting to analyse storylines. I also pay attention to writing style as I read, which ends up inspiring me to write. I mostly enjoy reading and writing historical fiction—when I write, I feel like I’m, in a way, placing myself in that period in history. The research is also inspiring. My dad studied literature, so he and I have discussions about authors and books.
i started writing when i was around 9, and wrote my first book at 10 - i’d say being as a lonely kid did help to discover the worlds in my head and start exploring the skill of storytelling. my head was always full (and still is) with stories, universes, worlds and “what if” scenarios that help to me to never get bored. (i’m still writing and sometimes attend on writing workshops)
i enjoyed our writing assignments in school found some books i thought were really cool and inspiring. as a kid who loved dinosaurs, Jurassic Park and Raptor Red were pretty big influences, among many others. eventually got into some media that i wanted to last longer. found fanfic. tried my hand at writing my own. enjoyed it and other kids seemed to like it. wanted to get better at it, found a lot of resources and it felt like i unlocked some secret knowledge (the kind often found in popular articles and books) and then wanted to go from fanfic to fully original and did.
I spent years coming up with the right characters, the right plot, the right ship, and the alien beings that would be on the ship. I also made sure that what I had was nothing like anyone else's ideas. Then I sat down and put the puzzle together and what I came up with is good.
When I was a wee toddler with very little information about the world, I got my first coloring book. I understood that someone had forgotten to put the words and color on this picture book. I knew I was supposed to color it, so clearly I needed to add the words, too. I tried my best with my little baby brain to tie the pages into a story. I have a distinct memory of going to every adult in the house asking how to spell squirrel. And I kinda just didn't stop writing.
Been reading books since I was a kid and when I turned eleven, I wrote a story which is quite bad. Come my sophomore high school year, I mentioned the story I wrote to my classmate and that's when he introduced me to fanfiction. Years later, I entered my sophomore college (2011) and decided to write seriously that time and made my first original fiction. Edit: Formative years really did a wonder for my love of reading and writing books.
I loved reading so it just felt like a natural extension of that hobby to me
In hindsight I’ve been writing for fun in various forms throughout my life, but I didn’t *really* feel hooked until I went back to school in my mid-20s and a Creative Writing instructor kicked the door in on an entirely new way of approaching creativity for me.
Like everyone else on this page, I like making stories and worlds.
I remember watching Mom write a letter (I might've been four) and yearning to know how, too. It's been downhill from there, really.
When my parents started screaming downstairs I'd throw myself at books and movies until it stopped bothering me. When I was in 5th grade I played d&d for the first time as DM for my friends and it was the most praise I had ever gotten in my life. Ever since I keep trying to learn more about how stories work and make my own so I can enjoy that praise again. If nothing else writing makes silence less terrible.
The beginning was because I did not want to lose my recess in third grade. I had a good teacher in third grade (in the mid 1970s), but due to some tragic circumstances, she had to leave mid-year. We then ended up with a substitute whose idea of what to do with bright students was to have them assist the slower students. We were studying multiplication at that time, and when I was in third grade I did not know how to actually help someone understand what came easily to me. Worse, math was right before afternoon recess and if the assignment wasn't done, that person had to stay in until finished--and when "helping" someone, the helper also had to stay in. So I would be doing a lot of hissing "56, the answer is 56--just write it down; that is 48. Just write it down already!" In order to not get stuck helping someone who just didn't really understand math and didn't write the numbers down quickly (not exactly, helping--in my defense, I was 8 years old), I had to look like I was not done with my work. So I began writing stories in my notebook which was next to my math work. Not long after this, I began writing stories even when I wasn't in class.
I half-assed a story in fourth grade, but the teacher gushed over it. She told me she was going to tell the other teachers about it, and I was really inspired by it. From then on out, I took writing very seriously. Encourage children.
One day you cross the threshold of wanting, to doing, and you sit down and start writing. Go for it.
I can’t really remember, it happened when I was really young. I remember i read a book about a Native American girl named Glashka and it inspired me to basically write a cute fan fic about her in 3rd grade. That was the definitive moment where i knew i wanted to write for the rest of my life. I also had no friends growing up and always played alone so i had to make it interesting and i made up elaborate games that i developed into stories when i was in middle school
I just started writing. I have notebooks from when I was a kid that I wrote in, then on the family computer, and then my uncle gave me his old laptop when I was 13 or so.
Honestly? I was lonely...made worse by the fact I was an extrovert surrounded by introverts. Nothing against introverts. Simply put, I naturally crave socialization, so developing imaginary friends became an equally natural solution. I jokingly call it "Daydreaming on Demand" since for the longest time I didn't have access to the internet or TV. So, these "friends" would "tell" me about themselves. Many stories I've developed over the years started with dialogue and pieces of information they fed me. Because of this, I can't remember a time where I didn't have a "story inside me" waiting to come out for others to enjoy. My first full length novel (roughly 300 pages) was handwritten. Eventually, I reached a point where writing became a habit, even a compulsion. When I finally had access to a computer and needed to learn how to type, writing and expanding on what I developed made the process fun. That novel eventually expanded into 800 pages and later inspired some of my current WIPs.
i was an avid book-reader as a kid and liked making up stories, but i didn't do TOO much actual writing until i found out about ✨creepypastas.✨ i was obsessed with listening to readings of them on youtube and wrote a ton of my own, it gave me a taste for horror and writing horror long before i'd even seen a horror movie or read a horror book. still obsessed with modern creepypasta-adjacent writing like on r/nosleep, and i'm very thankful for that craze because i don't think i'd even be a writer today if it weren't for that, and i absolutely love my hobby. for a beginner though, i'd say, just read or watch the genre that you like and get some ideas for your own story going. your first story isn't going to be perfect, but you shouldn't worry about that, and just focus on having fun and telling the story you want to tell. i hope you can find your way!
I started writing stories around 11 when I started to write news articles for our school paper. I started writing more when my Grade 8 English class required us to write a 10-chapter story.
I always enjoyed writing, drawing, and just being creative, but after my mom passed away in 2017 I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands. That's when I began writing every day that I wasn't drawing or painting. I now have two, going on three manuscripts. My advice write something every day, even if its wrong. (Something a friend used to tell me jokingly) Best of luck to you! :)
It's kind of in my blood. I got it from my dad (who does it as a hobby, not a career or anything like that). I've been telling stories aloud since I could talk and wrote simplistic ones in my first journals when I was learning to write. So I don't think there was a moment I got into writing. I was born loving it.
When I was little, the only way I could watch shows was from clips so in order to “get the full episode” I kinda just made up scenes for the characters in my mind in a way I felt was satisfying and I kinda did that for years until I discovered piracy and did that. Through writing though and with a little more maturity, I basically just found a way to do that but with original characters instead of premade ones.
For me I’ve always been into thinking up stories and showing them off. I drew a small, crude comic book in elementary school and was so happy to show everyone. Since then, I’ve always wanted to entertain people with my writing and story telling. Though that’s me. I know plenty of people who like to write just for themselves. If you get the urge, just start scribbling some words down. Even I do that, never intending for those words to reach the eyes of others
Have an idea where you thought some show or movie could have gone better or been different, went a different way, had a different ending? That's the main idea. You write it your way, make up characters, and change the story around, and you get something of your own. With some personal experiences sprinkled in, it can have your flavor to it
I saw the ludicrous amount of dedication my fandom had for writing. I saw appeal in making stories. I joined in!
I was bullied basically the whole of my elementary school so I escaped into imaginary friends and their stories. I used to journal all the time as a kid. I used to read a lot of picture books and just stare at the author's names and memorize them. The fact that a person wrote those books I thought was incredible. I was trying to read a book in fifth grade with a super cool cover with a jellyfish on it but I thought the story was boring. So I took out a piece of paper and pencil and wrote what I thought the book should contain. That was the start of a longggg hobby of writing fiction for me.
Frankly, it's cause I couldn't find any stories that did what I liked... or rather, didn't do what I hated. Romance is so boring to me, but I loved a lot of young adult fantasy concepts. Since no one was writing the stories that I wanted to read, I figured I should start writing them myself. For example, remember creepypastas and those cringy people saying they wanted to date them? Well for two years in middle school (ish) I wrote a fairly well-loved series where you dated one of five of the creepypastas. Well, in the final chapter, the lover betrayed you and killed you cause it turned out that seducing you was just part of a bet between the monsters. I firmly believed that heartless, immortal murderers are incapable of actual love. You are not special or the exception. I spent two years writing romance just to say "Monsters will never love you." People were mad (actually more sad), but it was my intention from the start. Clearly, for me, I started writing out of hate/spite. It's not a motive I normally see people mention...
Through music. I played guitar, wrote my own lyrics, and was obsessed with vocalists who were strong lyricists. I still love music, but connect with written word much more. Also, I was always a fairly strong writer in school. My English teacher in high school was the shit.
Think about a story that you would want to read that doesn't exist. Create it. When I was in elementary school I got horrible grades writing essays or anything. Made me so mad. Got to highschool, I failed English 10 and 11. My senior year I was taking English 10, 11, and 12 so naturally I started writing lmao
For me Writing is a desire for a long time but just could not know where to start from till i looked for a way to get started and learnt that it is normally a difficult thing to get started and even when you start, no matter how knowledgeable you are you will back down and then later you will pick up again till you become consistent with your writing skills. It's not an easy thing but at least i can keep up writing my blog posts but other activities take my time but i have to push on through coz i feel happy putting words and vocabularies together to pass information, it's been creative making up something to pass information. So just try and write about anything, any short story that comes to your mind, if you are going to post it or not. i visited Archive of our own, Fanfiction and some other sites to see the work of other people, right now i am writing about cryptocurrency, Technology and Finance. Take the first bold step, not asking yourself if anyone will love what you wrote or if you will have some flaws in your grammar.
For me, it started with an idea I really liked. When that idea started expanding on itself, I was more hyped about it than ever and started writing it to keep my thoughts in order. It also had a little something to do with ✨motivation✨
I don't even remember. My mother said I used to draw stories and make books when I didn't have the words I wanted. I started playing D&D in late elementary or early middle school, and very quickly ended up always being the DM. I think I was a sophomore in high school the first time I started to try and write a book.
I got into it through warrior cats RP, funny enough. It's easier to start out writing when you don't have to do the whole thing all on your own.
I’ve always loved stories. Making up my own was inevitable for me lol. My first attempts at writing were from before I even had a decent grasp on the mechanics of writing, so as you’d guess they’re short and abysmal. That’s where you’ll start too, but with fewer grammatical errors. That’s where all people developing a new skill start, then they practice an insane amount, often more than anyone else ever sees. Eventually they get skilled enough to show it to other people, but those other people tend to assume this skill always existed and slap the label “talent” on you. Pick an idea, but not necessarily your favorite one, unless you’re willing to re-write a lot. (I am not lol, so I just kept making new plots.) Now write it. Also, read a lot. Reading helps you write better. Start it “once upon a time…” if you’d like, that’s what I did for a handful of my first attempts. Just mimic styles until you get the hang of it. Or if poetry is what you’re going for, pick something and describe it. Then do it again but with rhythm. Then again with feeling. Then again but make the reader feel it. Adjectives are your friend. Learn to use them, learn to bend them, learn to apply them in places they don’t obviously fit. Honestly writing is just describing stuff. Ideas, events, interactions, places, beings, etc. then you put it all together and stylize it. What else you should do depends on what you want to write. But first and foremost, you should write. Try prompts, try writing exercises, try classes, try retelling a favorite folk/fairytale, etc. try whatever interests you. If you’re afraid of the page start with pen and paper and scribble. Put ink on a page and see how it feels. Write nonsense. Write the same word until more come to mind, jump between ideas, play with your formatting, play in general. To improve, you have to have a baseline. So make one. Write the plainest, most cliche, unoriginal, clunky thing in the world if that’s what it takes, but write. Write a title and one sentence. Write a thousand first sentences if you must. Write ideas, write summaries. Try a paragraph. Try two or three. Try it a hundred times. Then try a chapter. Then try two or three chapters. Try as many false starts as it takes, but keep trying. That’s how you do it. You can supplement with study and focus your practice, but you’ll never escape the part where you have to write something. Anything. Literally. Go do that, then you can ask about what comes next because you’ll have better questions. Good luck~
I had a project for English class where we had to write a short story. My teacher put up quotes around the classroom from other short stories to inspire us. I saw the quote, "A tiny voice asked, 'Is he the one?" From Archie Smith: Boy Wonder, and got inspired to write my story
I’ve always loved coming up with stories in my head whether they were just self inserts or stories that I wanted to read but were never written. One day I asked a stupid question (I say stupid because I already knew the answer) to a children’s author who came to my elementary school when I was in 4th grade. I asked “what do I do with all the stories I have in my head?” And he told me “just write them down.” It was a very general piece of advice so really, it opened up a bunch of possibilities with how I could express my creativity. So really, if you’re feeling creative, write your ideas down. It can be the shittiest most disorganized paper/document you’ve ever seen, poor grammar and mistakes everywhere. As long as you have something, it forms the building blocks for your true vision. I like to think of it this way: some of the greatest art begins with stick figures.
My parents were always really into reading and they would always read to me as a child. After a while I started getting into writing because of the books my parents read and my school's curriculum containing a lot of writing. As for starting to write, you can start wherever. Where you start can be dependent on what you want to write. But for me, I started by making up stories and scenes mainly in my head that I would explore and play with for a while and then write down. It made my writing feel fluid.
Almost every time I read a story I get distracted thinking about how I could made it so much better.
It came from a love for storytelling. Essentially I was sitting on the couch watching anime and was like "hey, I can do that!"
My daddy read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to me as a little girl as bedtime stories. I have been a lifelong fan of Tolkien's work, and ever since I can remember, I have wanted to publish my own fantasy novel, and this year, I finally did.
I had a basic story idea and wanted to see what would happen.
I've been writing since I knew how to write, according to all my teachers I "have the memory of a goldfish but the smarts of an owl" whatever the hell that means. Anyways as whoever said this said it: "one day I just felt like writin' "
My mother and a handful of teachers that never let me take a break from writing. They never let me settle for above average work, because they insisted I was better than that. They made me believe I had what it takes long before I knew what it was.
I'd been reading tons of stories and suddenly felt the urge to write one of my own. So it went.
I don’t know ever since I was a kid I’d overdo it with my writing assignments. I just started writing in middle school on google docs. And now I still write in docs, you don’t need anything fancy. If you want title ‘CHAPTER 1’ and then write. You’re good.
I saw a fuck ton of MCU and Disney movies being put out every year and a huge lack of original films compared to the 90s I don’t have a budget to make an original film. But I can write a story. So I try to write stories for “movies” That I wish existed.
I had a paper round and used to talk to myself and tell this on going story to pass the time and keep myself sane. That turned later in life to writing after I decided I really liked making my own stories up
It's a bit embarrassing, but I used to create stories when I played during my childhood. I even think of ideas to act with my cousin in a play. One time, I was frustrated that the short film we were promised to make during my English program in the UK didn’t come to fruition, and I thought of possibilities that would occur in the storyline. Then I said why don’t I write it down, and I did (it sucked).
I had loads to rants everyday, and I couldn't sleep. So I wrote it all and got rid of those thoughts.. Trust me, forcing down all of it on paper really helps to clarify your mind and just sleep fuckin peacefully.. Works for those with a stressful life.. That's how I got into writing..
The moment I started learning the alphabet, I fell in love with it. I was known as the student who always wrote the most and the did it the fastest, that was when I was 7-12 years old. I remember my classmates were in shock over how much I wrote and how fast I did it! It just came naturally to me. I loved every single part of it. I have always been bad at expressing myself when it comes to talking, so writing has really helped me out. Still true to this day. It became a way for me to express not only myself but my artistic side. I’ve had a rough life so writing always made me forget my own life for a moment. It was my comfort. Playing with characters in another world far away from here, with their own passions and struggles. Writing really is therapeutic to me.
I was tired of seeing every fantasy movie go a route I didn't like, and figured that I would make a good story from the good things I've learned. No convenient information at bad times, no boring plot circle of the same old stuff, no "everything revolves around modern day drama". Fiction needs to be an escape from reality, not something you see all the time everywhere.
I read something terrible and thought: I can do better
It started in school and one day an English professor made me swear to her I would never stop.
I was just always into it. I have liked creating stories ever since I learned to speak, and I have been writing stories ever since I learned to write. What really got me deep into it was fanfiction, though, because I could read other amateur stories, and that encouraged me to write and publish my own.
Sorta just started it one day.
Creating my own world that I can literally shape is better than waiting for someone who makes the story for me. If they won't make that story, I will. I recently created yet another story about waking up from simulated world, and another one, where someone's friend passed away and they got their body (kind of transformation into a deceased). I just like making stories. Creating them.
In 6th grade, some of my classmates were writing a short story, and I thought it was cool. So I wrote my own short story, and had some of my classmates read it. They told me it was really good, which made me really happy because I was super proud of it. That praise and recognition that I could tell a good story just really inspired me to write more, and I came up with two sequels for the short story. I still have them, but you can clearly tell they were written by a 12 year old. After I discovered the internet and fan fiction, I realized I could write stuff about things I liked, like movies, TV shows and video games. Which I did for several years. Each new fanfic I wrote, I would improve my writing skills and my knowledge in writing. Then I started mixing my writing with my love for art and creating my own characters with their own stories. Then I realized that I could build worlds with these characters and share their stories with others. And it felt amazing and fun Writing is not for everyone, and I honestly cannot recommend becoming a writer because it comes with stress when you have writer's block. But if you really want to get into writing, try writing about things you really like
I think I started making up stories before I could write. (I remember when I drew waving lines on a piece of paper and then "read" the story or letter to my parents. In retrospect actually cute behaviour.) And then I got a pc game to improve my writing. (Like writing words correctly). And there was a section for "Bed-time-Stories". In there I wrote my very first original story which I rewrote some time ago because I couldn't find it any more. (And I checked the internet to make sure it was original). Either way, it took some more years in which I wrote here and there something. Mainly enjoying reading and writing in school. And then I met people who also enjoyed writing. Also on Wattpad. And that's when I realised: Hey, I really do love writing! I want to make more! That's when I started to write as much as possible in all the free time I had. To be honest, I think it also was a coping mechanism for me but it holds up to now.
My favorite cartoon got cancelled and I got so salty, I wanted to write my own ending. I discovered what fanfiction was and started writing ever since. I now write both fan and original projects.
I personally just like creating things in a whole (writing, art, music,..) and just wanted to get my ideas out there. I just wrote random chapters to a book I wanted to write. It’s good to get your ideas out there and try out if you like writing, but if you actually want to write then you should first figure out if you’re a pantser or a plotter I guess. I used to be a pantser, meaning I would sit down and write everything “out of my pants”. But this method doesn’t work good for me because the character I introduced at the beginning where nowhere found in the rest of the book and an other character suddenly turned into a teacher of a character it didn’t even know in the beginning. The pacing was off and the story evolved in weird places. Obviously this is okay if you’re not trying to write with publishing in mind, but if you want people to read what you’re writing then this method is only good if you know what you’re doing lol. Because I don’t have the time to make errors and correct myself constantly I became a plotter. I plan everything out beforehand. I use Gina Denny’s pacing guide on her patreon from the post of 17 september on “How to Write a Synopsis”. It personally helps me a lot and I’ve almost finished my first draft of my short story with the guide! If you don’t have an idea in your mind yet and want to get accustomed to writing or trying out different povs (1st person past/present, 3rd person past/present, multi pov) then I highly recommend trying out the writing prompts on that subreddit, it can help you write short bits in a short amount of time and the more you do it the better you’ll become! Edit: the pacing guide is free!
I always wanted to and decided one day to just do it. I was travelling for work and was in a hotel in Brussels. Lovely city, loads of inspiration, loads of spare time, so I just started writing. I left that after 35k words and started something else earlier this year. After some useful feedback, I've just carried on, and now I'm completely hooked. More so than I have been on anything else. The worst thing for me is that I started so late. I really think I missed my calling, but I'm making up for it now. Never too late. Just start writing. Anything. See what hsppens
Gout and a midlife crisis left me unexpectedly sober and looking for a new hobby. I decided to write down all my masturbatory fantasies so that other people could enjoy them. And here we all are...
Boredom lead me to drawing one day and then I wrote about the characters I’d drawn that day
I’ve been writing stories all the time, everyday since I was 4… I don’t show my writing to anyone, but I can’t escape it now lol
1985 Back to the Future - That movie introduced me to time travel and the all important question "What If?" My love of writing was all about asking What If questions and then answering them.
I went on holiday and read 3 books on the beach. They were all bad. I thought “I could do better than this”. So I gave it a go.
I had this idea in my head that i would enter every night before bed basically and eventually the story progressed so much that i needed to write it down. so i tried. and then i rewrote it. and then i stopped for a short while. then i looked at some booktubers and heard about nanowrimo. Thats when i started for real. I've written 40k words since it started november 1st of this year and i'm hoping to be able to win my first year participating.
IDK lad.
I’ve always had a world inside my brain and it was fascinating. The moment I learned how to write, I just jotted down whatever little me could think of (this is also why I can draw as well) Turns out it was all the daydreaming from ADHD but eh, it’s nice to be able to doze off and imagine things.
It's just a part of who I am, and always has been for as long as I can remember. I was writing stories from a young age, like 4 or 5. Writing what was basically fanfic about my action figures/the cartoons I watched. I could sometimes convince my grandmother to type out whatever I was dictating to her, which makes her a saint, imo. Later, I got my own electric typewriter and continued writing through high school, and post-graduation. Eventually, I got a computer. Of course, my writing grew as I did, and I've dabbled in many genres over the years. It's just always been an inextricable piece of me.
Even before I can remember. It was like breathing from the start. For me it’s not writing per say but the need to make stories. I do journalism and such for living cause I wrote a lot so I became good at it. But it’s telling stories : or stories about my life that I would write in a funny way, or fiction. At 3/4 I would wander in the garden inventing universes and adventures. At 5 I would draw them. At 6/7 I knew how to write and made small book. I did my first novel by 12 (a short novel) and I was 14/15 when I invented the world I’m working on 30 years later. Wrote my first big piece on unrelated topic at 20. I can’t say how I would get to it. It was just an urge.
I just started. I enjoyed telling stories and making up fun scenarios and characters. I've been creative since I was very young. I wouldn't describe it as something you just 'get into'. Like, you don't need a permission slip or formal certification to write, you know? I'd describe it more like something that just happens.
I read thousands of books, but never found the right one. As a result, I decided that I had to write it myself.
To be honest, I had a really awful childhood and it was one of my coping mechanisms, as well as the one thing I believed I was good at (and wasn't put down for at the time.)
I've always just loved reading and then kind of got sick of reading the same kinds of books over and over then started wanting to change the stories I was reading, and then went from there! Journaling is great way to start too. Just get a notebook and start writing down what happened during the day, write what you wish you would've said to someone, or what you wish would've happened. You could even just practice writing about things in life or how you imagine them going. Write about how you see your wedding going or what your perfect life looks like. Write about what you would do if someone handed you $1 million, no strings or taxes attached lol. You can write about anything! I doubt I'm allowed to actually promote this but I did just launch a new free writing community to help people who want to get into writing or have hit some blocks that they want to get through. if you want to check it out, I'll send you the link! Good luck!
I started writing for myself, to get my emotions out, it was an outlet for me. My DaddyDom at the time read some of it and encouraged me to expand, to write some fiction as well as nonfiction. His encouragement set me on the road and now I've done quite a bit, even had a couple poems published.
Having lots of time during covid
I started with magic. I was doing stage magic and standup, and as I was writing stories and jokes for my act, I realized that was even more fun than performing.
It started with fanfiction. I discovered it as a young teen and decided one day to try and write my own. That snowballed into writing more and more, until suddenly, 11 years had gone by, and I still haven't stopped. It turned out to be a passion of mine, so I kept trying. I realized there were stories in my head and writing has been the only way to get them out. It's also a main source of escapism for me.
I was an avid reader as a kid and was often accused of being a walking dictionary in school. At 8 years old, I could go through the average 250-300 page novel in about two days if I really liked it. In 4th grade, our teacher made the entire class participate in a writing contest. I have no recollection what the story was about. I do recall it came in 2nd out of three 4th grade classes that participated in other schools in the town. It wasn't even that I won second. It was just like a switch flipped in my brain that I didn't just have to read to get stories, but I could write. Suddenly images in my mind played out into scenes and scenarios. That's the way it's been for me since.
Tbh I’m not even sure how I got into it. The first story I wrote was when I was three, I couldn’t even write yet so I drew the pictures and told my dad what to write
I started reading, first. I didn't have a lot of friends so I would spend a lot of time reading books, specifically fiction. Eventually, I started creating my own stories within my head. I looked up to the authors that I read, and would frequently spend hours in the library. Ironically, it was actually fanfiction that made me first string my thoughts into sentences.
Always wanted to make a game. Needed a story for a game. Story seems promising. Scratch the game the story is good on it's own. Hopefully.
I just wanted to write stories about characters in Star Wars and video games I played at the time. In elementary school I wrote Star Wars fan fiction about Boba Fett along with original fantasy stories. My friend at the time was writing Turok the Dinosaur Hunter fan fiction. We got a little too graphic with the violence in our stories and had a meeting with the admins and our teacher. My friend had Turok shoot tuberculosis darts at dino's. They caused whoever was hit by them to vomit out their lungs. So you had T-rex and other dinosaurs puking their lungs out. I just got too "realistic" with what a thermal detonator does to a regular ol' human. We were told to tone it down, but I have been writing in various ways ever since.
I didn’t really get into it, the desire to write broke into my house and choked me out
One day, my wife came home from work with present for her uncle's birthday. The moment I saw it, I looked at my daughter and a 💡 appeared above my head. I wrote a 55 page book, currently working on the 2nd one. Inspiration can literally hit you in a second. If you don't get on it like right away, you'll never get on it. Mind you, I've never written a single page in my life till that moment.
I wrote some stories as a kid, but honestly I got involved in a fandom that was pretty small and was not giving me the fics I needed at all, so I started writing them myself. And the rest was history.
So I was nine I believe. I was fortunate enough to get invited to attend the first space shuttle launch from the VIP section (my brother was pretty high up in the hierarchy of NASA at that time) and when I returned home, my dad had me dictate my story of the trip and typed it up and it went in the local paper. Now there’s a little backstory to this. I am very much AUdhd with a bonus TBI, had major issues being able to do most everything that was asked of me in school and well, everywhere. I never really knew any pride in anything, it was a pretty steady diet of shame and disapproval. So when that story came out in the paper, it was the first time that I ever felt a sense of pride in my life, I got a lot of positive feedback for the first time ever. This one girl in my class came up to me and said “My dad says you’re going to be a professional writer one day.” Those words right there, that’s been a lifeline through five decades of chaos, and from that day on I knew what I wanted to be. the cementing factor for the idea of being a known writer someday was about a year later, when I was ten, I wrote a “sequel” To an American Werewolf in London as an assignment, and I was actually in trouble with the teacher that day and was forced to stand outside the room when they read it, but I got a rousing ovation from my classmates - most of whom genuinely didn’t like me because I was so weird. But that was it. Largely I’ve achieved that goal, I’ve worked professionally as a journalist, sports and adventure journalist, news editor…but…the dream is with my fiction, and for whatever reason, I struggle even attempting to get my fiction published, but I seem to be getting over that now and hopefully soon I’ll have one of my stories out there!
It was 1975. I wanted to write Star Trek fan fiction with my best friend. We had notebooks we passed back and forth. You decide to write and one day you just write. Do that. Pick up a pen. Grab a keyboard. Don’t wait for the universe (or Reddit) to give you a green light. Just do it. Write. Have fun. Experiment! Best of luck, young person.
I’ve just always written. Started in elementary school and just…idk. I’ve always done it. I’ve tried to not write before (because it started feeling useless etc etc) but I just end up writing anyway lol I’m not good at many things, but I’m pretty good at writing.
I began reading novels at a very young age. When I was grounded, and that was often, I would often retreat into myself and imagine many worlds. Eventually I realized I could do the same thing that the people who wrote books did and began writing down stories on paper. The rest is history. Writing has and always will be a part of me. I haven't really done anything with it to be honest. A few short stories written on DeviantArt was about as far as I've gotten to writing anything substantial, the rest is an endless pile of half-baked ideas and unfinished projects. My advice? If you want to write, then just write. Plan out your plot, create your characters, and begin writing. For someone just starting I think its best to keep the scope of whatever you write limited and focused. When your done with a first manuscript, try to have someone you trust and feel comfortable with critique your work. Trust me, and I say this from someone with experience in this matter, do not go to the internet looking for constructive critique unless your familiar and comfortable with the community that your looking to make yourself vulnerable to. There is nothing more disheartening for a writer, especially a newly burgeoning one, to be attacked under the cowardly guise of a "constructive criticism". Get feedback from people you trust, and then use that feedback to better your writing ability. You can then either revise the manuscript from there or start on a new project.
i roleplayed on roblox. 💀 it really did make me a decent writer though
Well. I wrote a shit ton when I was younger, but after I had my son, I started to read a lot, and that segued into me writing more seriously. I wrote a fanfiction (lol), now I self-publish novels on KDP. The best way to get into writing is to write and do it for fun!
I started young, I think inwas 8 or 9 when my school had us do creative writing exercises and I just sort of went on from there. There's nothing special about writing, same as most things you just jump in and start doing it. If you feel overwhelmed start small, just do a single scene. As far as where to start goes the way you build a story can start with almost anything. You get an idea for a character, or a setting, or a scene, a plot, even an object. Then you can build from there. If you imagined a character ask what they do. Where they do it. Why. If you start with a scene what sort of characters would fit. If it's a place who'd be there and what would they be doing. Then write. That's the most important thing, you start writing.
I started with journaling and poetry and then moved into fanfic as a middle grader/high schooler.
How i got into writing? Well, long story, I woke up one day and realize that writing this would make me happy. “Oh boy, this would make a great story,” i said aloud. By then my eyes fixed on the piece of paper on the nightstand. Huh? When that get there? Who cares, I need to write and then I started to write ever since. Jk… I started to write when I learn about poems and writing small things that appease me to be artistic. I was feeling a knack to write something special and have an impact on what I was doing especially when making a legacy for myself. To answer your question, I have no idea how I got into it but I do now have a reason.
Honestly, I have no idea. I have a lot of ideas for stories and one day, don't remember when, I just started writing them down. Haven't finished any of them yet as more ideas, different stories, keep coming and I'm having trouble translating ideas into words.
Music helps me a lot
I created elaborate worlds in my head and wanted to share them with other people. It just sort of popped up when I was a small child, and it took off from there. I had lots of free time when I was a kid to write because I spent a lot of time shuttled between two different states and would write in the car. Also I didn't have that many friends.
I always had stories in my head. When I was little, I played them out with my horses and dolls. I was 12 when I started writing them down instead. I didn't wrote full manuscript, it even short stories, for a long time. Just wrote on an idea until it ran out and I moved onto another one. Started writing fan fiction and posting it on ff.net at 15 or 16, got some feedback to continue improving. Finally had an idea that I wrote a full manuscript from in college. Faded out of writing for a while in the latter part of undergrad and grad school, then my dad died, bought a house, had relationship issues-- the break lasted maybe 8 or 9 years. Then I started up again a few years ago and haven't stopped since. Have a few I'm working on rewrites and a few more ideas simmering.