Every Writer Has Their Beginnings

Each story has a beginning. You can't start one without it. It wouldn't make sense for you to start your novel with the ending where the hero defeats the dragon, or saves the princess. Part of reading a book is becoming involved with the hero and their world before the action starts.

 

Take Frodo for example. You need to see Frodo in his beloved Shire so you can understand his sacrifices as he carries the ring to Mordor.

Or in The Chronicles of Narnia, you see Peter, Lucy, Edmund, and Susan interact before they set foot in Narnia, setting up their relationship and their personalities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And in the same way, each writer has a beginning. There was a moment in your life where you suddenly became a writer. Maybe it was when you were young, and you wrote tales about fairies and princesses, or your family. It could be that you started writing when you were older, and started to think up plots and characters, giving them goals and missions for their life.

When I was younger, (think really young, here!) I loved to write. I have a notebook with stories on random pages, filled with barely decipherable handwriting and misspelled words. Here's one of my first:

_______________

 

Mommy Here are some.

Daisys for you.

thank you Katie.

You are Welcome.

the end

________________

 

Genius, right?

(And according to my illustration I was a giant when I was younger and flowers were three times the size as peoples' heads.)

 

But after that phase of short stories, I stopped. The 'school' writing started to take away the fun of the creative writing. There were no more stories in my world until January of 2014.

And that's when I started my first novel.

 

It's been roughly a year since I started that first novel. It pains me to read my first draft. Every other sentence is cringe-worthy, and the writing is terrible. But (I think) I've improved. My writing is not nearly perfect, but it's better, and with every sentence I write, and every article I read, my writing gets a bit better, and my knowledge grows wider.

 

Let's go back to beginnings. Just like you can't start a story at its end, a writer can't skip ahead to the part where they're published. Creating a novel is a tedious path and takes lots of work. Writing is hard work. It will take time to get your manuscript polished. It's not something to do quickly.

 

I think every writer has their moments where they feel like their work is worthless. I've experienced it. But before you toss it aside, or consider it 'garbage,' take a step back and look at how far you've come. Look at the bounds you've taken since the beginning. You've made progress. You're getting better.

 

Byeeeee!

- Katie Grace

 

If you're a writer, when did your journey begin?