Sunday, October 24, 2010

Wannabe Writers #39

Wannabe Writers is an Internet writing group. Everyone is welcome to join. It's a place to meet other writers, ask questions, and get feedback. Click here to find more about how it works.

Where I am in the writing process: Unpublished and have been writing since I was 10. Earlier this month I made the bold step (bold to me at least) to dump my adult WIP and turn it into a YA novel for NaNoWriMo.

My current problem(s): Strangely enough, I'm not really having any. Besides maybe not brainstorming enough to gear up for November 1st, I'm having a lot of fun just discovering more and more about my characters. I think turning this into a YA was quite possibly the best decision to make. One of my book blogging friends, Kim from And Anything Bookish made me this awesome banner to use:

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My question this week: In middle school, I used to write all my stories in these big wide rule notebooks. I would carry them with me everywhere. Take them to a friend's house and always pass them around to see what they all thought of my new chapters. In some stories, I would make them look a bit more snazzy by adding cut out pictures from magazines. Like this one:

(Please don't judge me by that super cheese-tastic title. I was like thirteen when I put this together!)

100_1859.jpg picture by sammyjones57

100_1862.jpg picture by sammyjones57
(Poe was my favorite. Yes, she was named after the singer. Gotta love the 90's.)
100_1864.jpg picture by sammyjones57
(Those were the 'mean girls' in the story. And see, they've always came in a pair of three!)

My first ever full notebook story was called Joni's Unperfect/Perfect Life. It was about a teenage girl who lived with her mom and her older brother named Sean. He was in a grunge band trying to be the next Kurt Cobain. Joni had a kick butt set of friends, one was girl named Sammy who was influenced by one of my friends. (I even wrote a spin off called: Sammy's In Love. She played soccer and met her crush at a game. I don't think it had an ending though.) Anyways, Joni had this major thing for the new boy and a bunch of drama happened between her and the popular girl at school. I think Joni broke her nose in a fight and blah, blah, blah.

I only remember bits and pieces because I have long since lost that notebook. It makes me sad because I would love to read it again. Flipping through all my other stories, it's like the ultimate set of cheese. I'm perfectly fine with that because when I went through all these notebooks again, I remembered how much making these stories up even back then meant to me. Even though I've taken my writing way more seriously and want to pull my hair out, at the end of the day, I still love it.

So my question this week is:

What was the first story or book you wrote? How old were you and what was it about?

5 comments:

  1. I remember passing around stories in middle school, too! My stories would end up like a serial, passed among my friends. Such good times, when writing was still so much fun, and the fact that I was writing crap didn't bother me!

    My first story was influenced a lot by Forever Knight (an Canadian vampire tv show), and was set in high school. Looking back from what I remember (it's been long gone), the heroine falls for a vampire, but then sacrifices herself to save his life. Lots and lots of cheese there!

    It was a lot of fun remembering, thanks for triggering the memories!

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  2. I wrote a book in my teens that was more of an information man book, what to stay away from/ what to look for. I was boy crazy, what can I say?

    Enjoy your week!

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  3. The first book I wrote was my own fairy tale, I think I was 12. I don't remember the plot exactly but my MC was named Starrla, not sure what I was thinking there. I'm pretty sure my mom still has it somewhere, and will whip it out at the peak time to embarrass me.

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  4. I was in the 3rd grade when I wrote my first book. I can't, for the life of me, remember the name, but I do remember it was about a boy who had a pet lamb. I remember the pet lamb getting hurt, but it all worked out in the end. I wrote, illustrated, and published (cardboard with pillowcase glued on for the cover and back) it. It was for school - I believe a school fair. I kept that book for the longest and now I can't find it. :(

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  5. Love this! &that you put pictures in the notebook and everything! It looks great! Great blog by the way!

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