Your writing journey.

[Ganyu]

Everyone has started at some point or another. When did you begin writing stories/poetry/etc? (If anyone says "When I learnt to write", I'll slap you because not every baby picks up a pen and writes Ramona lol) How much have you improved so far, until today? What aspects of writing do you think you've come very far with and improved the most?

[Suicune's Fire]

I wrote my first story when I was six or seven, although it didn't last long before it stopped. xD Since then I've written multiple stories, most of them just going for a few pages and then stopping. I've improved in the sense that I've learned better how stories and characters work, although I don't quite know how much my style has improved. Sometimes I look back at older writing and think that I like it better than my current writing style, but I was also very clumsy with wording, which is something I've (hopefully) fixed up.

[Dragon Master Mike]

I remember writing my first story when I was ten. Looking back on it, it was pretty awful. The sequal was slightly better, but still pretty bad. I was writing a third and final book to it, and it was slightly better than the previous ones too, but still pretty bad. I pretty much stopped writing for a LONG time after that, but a little over a year ago around the time I joined PXR I started writing again, and although I still don't think I'm that great a writer, I write much better than I used to. Honestly, I feel like I already write better now than I did when I joined PXR last year.

[Winter]

The first time I remember writing for the sake of writing when I was probably about ten. It was a Tokyo Mew Mew fanfic, and looking back, it was absolutely awful. It was filled with grammatical errors and randomly capitalized letters, plus the plot was suuuuuuuuper rushed. XD I finished it, but it was the only story I wrote for fun that I finished in the next six years. Not too long after that first fanfic, I got into RPing via Neopets and then PE2K, and my writing made leaps and bounds even though I never finished anything... And then I got to high school, and a friend of mine complained about how I never finished anything, so my junior year of high school was spent writing what would become a 20 page long Kingdom Hearts fanfic called Sinless, which finally made it online after a LOT of technical difficulties... Like my grandma spilling milk on my keyboard and killing several of my letters. It was far better than that first fic, but it was far from perfect (one of these days I swear it's getting the rewrite it deserves). I've continued to RP and write since, finishing several smaller fanfics and undertaking then not finishing one massive fanfic, mostly because I've moved on to trying to finish stories based on my own ideas.

I feel like my greatest improvement lies in description and wording. If you look at anything I wrote years ago, it's clear there is a huge difference between how I wrote now and how I wrote then. I feel like I've picked up a more poetic feel to my writing in general, and I love it. Definitely a long journey, but one well worth the travel.

EDIT: And obviously I got a lot more long winded.

[Scytherwolf]

If anyone says "When I learnt to write", I'll slap you because not every baby picks up a pen and writes Ramona lol

Go ahead and slap me, but I'm gonna slap you right back.

I've been creating stories since before I could write. Of course I wasn't actually 'writing' them, I was drawing pictures and then reciting the words to my parents so they could write them down. I actually rushed into learning to write around age four or so so that I could finally write down the stories myself. Of course these were very short and simple stories...I was four. But they were far more elaborate in my head. In kindergarden and first grade, we all had these "journal" things where we were supposed to write about our day...I just used it to write stories and would get mad because the space we had to write was extremely small and I could never finish them. xD

So yeah, some people DO start writing stories the moment they learn how to form words on paper. I honestly don't understand how that's weird or unbelievable. There are lots of people who start drawing from a very early age so writing isn't that different.

Since then I've never stopped. I'm kind of on the extreme end of the scale where creating and writing stories is my lifelong obsession/passion/what have you, and when I care about something, I really care about it. Always been that way.

[Ganyu]

Go ahead and slap me, but I'm gonna slap you right back.

I've been creating stories since before I could write. Of course I wasn't actually 'writing' them, I was drawing pictures and then reciting the words to my parents so they could write them down. I actually rushed into learning to write around age four or so so that I could finally write down the stories myself. Of course these were very short and simple stories...I was four. But they were far more elaborate in my head. In kindergarden and first grade, we all had these "journal" things where we were supposed to write about our day...I just used it to write stories and would get mad because the space we had to write was extremely small and I could never finish them. xD

So yeah, some people DO start writing stories the moment they learn how to form words on paper. I honestly don't understand how that's weird or unbelievable. There are lots of people who start drawing from a very early age so writing isn't that different.

Since then I've never stopped. I'm kind of on the extreme end of the scale where creating and writing stories is my lifelong obsession/passion/what have you, and when I care about something, I really care about it. Always been that way.

I meant that to be directed to anyone who wanted to troll and vaguely answer as such, but you didn't (I hope you weren't xD).

But saying that "when you learnt how to write", it's claiming that your very first word with a pencil on paper was the beginning of a story. (I'm not sure if that's common-practice because that sounds like a writing prodigy to me.) Furthermore fluency and clarity is discrete from penmanship, so just because you're able to write a sentence doesn't mean the sentence is understandable to everyone.

I'm not saying it's not impossible, nor unbelievable. In fact, I can relate to your account since I've been an imaginative child before and daydreaming is in itself a form of story creation (not to mention forcing my plushies to fight evil hiding in my house). I guess when I said "stories", I meant the formal, serious, kind of boring, definition (like throwing in everything English teachers have taught us about introduction, climax, endings, fluency, coherency, and what have you not). So technically, you started at four (or another age, I don't know, only you do :P). It's the same as how people who begin drawing from an early age don't always draw seriously on their first stroke.

It was interesting to read your experiences nonetheless~

[Scytherwolf]

I meant that to be directed to anyone who wanted to troll and vaguely answer as such, but you didn't (I hope you weren't xD).

But saying that "when you learnt how to write", it's claiming that your very first word with a pencil on paper was the beginning of a story. (I'm not sure if that's common-practice because that sounds like a writing prodigy to me.) Furthermore fluency and clarity is discrete from penmanship, so just because you're able to write a sentence doesn't mean the sentence is understandable to everyone.

I'm not saying it's not impossible, nor unbelievable. In fact, I can relate to your account since I've been an imaginative child before and daydreaming is in itself a form of story creation (not to mention forcing my plushies to fight evil hiding in my house). I guess when I said "stories", I meant the formal, serious, kind of boring, definition (like throwing in everything English teachers have taught us about introduction, climax, endings, fluency, coherency, and what have you not). So technically, you started at four (or another age, I don't know, only you do :P). It's the same as how people who begin drawing from an early age don't always draw seriously on their first stroke.

It was interesting to read your experiences nonetheless~

Oh, okay. Glad there will be no slapping then. XD

I'm not...really understanding what you're saying here, though. First word as part of a story? Probably not. But a first sentence...is that really weird? I thought of stories constantly, and that was my motivation to learn to write in the first place, so I would go up to my parents and have them help me write sentences for my stories. That was my learning process. I learned how to write through writing simple sentences (first with help, then without) to go with my picture stories, so wouldn't that fall under "when I learnt how to write?" I dunno, I don't understand this 'first word/first sentence' thing because learning to write is a process; you don't go from not being able to suddenly writing sentences. 'When I learnt to write' wouldn't just refer to the very first few minutes of that learning period...so yeah, I'm confused.

Woah, okay, we must be talking about completely different things here. I'm not talking about more "professional" sort of storytelling. I see a story as anything that has a beginning and end (or even just a beginning if it's not finished), has characters, has events, and comes from the imagination. It never would have occurred to me that those wouldn't be included under "stories," just like how it would be weird to me to not consider a child's first crayon scribble of a dog a "drawing." These things are, after all, how many people get started with creative writing and art. They're primitive, and they don't follow 'rules,' but they are stories. Heck, not all stories written by adults follow the rules of introduction, climax, etc. so I find that a weird definition.

My stories even as a little kid were often pretty elaborate (at least for that age, it seems) in my mind, and even included things like intros and climaxes (though I wouldn't know the term for those until much later), but the writing of course was extremely simple and left a lot out. I'm not sure I can answer your real question now, because I don't remember a time when I consciously thought "I'm going to write a serious story with all those things I learned in school." It was and has always been just "I want to write a story." And whatever skills I had at the time would go into it.

So yeah, I wasn't and am not a person who constantly thinks of all the technical aspects and takes it 'seriously' (as in, my main goal is not to be professional or publish-quality (though it'll be a nice bonus if I ever get there)), I pretty much just go wherever my inspiration takes me and do what feels right. My motivation to write stories is because I want to tell them and it's fun, so I guess that might be part of why I see it differently.

[Ganyu]

Ah, it's okay, it's just a miscommunication (on my part) and I think because we all have our own definitions. See, I won't discount such experiences like a child's first crayon scribble of a dog as part of the learning creative process (which it is very much, I agree on that). Though I define that stage differently as more of the time when the child discovers their talent and starts to use it and explore with it. It's the crawling phase where they are like "Hey I can do cool stuff with my hands!" These are all sketches before the real drawing takes place.

But if I understand you completely, I think you were walking when most would be crawling. You already knew what you were doing with your gift. You're some sort of an innate natural storyteller! ^o^

As for me, I learnt how to write at three but I only distinctively remember doing anything close to writing when I was four and that was in Sunday school. It was about how I thought the heavens were divided into three layers with the sky being the lowest and God's residence as the highest. And how different type of angels live in each layer, and I wrote this through the perspective of an angel (I think it was a messenger, I can't remember the details). I think that's the earliest moment I had that I remember doing something remotely close to writing stories.

[FedoraChar]

My best friend growing up actually got me into writing my own stories! :D I can't remember how old we were, but we were really into fantasy and often play-pretended being elves and rangers going on magical quests and all that. We actually had those duct-taped padded swords and would fight with them and everything. When we got older, we did RP's and Warcraft games. One day, he decided that we should try writing down our own story, and although we never got far, it really got me into thinking, "Hey! I can come up with my own stories and adventures and write them down to keep!"

I don't really remember when exactly I got into writing fanfiction, but I believe it was through playing Pokemon FireRed, and might have been partly influenced by the Dinotopia series. I had restarted the game several times because I kept wanting to experience the story over and over, and one day I realized that, "Hey! I can come up with my own story for a Pokemon adventure!"

I think I felt really attracted to Pokemon because it's universe was so vast--anyone could be a Trainer, and they could have any type of Pokemon they wanted. That meant there were thousands of stories that were waiting to be told. Dinotopia inspired me because the series had so many different authors who wrote in their own unique perspective of the world, and I thought I could do the same with Pokemon.

I started out as a noob on Bulbagarden, but grew disillusioned with it and left. Later on, I came to a lovely little place called Pe2k where I met a fantastic group of authors who ultimately helped me to improve my writing and get to where I am today :)

[Scytherwolf]

Ah, it's okay, it's just a miscommunication (on my part) and I think because we all have our own definitions. See, I won't discount such experiences like a child's first crayon scribble of a dog as part of the learning creative process (which it is very much, I agree on that). Though I define that stage differently as more of the time when the child discovers their talent and starts to use it and explore with it. It's the crawling phase where they are like "Hey I can do cool stuff with my hands!" These are all sketches before the real drawing takes place.

But if I understand you completely, I think you were walking when most would be crawling. You already knew what you were doing with your gift. You're some sort of an innate natural storyteller! ^o^

As for me, I learnt how to write at three but I only distinctively remember doing anything close to writing when I was four and that was in Sunday school. It was about how I thought the heavens were divided into three layers with the sky being the lowest and God's residence as the highest. And how different type of angels live in each layer, and I wrote this through the perspective of an angel (I think it was a messenger, I can't remember the details). I think that's the earliest moment I had that I remember doing something remotely close to writing stories.

Oh dang, I missed the reply to this! Well, better late than never I suppose. xD

Oh, okay, so you were more talking about stuff after all the initial learning process had been complete? I think I understand now, I was just confused because for me writing stories overlapped with learning how to write and I guess I see the process as more ongoing then having clearly defined stages like that. But I think I see what you mean, as in writing after all the 'basics' had already been learned. So yeah, I really just misunderstood. xD

Haha, maybe! I was definitely one of those people who just knew they wanted to tell stories for as long as I can remember; my earliest childhood memories are of me imagining stories. XD I dunno if I'll ever be really, really good at it, but it is something that I will always love to do.

And yeah, that definitely makes sense as people get inspired to write stories in different ways/in different stages, so it would be a unique experience for everyone. Plus I've seen people who only started writing stories when they were teens/adults and they were very good at it. It's really interesting to me to see how people started storytelling, so this thread is fascinating to me, haha. xD


And that's really cool how you played all those games, too, Char! It's really neat to see what inspired people and I know I felt the same way about pokemon when I first discovered it as a child.

Strangely enough my first experience with publicly posting my fanfiction was on neopets. xD Then Deviantart, then Pe2k and Fanfiction.net. Before that it was all written in notebooks and I never shared it.