Were you always a writer?
My answer to this question is yes, as I believe I am a writer at heart and by nature. I was a Journalism major in college and all my jobs have been writing jobs. I’ve always liked to write and I’ve always written. Other than that, I never gave it much thought until a package arrived from my parents about ten days ago (newsflash!! parents make it into the blog!!). I could feel there was a book inside, and since I love books, I was thrilled. I crossed my fingers that I didn’t already have it on my bookshelf.
I did not.
As soon as I saw the cover I knew what it was. Don’t let your eyes play tricks on you, this is not just a dictionary. It is THE dictionary I won thirty-five years ago for Outstanding Achievement in English when I graduated 7th grade, which was the last year in my elementary school before junior high — and I’m thinking there were over 100 students in four 7th grade classes. I was thirteen.
Here’s proof:
Then I went unceremoniously digging through a box of old photos.
As soon as I saw this I knew exactly what I was doing and why I was smiling. I am opening a gift from my grandparents on February 2, 1977. My Bat Mitzvah. Can you tell what’s in the box by the look on my face? A pair of Jordache jeans? No. An autographed Donny Osmond poster? No. Tickets to the opening of Star Wars (before it was a prequel?) No.
It’s an electric typewriter.
I guess they all knew something I didn’t quite yet know – or realize.
So, my fellow Women’s Fiction friends, were you always writers?
Always – my first publication was in an “Archie” comic book at the precocious age of eight. Must have been in my DNA!
YES! One of my most treasured possessions is a dictionary I received from my father with an inscription inside. I still remember the stories I wrote first at the age of five and then throughout middle school, when I believe I truly discovered that I wanted to be a writer.
Nope.Well, maybe. I hated English with a passion all through elementary and middle school; never mind I was an excellent speller, had pretty much flawless grammar, and read like a she-demon. I hated it. Now I think I hated it because I was bored off my keester in class, and never felt like there was a point because didn’t everyone already know this stuff? I started to come around in high school, when my teachers started properly challenging me.
So… yes and no?
Ditto.
I think I came out writing! Some of my earliest and favorite memories were sitting on the floor at my grandparents’ house, playing with a giant chess set and dictating long rambling “books” to my grandmother while she typed them out on an old ribbon typewriter. We’d cut the paper apart and bind the pieces with tape into little “novels”.
I think seeing my name on the cover of something so young just lit the fire in me – I haven’t stopped writing since, and I won’t feel like my life is a success until I see my name on a real book.
I love how excited you are over dictionaries and typewriters! And yes, I have always been a writer. I wrote terrible plays as a little one, then moved onto melodramatic poetry and songwriting through middle school, then some seriously awful novels in high school. I hope I’ve improved. 🙂
One thing is certain: I was always a writer and I will always write!
My parents were both journalists, and my mom went on to become a political speechwriter, so writing was in our family DNA. However, even though I supposedly had “a way with words,” I was nearly 40 before I thought I had anything to SAY with those words. So it wasn’t until then that I started thinking of myself as a writer.
Love it that you were a late bloomer! I didn’t publish my first book until I was almost 50…not for lack of trying, either!
PS – I totally geek out over “writerly” gifts. I even gave a dictionary to a college girlfriend once, thinking it was The Coolest Present Ever.
She did not agree. 🙁
What a wonderful story and amazing photos! Such a great writing history. Not sure if my path was as direct (I don’t have the emphemera to back it up….) but I was a journalism major as well, and I’ve always kept a journal and/or a writing project going for as long as I can remember! Nice post!
In my heart I feel like a writer, but it’s something I don’t announce at parties. When I get a publishing contract with a “real” publisher, you know, when I have something to really crow about, then the game will change. At that point I’ll get a badge to wear that says, “Kiss me, I’ve beaten rejection,” or something along those lines. 😉
Yes, I was. I used to write haiku poems when I was in elementary school, just because I could. I had my first poem published in The Charlotte Observer when I was in the 6th grade. It just has always made sense to me to write; I don’t know how not to.
I’m not a writer but I love reading literature, history, stories, long stories, new story discoveries, biographies of writers, poetry and even re-reading some things.
Your blog is always exciting for me and this one is a real delight.
Thank you!!!!
At great risk of being the odd (wo)man out among the earlier responders…no, I was not “always” a writer. I spent 32 years playing in other job/career sandboxes before landing in the right (write!) one. Alas, at age 54, I am home.
Love this, Amy! My moment was when I read SHE WAS NICE TO MICE by Ally Sheedy (I think she went by Alexandra) who at something like 11 or 12 had published her first book! I was in awe and determined to see the same dream (of course, I was a weeeeee bit older when it happened) but I have always crafted stories, always felt the drive to do so.
This question always makes me wonder if I’ve arrived in this place a legitimate way. Did I always know? Nope. Was I always a writer? Nope. Was I always a story teller? Yes with a bit of a squeak. I don’t think I ever told anyone else stories exactly. But I always made them up for myself. You see, I suffer from insomnia and have for as long as I can remember so I always made up stories to put myself to sleep. I also journaled I also wrote poems. So maybe I was a writer. I just never quite understood. Now I write the stories down. It’s harder but it’s also more rewarding.
I never ever thought of myself as a writer–in fact, I was a biology major in college, determined to go on to medical school and cure cancer in faraway African villages while wearing a multi-pocketed safari outfit. But I was always a reader. I still remember the thrill I got when I read a book called “Red is Not a Mouse” in Kindergarten, over and over and over…that teacher had the patience of a saint. Either that, or she was deaf. I didn’t start writing until my last semester of college.
A neighbour reports seeing me, at the age of five years, encircled by puppies and kittens as I entertained with songs and stories. A few years later, a poem I penned was published in the school paper. As years slipped into years my passion for the craft continued to grow. When I graduated from high school, my grandmother gave me a pen and pencil set.
What a great post, Amy. I never thought of it this way, but had to laugh at the similarities of your story and mine … I was over the moon when I got my first typewriter (my mom regretted it later b/c that is ALl she heard was the clack-clack-clacking of the keys). And I have a very similar dictionary that I won my senior year from my high school (since I intended – and did- major in English). The little name plate is hilarious: to “Missy” Crytzer.
Oh I definitely thought I was always a writer. I started writing “novels” as soon as I could write. One of my longest “manuscripts”, if you could even call it that, is from childhood. It’s about dragons 🙂 Fun post!
Oh my gosh–I love it! How fun to have a photo capturing that expression on your face! I wish I had some of my earliest writing moments . . . In fifth grade I wrote stories about my teachers. I’d do ANYTHING to get my hands on those . . . they’re long gone.
LOVE this! For my fourteenth birthday I got a blue Smith-Corona typewriter. It wasn’t electric. I then got an electric typewriter to take to college with me. I took a creative writing class my junior year in high school, and then I audited it my senior year because I loved writing so much. I knew when I went to college that my major was going to be Journalism from the get-go. So many of my friends were undecided or switched several times throughout their college career. I never wavered. I always knew. I still have the short stories I wrote way back then. Thanks for this post. It reinforces that I need to keep plugging away. Thank you Amy!