It’s time for another Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG) post! Every first Wednesday of the month we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to come up with solutions. This month has been an exception to the schedule because the first Wednesday was New Year’s Day and so many of us were still trying to get through the busy-ness of the holiday season. Speaking of that, I hope all of you had a good one. Mine was fantastic!
The IWSG question of the month: What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just "know" suddenly you wanted to write?
I would have to say my writing journey started in the 5th grade. I really got into the creative writing assignments our teacher would give us. I particularly loved writing comical stories which the class laughed over and applauded after each one was read. By the 6th grade I had gotten into writing sci fi and fantasy. During that time I was crazy for movies in those genres as well as ones in action/adventure and mystery. I was really fascinated by “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and the stories behind the making of it, including George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg’s directorial career stories. I wanted to make films like they did but didn’t have the resources for making home movies. So I wrote knock-off stories of Lucas and Spielberg’s flicks.
When I got into intermediate school, I was through with writing on my own time. Writing prose came across as too academically nerdy to me and so I put my creative energy instead into drawing scenes of monsters, aliens and warriors.
Two years later, I saw Back to the Future when it released in the summer of 1985. The character of George McFly as a science fiction writer made me realise that writing in that genre was not academically nerdy but artistically nerdy just like drawing and painting aliens and deadly robots was. My Trekkie phase that I went through at that same time included reading about the people who wrote the “Star Trek” TV series, movies and books. So, when I reached my freshman year of high school that fall semestre, the inner fire of creative storytelling came back to me and so I returned to writing sci fi and fantasy and never stopped since.
What inspired you to be the writer you are today?
Today’s IWSG is brought to you by these super co-hosts: T. Powell Coltrin, Victoria Marie Lees, Stephen Tremp, Renee Scattergood, and J.H. Moncrieff! IWSG was founded by awesome author Alex Cavanaugh, writer of the Cassa Series of novels!
Until next time . . .
I followed along the same path although several years earlier. Seeing Star Wars in the theater when I was twelve sparked something and then the series Battlestar Galactica really started my writing journey. I was already hooked on the old Star Trek series and Terry Brooks' Shannara series further fueled the writing.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the original, Glenn Larson Battle Star Galactica series.
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