I want to hear how you got started as a writer. Were you scribbling stories the moment you could grip a crayon? Did you get an MFA or are you largely self-taught? Did you always know you wanted to be a writer or did something inspire you? Or did you come to writing later in life? I have my own story, but I want to hear from all of you first…
I wrote a novel in college that was agented and nearly acquired by one of the Big Five. But then my agent quit the business, and I toiled away on novels in solitude for 20 years, before discovering flash fiction and the joy of online communities. I still write novels, but shorter forms are lovely because (among other reasons) they regularly bring you into contact with other people.
I agree about the writing community for shorter forms, David. So glad you are still writing novels but also found a larger community and a different form as well :-)
Yes! I didn't do any social media, etc., for so long, but it's been really nice. Also nice as a reader, since I'm exposed to so much wonderful contemporary writing!
I always knew. When I was very little, my parents fought a lot, screaming matches (they divorced when I was 9). My bedroom had a large closet, so my mother fixed it up inside with blankets, a lamp, all my stuffed animals, and loads of books. I would hide in the closet even when they weren't fighting and read book after book--picture books and then harder books as I developed my reading skills. I loved stories because they helped me escape. When I was twelve, my grandfather bought me my first journal. I started writing every day, and I've been writing nearly every day since. I majored in English in college and then went on to earn my MA and MFA. Eventually I also learned I liked writing ABOUT literary texts, so I got my PhD as well.
I started writing when I was a child. I was very shy and introverted, (kind of still is) and it allowed me to have a voice. As an adult I did get an MFA via a low residency format. I've had a few stories published. I wrote a novel, and got an agent, but the novel didn't sell, agent and I parted ways, and I was devastated. To give myself a break from the long form I started writing "brief" stories and found that I love writing Flash. I've gotten somethings published and was included in Wig Leaf's Top 50 long list last year. My novel has long listed in some competitions, and I've gained the "confidence," to review and try again and I have submitted it to a few independent publishers. We will see what happens.
I love your journey from novel to flash, Erica. I'm so glad you've embraced your novel anew and I'm crossing fingers and toes for you (though I don't think you need it!)
I started writing in 2020, during Covid lockdown, when a good friend encouraged me to take a Zoom class she was teaching on writing personal essays. I'd been a life-long "obsessive" reader as well as a reading specialist for grades K-8 professionally, so I thought, "why not?" Mostly I was just bored, though, and agreed to do it on a whim. I wrote my first essay after that, which was published the next month! I was shocked. I thought, "Where has this been my whole life?" I started writing fiction very shortly thereafter, first short stories, and then flash fiction. I was hooked. I say, now, that I found my calling in life at age 50! I just love the entire process. Recently, though, a friend from high school reminded me that I wrote poems back then, something I had sort of forgotten, and she had saved some of my poems in a box in her garage. She sent them to me and said, "you've always been a writer." What a discovery!
As I said in my "getting to know you" story, among my earliest memories are lazy summer afternoons plunking out stories on an old Smith Corona. They were mainly of the 'Hello mother, how was your day?" "Hello Father. How was your day?" With the added bonus of my illustrations. I had many careers, mostly in the areas of social work and education: Headstart social worker, special education teacher, head of a private school and, like you Luanne, I got a PhD. So I necessarily became adept at "professional" writing-academic journals and the like. Flash fiction has been invaluable in exorcising that academic writing style. Always, in all of my different jobs, I was always struck by the stories of my students, my socal work clients, the classroom, the other teachers--I saw stories everywhere and jotted them down. Now that I have the time, I write all the time: my little town newspaper, 3 writing groups and working with residents of the local retirement home to help them write their memoirs. Love any time I can put pen to paper.
Love that about the old typewriter, Edy. My grandparents gave me an old Royal typewriter, with its own built-in case, when I was very young. Thanks for sharing your story here. Love how immersed you are, and have been, in the writing life.
Edy, you made me think of a story a friend told me when I was finishing up my PhD. It might be apocryphal. She said that when Sharon Olds got her PhD, she said, now I have to forget everything I learned (because she wanted to write).
All of the above! I started writing stories at about age 5. By 7, I was "copying" bios from real authors and creating my own to put at the end of my construction paper-bound stories (which I then tried to sell!). Although I wrote and was always involved in writing workshops (from high school on), I had very little "official" creative writing "schooling" until my 30s, as I had routinely been discouraged from pursuing creative writing, so instead had studied (and got various degrees in) journalism, technical writing/editing, and academic writing--all of which has served me well career-wise. I did finally get an MFA, but I think the main benefit of the MFA for me was that it taught me how to study craft in a way I hadn't done up to that point. From there, I would say I've learned primarily on my own, but I wouldn't say "self-taught" necessarily because every time I take a workshop or interact with other writers, I learn from them. I've learned flash fiction from you and many others whose work I've read and whom I've had the privilege to be in workshops with. *None* of what I know about flash was taught in my MFA program.
Thanks for sharing, Jessica! I love the idea of the young you making those construction paper books. I'm not at all surprised you learned nothing of flash fiction from your MFA program. I believe that's beginning to change. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I don't know. Right now, I think it's seen as an "easy" class to teach in some circles.
Agreed--I think flash in general is misunderstood by a lot of people. Interestingly, I've had interest in the form since around 2003. I made some meager attempts at writing it, but the responses from my writing group at the time were essentially "meh." I didn't know what I was doing--that was clear--but I also didn't have much guidance. So I kept turning back to poetry (looking back, much of my poetry was very flash-ish). I became more immersed in the flash form around 2015, but I really didn't find my "groove" until the pandemic hit. By 2021, I was a complete flash convert--and then there was no looking back LOL.
Jessica, pretty sure flash wasn't even around when I was working on my MFA--nor creative nonfiction either. We had poetry and fiction (which meant short stories) and a little drama. But Stu Dybek was my fiction guru, and it was by reading his prose poetry collection Brass Knuckles I could start to envision a different way.
I think that's an important and generous take on whether one is self-taught. You're right, Jessica, we learn from our fellow writers. I think I've learned more from various small workshops, prompt classes and exchanges with those who attend them than I learned while in the MFA program. The MFA program gave me time and support to persist and complete a book length collection of short fiction, though now I'm all about flash!
I started entering essay contests when I was a kid. One of them was about My Favorite Celebrity. I wrote about a humor columnist in the local newspaper, and won the contest. He found out and sent me a handwritten letter telling me thanks and also that I “write like a writer.” I’ve been writing ever since!
Got my start as a writer by writing and publishing zines. The DIY approach taught me so much - not just the writing part, but art, production, distribution, connecting with others. It was so impactful to experience the throughline of taking an idea and seeing it thru to a printed publication that was sealed up and mailed off to a reader (usually a fellow zinester). The zine-making experience is still foundational to how I approach the publishing process.
Thank you very much Kathy for the reply, and the great thread. And you are totally right — flash fiction really did flourish in the early zine and internet days. CNF, as well. I'm not sure in those early zine days I would have even known to call it "flash fiction" or CNF, but those types of pieces were what made zines so special and inspiring.
When I was a child I wanted to be an author, an actress, or an archeologist. I wrote poems for the most part, although I did write a couple of stories. In an archetypal personality test I came out with a tie for caregiver and creator. So it was a back and forth for years, raising kids, getting an MFA in poetry/fiction, and a swing into academia (eek) with a PhD in English. I took an early retirement for medical reasons in 2008 and decided I was going to spend my time writing, but I still have a job in the family business, found art journaling and mixed media, and now a new grandbaby to take care of, so I am never focusing on one thing. Thus, short prose!!!
So glad you found short prose to be the perfect form—you're so talented, Luanne—and I can see how that fits into a busy life with lots of stuff going on (and a grandbaby). Very interesting that you also wanted to be either an actress or archeologist!
Thank you so much, Kelli. Haha, talk about talented!
Yeah, the 3 As. I always used to say that I was going to be one of the three As. Then my daughter was an actor, so that was fun for me. As for archeology, I long ago realized I would be bored with the tedium of the job.
You're so nice. Thanks Luanne <3. And yes, the three A's, hilarious! It's interesting that your daughter was an actor, how neat. I would love to hear stories about that world, the world of acting. And I also would be bored being an archeologist, but the idea of unearthing history is fascinating!
I was an avid reader from the time I first learned to read. Writing myself was not something I ever thought about growing up although I wrote a few bad poems during my teenage angst period. (Who doesn’t?!) I never kept a diary. Somehow, Susan Wittig Albert’s newsletter “Story Circle Journal” (snail mail) came to my attention in the mid-90s. I subscribed and Susan published my first CNF piece and my first poem. SCJ was very welcoming, encouraging, & supportive to women’s voices from all walks of life, and that’s what I credit with giving me the courage to submit. I didn’t finish college, I don’t have a degree but Susan made me feel like that didn’t matter. That MY voice mattered. Later, after Hurricane Katrina (2005), I started blogging. There was so much to shout about and I was part of a group of community-based bloggers who shouted. One of the other bloggers was a published poet & he was the inspiration behind my fist submission after SCJ. That first submission was accepted and published in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature in 2010 and I haven’t stopped since. I want to give credit to the workshops I’ve attended and the wonderful lit community on SM for their encouragement and support. Without it, I’d probably have stopped writing by now.
I really loved reading your story, Charlotte. Very relatable to me. I love to hear the strong community you have found in writing--this is something I am in search of myself.
I followed your Substack, Nicole. I have one, too, and I invite you to follow. I have some wonderful and kind writers who read me. If you’re on FB, Instagram, or X I’d be happy to connect there, too.
I can't really remember a time I didn't write. I spent a lot of time alone as a kid and was (and still am) incredibly introverted. I always felt more secure just sitting in the corner watching everything going on around me. Then I'd go home and scribble everything in my journal. I don't have an MFA, but actually a business degree. I didn't get serious about publishing my writing until I was in my late 30s & 40s, though. My first stint was as an occasional slice-of-life columnist in our local newspaper--think Erma Bombeck. I eventually began taking summer writing workshops at UW-Madison and had a very supportive instructor who introduced me to flash fiction and well, the rest is history, I guess.
Kristen! I didn't know you had a business degree. Or that you were a slice-of-life columnist. So interesting. I can just see you as a kid, observing and writing in your notebook. You are such a talented writer, and an amazing mentor and encourager of others. Thank you for that!
One of the good things about being a screw up in school is that if you do bad enough, the school gets desperate, and they throw a tutor at you.
I call her Stephanie. I don’t know if that’s her name, it might’ve been Jamie, Christina, Laura, but Stephanie is that name that pops out.
She was a junior in high school and part of the National Honor Society’s mission to help underperforming kids. And I excelled at underperforming.
And I hated reading. Reading sucked. Why have books when you could just wait for the movie to come out later? Like Rambo movies. I idolized Rambo. First Blood was the shit.
Stephanie, my tutor, sat me down and tried to get me to read. Books bored me to tears. She asked me what books l liked, and I didn’t have an answer. I just knew that reading was boring.
The next time we met, she decided to do something different.
“We’re going to make a book,” she said. “What’s your favorite animal?”
"Whales.”
"Wonderful,” she said, and we got up from our cubby. She took me to the
school’s library.
I rushed to find army books, but she made me check out a book about whales. They didn’t have any army books that day. At least nothing close to my reading level. Whales it was!
The next time we met, Stephanie told me to write a story about a whale. I wrote a story about a baby blue whale swimming with his mother. During a terrible thunderstorm, he gets lost and finds his way back to her. It took a couple sessions, but I made a picture book. I bound it with a blue ribbon and Stephanie brought special paper for the cover.
I was so proud. I made a book!
To me, the book was a story about me and my mother, and how my mother lost me and got me back. I gave it to Mom for Christmas.
The following year, I started a Ghostbusters fan fic litmag. I've been trapped ever since.
My senior year English teacher stated publicly that I was the best writer he ever taught. I opted for a punk band, heavy drinking and though I never graduated from college, I taught Introduction to Pocket Billiards at a well regarded university. Dabbled in writing, had an essay published in the Detroit Free Press, started to take it a little more seriously, got sober and I've published short fiction daily on Substack since Aug 21, 2020.
I've always been a reader, but I wasn't a writer until going back to college in my 40's and taking a lit class where we read Mrs. Dalloway. I put the book down and said "You can write like that!?!" and started writing. I started with poetry and have been writing flash fiction for about 5 years now.
Ah, I love this. I love "You can write like that?" I feel like I had the same reaction, when I read Best American Short Stories for the first time, the 1998 version I think.
Bass, if you’re talking about the Rick variety, is the author of the most stunning sentences you’ve ever read tucked neatly into short stories, essays, and everything else he writes.
Childhood memories: sitting at the table, after dinner, and writing stories. Then reading books until Mom declared “bedtime” (then it was time to read them under the covers with a flashlight)! At age 12, Archie Comics published two of my letters. My first official writing credits. ;) Mainly though, it’s my friends and family that tell me, they always knew I would be a writer. I’m just arriving to this time very late, after an unusual and often difficult life journey. I’m grateful to write and share anything now. We don’t know how long we get to be here on this beautiful earth. xx
Oh, Charlotte. Always so supportive! <3 I am sitting here in a motel room, in a windy mountain stopover, with glassy eyes. Thank you for your generosity, which lands in my heart ever so softly.
I always knew I wanted to be a writer and wrote stories as a kid. Then at school when I told the careers officer that was what I wanted to do, she scoffed. Said being a writer wasn’t a real job and definitely not one for the likes of me! I left school at 16 and did admin jobs to pay for a party lifestyle. Then after I met my husband we went travelling and when I got back I did a correspondence course in editing and got a job as a magazine editor. I was 28 by then and slowly started finding my way back to fiction through workshops and reading craft books. In my mid-30s, I did an Open University degree in Creative Writing and Literature but stopped half way through as didn’t find it very creative! I had my first story published when I was 40, my first novel when I was 44 and now run workshops and courses myself helping others to develop their craft. Just starting work on my third novel and still love writing!
I still have my first written book, illustrated. It is called 'Sammie the Jam Bear.' I wrote it when I was twelve. I kept diaries when I was a teenager and now, of course, I wish I hadn't thrown all of those away! But as an adult I didn't start writing seriously until the 1990s. When I moved to Hastings, UK in 2000 I started a Diploma Course in Creative Writing and in 2007 I did a part-time MA in Creative Writing at the University of Sussex. I have my bad days, even my bad months, but now I can't stop writing and I imagine I will continue until I'm too 'gaga' to write.
I started writing when I was about 10 years old. Stories and poems just poured out of me. I wrote about secret gardens and cities under the sea. I made little books about the adventures of Winnie the Worm, Satina the Mouse, and other wonderful made up characters. I would sit at the steps of my home while everyone watched TV and write for hours. I stopped writing in high school when I found alcohol and other substances. Although I kept journals throughout my life, I didn't write creatively from age 25 until recently (I'm in my 50s!). I've just recently learned about flash fiction and I'm falling in love with it. In 2013 I fainted in my kitchen and woke up paralyzed from the shoulders down. I'm now working on a memoir.
I have been writing story snippets since I was about 10. Some fiction, some personal reflections, the beginnings of essays, children's books, etc. I never had the nerve to really pursue creative writing because I was always worried about whether I was "good enough," and that I wouldn't make a dime. I It felt frivolous and somehow irresponsible. I do not have an MFA. I have degrees in communications, anthropology, and museum studies. I wrote in all my previous careers, for media, for museum exhibits, for other professionals, for commercial interests, but never for myself. During Covid, my curatorial consulting business closed down because no one was at the office, EVER. And then I got cancer.
I had to rethink my entire life based on my new physical limitations and the sudden realization that life is too short to do something you hate. It was time to write. I approached the task with the attitude, "If not now, when? If not me, who?" I gave myself permission to write and fail and write some more. I knew I had some chops. One of my writing mentors says that dialogue is my superpower. But I knew nothing of true craft. I wrote about 150 poems in the first year, many crap, some now published in lit mags and anthologies. I scribbled story ideas (short story intimidates me). I tried my hand at essay, knowing nothing. By Christmas 2022, I had written the first draft of my first novel. And last summer, I launched my own Substack. It is the happiest I have ever been. I wake up and do what fuels me every day. I am developing the most lovely writing community both IRL and on Substack. It is work, for sure. I am learning a TON. But it is the biggest labor of love I have ever undertaken after raising my kids. It is truly mine.
At twelve, I wrote plays that were performed by the neighborhood kids for our parents to watch. I wrote, directed, made costumes and of course starred in these plays. In college I got my degree in education and comparative literature. I always loved reading. I journaled for most of my twenties, thirties and forties. I was an acupuncturist and stepmom. When our daughter went off to college, we moved out to the country and I went to many weekend writing retreats and began my first novel. I was in a weekly writing group for decades. My second novel is looking for a home. Because of a rare and disabling condition, I am be ridden and have difficulty reading more than a page or two and in the process discovered flash which I love and am learning to write.
Thirties when I thought I had the permission to write. Always a reader from my childhood, Natalie Goldberg’s workshop in Taos, my wife’s encouragement. Took a three-year hiatus from teaching high school to move to Louisiana for an MFA. The time it allowed to try out different things like performance studies, brought me out of the message “you’re not allowed to write, or call yourself a writer,” embedded in me from growing up in Ireland. Now, I’m writing for myself, writing what I please, some days good, some bad.
James, good to see you! I’m envious of your time with Goldberg. I love your writing & hope to read more. Btw, you, in addition to Kathy, were very helpful to me in Fictionaut so I thank you for your time & attention back then.
I wrote in undergrad, just for myself. Then I spent a lot of years writing “professional” stuff - pitches, plans, projections, arguments, opinions, letters, etc. After I retired, and the lockdown happened, I dabbled again in creative writing. But not seriously or consistently. It stayed with me though and I’ve been much more consistent with my scribbles in the last few months, and really enjoying it. Now I’ve found this immersion and this group, and I think this might be my origin story right now. You’re all in it. Cheers!
I had a tumultuous upbringing, living on the poverty line in a rural town with unreliable parents. I felt very different from the majority of my classmates. In high school I read "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros and for the first time I felt seen. It was a revelation for me, and I decided I wanted to be a writer who could make another person feel understood.
My Writing Origin Story: My best friend dictated a journal entry to her mother when she was 6 saying she was mad at me because I wouldn't play and only wanted to write stories! I wanted to write so badly, I use 4 instead of 3 fingers because school hadn't started yet, and I had to figure it out by myself. When they tried to get me to do it "right" I refused. I have Alexithymia which basically means I don't know what I think or feel unless I write it down. It's common in those of us with Autism and ADHD. So I think I've always been a writer, and I've kept notebooks since the age of 14 with song lyrics, poems, journaling and stories. I never could figure out how to submit, and when I did, my early efforts were not embraced by editors. Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria made that extra hard. But I got over it, and I got my MFA in Theatre. I tried to get an MFA in poetry, but an old white bearded professor told me to stick to playwriting, and I was too fragile to stand up to him at the time. Now I teach playwriting for the Dramatists Guild Institute. When the pandemic hit, I went back to poetry and fiction. Writing and revising are my favorite things to do!
Do you "know" that you want to be a writer or do you simply start writing, compelled without explanation to express yourself through the written word both real and imagined?
Always a reader, averaging over fifty a year, I didn't start writing until I was fifty. My son was in the hospital having his gallbladder removed. I was anxiously waiting, reading Paul Bowles's Sheltering Sky, a great novel but a poor choice for a hospital waiting room. The operation took longer than expected. Every waiting moment was seared into my memory. I wrote about it afterward. My brother read it and said this is good and that I should write more and so I have. Mostly flash-length, slice-of-life, micro-memoir, and the mandatory unfinished novel.
I began writing in third grade. My first work of fiction was, I now realize a few decades later, a "novella-in-flash," ten linked episodes of a young child's adventures exploring the solar system. (One on each of the nine planets—Pluto still a planet then—the last adventure on the sun!). At age 12, I taught myself to type and produced, with friends, a fantasy and science fiction magazine, which we sold door-to-door in the neighborhood. We published an issue a month for a year with 5 to 6 stories in each issue and had a paid circulation of about 100. We used our elementary school's mimeograph machine, but by our fourth issue we made enough profits to buy our own ditto machine! I've never stopped writing.
I was always writing but didn't realize it. When i was in my late twenties, it suddenly hit me that I was able to do something that others struggled with. I took a little course on writing for magazines and the teacher pulled me aside and said, okay you can really write. With that validation, I managed to talk my way onto the staff of a magazine in NYC and a few years later decided to try writing a novel. It sold, and here I am all these years later still writing and enjoying myself. (I did get an MFA--a useless degree, really, but I thought perhaps one day I'd teach in an MFA program myself. Never did.)
Mary that is great. I became a teacher in much the same way, just happened into it and fell in love. The writing has always been around too, but not paying the bills…
tough to make actual money through writing. Talent plus timing plus a MASSIVE AMOUNT OF LUCK plus tenacity and also MORE LUCK. But i love to write, so it's all good.
I wrote my first story in second grade. It had to have been in April, and I had to have been watching my mother filling out the income tax, because I still remember the words:
"2 +2 = 4. 5+5 = 10," said Mickey Mouse. "Darn, I hate doing these taxes." Fast forward to 2013, when I found myself at retirement age in the writer's Mecca, Iowa City, Iowa, at the same time that the nonuniversity writer's community exploded and I began writing a lot.
A fellow parent at my daughter’s school invited me to join her writer’s workshop and I’ve been writing ever since. I just finished a novel and I’ve started writing about dreams in literature on Substack. I can’t imagine not writing. I also co-founded a reading series for flash San José that’s been running since2014. My writers community is a joy.
I didn't realize I was supposed to be a writer until I was 39. While in college and grad school (MBA), writing papers was painful. Then I had several jobs requiring writing of letters, newsletters, press releases, and ultimately a how to book (Creating a Farmers Market: Starting From Nowhere). Writing was the only part of these jobs that didn't become boring so I decided to make it my career.
Those press releases were all published verbatim by the local paper. That helped me get paid by them later as a stringer writing about people and events. Those clips led to a gig stringing for United Press International wire service doing mostly rewrite. When that faded away as their business changed, I wrote feature articles for trade magazines through a company that worked for different associations. I still do that, sometimes working directly for the associations.
I have three unfinished novels I haven't worked on in years. Somehow I started writing short fiction. I've been published by lit mags five times (once I was paid $20). I've also published an anthology of two sci fi short stories on Kindle (The Alien Infection and The Cats) and sold a few, mostly to friends. Any day I don't write something I feel sort of disoriented.
I wrote my first poem at 7 years old in a one-room School. The teacher liked it so much she tried to get it published in the local newspaper. I've been writing short forms ever since, now working on a novelette. I publish a literary magazine that features flash fiction and short stories along with poetry, but that's another post for another day. I really appreciate reading short stories, especially flash fiction.
I told my kindergarten teacher I wanted to grow up to be an author. Because I loved books, I wanted to do what my favorite authors did. It took many decades and more than one manuscript to become a book author, but I’ve been writing for fun and on the job my entire adult life.
When I was a girl I couldn’t imagine anything apart from being a writer. But I grew up poor so I always had a practical side. When I went to university, I thought, ouch, what if I can’t make a living as a writer?
So I went to medical school.
Then I was so busy, I barely had time to pee!
Until I became disabled/on oxygen.
No choice but to slow down. And then I began the arduous task of learning how to write well. I love writing flash fiction and I’m crazy enough to be attempting a novel too! And I learn so much from Kathy Fish. ♥️
I caught the creative writing bug during the pandemic. I guess I've always written to some extent, keeping a daily diary for most of my life. I now live in France and was persuaded to accompany a French friend to a creative writing class as a way to improve my grasp of the language. I enjoyed it so much that when it had to close due to Covid restrictions, I searched online for a way to continue writing but in English. I stumbled upon WritersHQ, did a few of their free online courses, got hooked on writing flash, sent out my first submissions, had a few online publications, and haven't looked back. Being an avid reader has no doubt helped. I write for no other reason than that I enjoy it. I started my own Substack last year, sending a post out on a weekly basis. It's currently on hold while I deal with personal matters, but I'm already looking forward to restarting it in a few weeks.
You could say I was something of a late starter. At school I dropped English Literature in favour of Technical Drawing. Then after several years working and producing reports, critiques and facts and figures, I started writing articles for Cycling & Triathlon magazines, all good factual stuff. Heading towards retirement I decided to try fiction. I signed up for a Creative Writing course and was advised to think of a character and write a novel!
After numerous years I’m finally closing in on a first draft. In between I’ve undertaken short stories and more recently flash fiction, but at the moment I’m concentrating on completing the novel first draft. I’ve kept my character waiting far too long. Fortunately she is very patient!
Good question, I started as a kid primarily because I’m the youngest and writing is one way to be “heard”, I was always encouraged to by one sibling in particular, and as an introvert it’s always been one of two favorite means of productive ‘me time.’ Thanks for asking, what about you (particularly flash, which my wordy ass cannot write to save my soul)?
A lifelong reader who gradually realized I could write (I was kind of a late bloomer), I majored in English and Technical Writing, and enjoyed a nice career in the latter for many years. I also studied nonfiction writing through an extension program and had a little success with publishing. Fast forward to when my kids started school: I got more serious about writing and published more, but it's been fits and starts for me the whole way. Two observations about my experience: I've slowly "graduated" from writing 2,000 word pieces that included (too) many beautiful sentences to shorter and shorter pieces. One of my favorite stories I've published is 30 words! I like writing and reading stories based on constraints.
Observation #2 is an ongoing issue for me. Back in the day, I used to be able to put my head down and write, not really worrying about what other people might be writing and how mine stacked up. Now we have access to so much incredible writing online, and it often paralyzes me. And yes, I realize the irony of talking about this in this awesome forum! And I've enjoyed many online classes over the years. So, if anyone wants to commiserate about this with me or give me a tiny peptalk, feel free! haha
I wrote from an early age. One of my earliest writing memories is writing a chapter book about a bird family and constructing a cover out of cardboard box in front of a wall heater during the winter in Iowa.
But I didn’t have permission to take my writing seriously or any creative venture really for most of life. Both of my parents worked in factories and it took me a long time to discover my own creativity and then another long process to believe that pursuing a writing life was “allowed” for me. I grew up surrounded by people that worked very hard for what they had--art was for rich people.
After college, I worked in a drug and alcohol rehab for 5 years. Then, there was another 5 years I spent as a chef. I tend to burn down careers every 5 years. I came back to writing after being sick and needing to be mostly in bed for about 6 months. I wrote then out of necessity from being in such a low place.
During the pandemic, I took a few writing classes that lit me up inside and made me feel alive and connected to my writing in way I couldn’t shake loose from. So, I came to writing in my late 30s-I’m 39 now.
It's just been a few years, I am just in the beginning of submitting work and I still feel very much like I am finding my way. Reading many of your comments, is a great encouragement to me.
Nicole, it sounds like you have lots of life experience to draw from in your writing. We have a couple of parallel threads: similar parents, work in rehab. I hope you’re on the mend from your illness and I can see you used that time to hone your writing skills. You’re a survivor and an inspiration. Keep on going!
My 5th grade teacher read the first story in what became a series— Super Baby Saves the Day— and began sending me every day to another class to read the next adventure and the next. I wrote them at my kitchen table each night for the rest of the school year. Then I played sports and didn’t really come back to writing until college.
I started writing when I was in primary school, kind of drifted away from writing fiction and into writing for role-playing games for groups I ran, nothing published, for over 30 years.
Started to write fiction again after my wife got me a place on a creative writing course 5 years ago.
I'm writing short form, but slowly increasing my word count.
I started off as a sportswriter, covering high school, college, and pro sports. When I left newspapers for general communications and then politics, I also focused on family and fatherhood. Now, with a near empty nest, this rediscovery has fueled me when I needed it the most. I've published one novel, releasing another one in April and my Substack keeps me on a pace. Thanks for asking.
My dad had trouble telling jokes. He'd start but then get tongue tied and would just blurt out the punch line without any setup or explanation. Then he'd laugh so hard my mother had to slap his back and yell "Tom! Tom! Tom! Not while you're driving!" By age 7, I was writing stories about whatever happened in the car, sort of car pool novellas.
I started writing fiction at 35 because my internal stories wanted to be out in the world. If I could have had a career in dance or the theater I would have done that but this was not to be.
Mostly a reader as a young kid but added “poetry writer” to my persona in high school. Wanted to teach but moved toward publishing opportunities after graduating with English/Journalism major. Met my poetry-writing husband in college and we published a little magazine for a few years. Spent most of my career editing or writing 3,000 word feature articles. Once I left the working world, I discovered flash and new poets and workshops—and it’s been a lovely and invigorating road to travel.
I was ok at English at school but never had a burning desire to write. I was more interested in science and maths and became a qualified accountant. However, I wrote in diaries all my life and when I was pregnant, blogging was a big thing and I got into that. As I wrote and read blogs I decided I wanted to improve my writing. From doing different courses, I then got into writing short stories, flash fiction and even had a job for a while writing about accounts.
I wrote a novel in college that was agented and nearly acquired by one of the Big Five. But then my agent quit the business, and I toiled away on novels in solitude for 20 years, before discovering flash fiction and the joy of online communities. I still write novels, but shorter forms are lovely because (among other reasons) they regularly bring you into contact with other people.
Wow, what a story, David! I'm glad you've found the shorter form and work so well within it. Thanks for sharing!
I agree about the writing community for shorter forms, David. So glad you are still writing novels but also found a larger community and a different form as well :-)
Thanks, Kelli! It's such a welcoming group.
David, I so agree about the joy of online communities!!!
Yes! I didn't do any social media, etc., for so long, but it's been really nice. Also nice as a reader, since I'm exposed to so much wonderful contemporary writing!
I always knew. When I was very little, my parents fought a lot, screaming matches (they divorced when I was 9). My bedroom had a large closet, so my mother fixed it up inside with blankets, a lamp, all my stuffed animals, and loads of books. I would hide in the closet even when they weren't fighting and read book after book--picture books and then harder books as I developed my reading skills. I loved stories because they helped me escape. When I was twelve, my grandfather bought me my first journal. I started writing every day, and I've been writing nearly every day since. I majored in English in college and then went on to earn my MA and MFA. Eventually I also learned I liked writing ABOUT literary texts, so I got my PhD as well.
I started writing when I was a child. I was very shy and introverted, (kind of still is) and it allowed me to have a voice. As an adult I did get an MFA via a low residency format. I've had a few stories published. I wrote a novel, and got an agent, but the novel didn't sell, agent and I parted ways, and I was devastated. To give myself a break from the long form I started writing "brief" stories and found that I love writing Flash. I've gotten somethings published and was included in Wig Leaf's Top 50 long list last year. My novel has long listed in some competitions, and I've gained the "confidence," to review and try again and I have submitted it to a few independent publishers. We will see what happens.
I love your journey from novel to flash, Erica. I'm so glad you've embraced your novel anew and I'm crossing fingers and toes for you (though I don't think you need it!)
I started writing in 2020, during Covid lockdown, when a good friend encouraged me to take a Zoom class she was teaching on writing personal essays. I'd been a life-long "obsessive" reader as well as a reading specialist for grades K-8 professionally, so I thought, "why not?" Mostly I was just bored, though, and agreed to do it on a whim. I wrote my first essay after that, which was published the next month! I was shocked. I thought, "Where has this been my whole life?" I started writing fiction very shortly thereafter, first short stories, and then flash fiction. I was hooked. I say, now, that I found my calling in life at age 50! I just love the entire process. Recently, though, a friend from high school reminded me that I wrote poems back then, something I had sort of forgotten, and she had saved some of my poems in a box in her garage. She sent them to me and said, "you've always been a writer." What a discovery!
I love this Kelli. What a beautiful story.
What is it about 50 that gives us permission to do the things we didn't think we could? I love it!
I don't know, but I'm loving it!
I just read a couple of your pieces and holy moly!! Very impressed. The Shattering was unbelievably close to home for me, I’m just wowed.
Oh....thank you, Jennifer! That is incredibly kind <3
As I said in my "getting to know you" story, among my earliest memories are lazy summer afternoons plunking out stories on an old Smith Corona. They were mainly of the 'Hello mother, how was your day?" "Hello Father. How was your day?" With the added bonus of my illustrations. I had many careers, mostly in the areas of social work and education: Headstart social worker, special education teacher, head of a private school and, like you Luanne, I got a PhD. So I necessarily became adept at "professional" writing-academic journals and the like. Flash fiction has been invaluable in exorcising that academic writing style. Always, in all of my different jobs, I was always struck by the stories of my students, my socal work clients, the classroom, the other teachers--I saw stories everywhere and jotted them down. Now that I have the time, I write all the time: my little town newspaper, 3 writing groups and working with residents of the local retirement home to help them write their memoirs. Love any time I can put pen to paper.
Love that about the old typewriter, Edy. My grandparents gave me an old Royal typewriter, with its own built-in case, when I was very young. Thanks for sharing your story here. Love how immersed you are, and have been, in the writing life.
Edy, you made me think of a story a friend told me when I was finishing up my PhD. It might be apocryphal. She said that when Sharon Olds got her PhD, she said, now I have to forget everything I learned (because she wanted to write).
Thanks for that Luanne. So very true! I still catch myself worrying about attributions, APA style etc. until I shake it off.
All of the above! I started writing stories at about age 5. By 7, I was "copying" bios from real authors and creating my own to put at the end of my construction paper-bound stories (which I then tried to sell!). Although I wrote and was always involved in writing workshops (from high school on), I had very little "official" creative writing "schooling" until my 30s, as I had routinely been discouraged from pursuing creative writing, so instead had studied (and got various degrees in) journalism, technical writing/editing, and academic writing--all of which has served me well career-wise. I did finally get an MFA, but I think the main benefit of the MFA for me was that it taught me how to study craft in a way I hadn't done up to that point. From there, I would say I've learned primarily on my own, but I wouldn't say "self-taught" necessarily because every time I take a workshop or interact with other writers, I learn from them. I've learned flash fiction from you and many others whose work I've read and whom I've had the privilege to be in workshops with. *None* of what I know about flash was taught in my MFA program.
Thanks for sharing, Jessica! I love the idea of the young you making those construction paper books. I'm not at all surprised you learned nothing of flash fiction from your MFA program. I believe that's beginning to change. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I don't know. Right now, I think it's seen as an "easy" class to teach in some circles.
Agreed--I think flash in general is misunderstood by a lot of people. Interestingly, I've had interest in the form since around 2003. I made some meager attempts at writing it, but the responses from my writing group at the time were essentially "meh." I didn't know what I was doing--that was clear--but I also didn't have much guidance. So I kept turning back to poetry (looking back, much of my poetry was very flash-ish). I became more immersed in the flash form around 2015, but I really didn't find my "groove" until the pandemic hit. By 2021, I was a complete flash convert--and then there was no looking back LOL.
Jessica, pretty sure flash wasn't even around when I was working on my MFA--nor creative nonfiction either. We had poetry and fiction (which meant short stories) and a little drama. But Stu Dybek was my fiction guru, and it was by reading his prose poetry collection Brass Knuckles I could start to envision a different way.
I think that's an important and generous take on whether one is self-taught. You're right, Jessica, we learn from our fellow writers. I think I've learned more from various small workshops, prompt classes and exchanges with those who attend them than I learned while in the MFA program. The MFA program gave me time and support to persist and complete a book length collection of short fiction, though now I'm all about flash!
Love the creative bio writing from such an early age, very inventive.
I started entering essay contests when I was a kid. One of them was about My Favorite Celebrity. I wrote about a humor columnist in the local newspaper, and won the contest. He found out and sent me a handwritten letter telling me thanks and also that I “write like a writer.” I’ve been writing ever since!
Oh my goodness, I love this, Amy!
It’s so great to have a seasoned writer validate our early efforts! Bravo!
What an exciting reward for your writing!
Got my start as a writer by writing and publishing zines. The DIY approach taught me so much - not just the writing part, but art, production, distribution, connecting with others. It was so impactful to experience the throughline of taking an idea and seeing it thru to a printed publication that was sealed up and mailed off to a reader (usually a fellow zinester). The zine-making experience is still foundational to how I approach the publishing process.
Love this, Jeffrey! I feel like flash fiction really blew up at the birth of the internet and zines. What an interesting background you have!
Thank you very much Kathy for the reply, and the great thread. And you are totally right — flash fiction really did flourish in the early zine and internet days. CNF, as well. I'm not sure in those early zine days I would have even known to call it "flash fiction" or CNF, but those types of pieces were what made zines so special and inspiring.
When I was a child I wanted to be an author, an actress, or an archeologist. I wrote poems for the most part, although I did write a couple of stories. In an archetypal personality test I came out with a tie for caregiver and creator. So it was a back and forth for years, raising kids, getting an MFA in poetry/fiction, and a swing into academia (eek) with a PhD in English. I took an early retirement for medical reasons in 2008 and decided I was going to spend my time writing, but I still have a job in the family business, found art journaling and mixed media, and now a new grandbaby to take care of, so I am never focusing on one thing. Thus, short prose!!!
Oh this is lovely. For some reason, I love that your first three aspirations began with the letter A! thanks for sharing this, Luanne!
So glad you found short prose to be the perfect form—you're so talented, Luanne—and I can see how that fits into a busy life with lots of stuff going on (and a grandbaby). Very interesting that you also wanted to be either an actress or archeologist!
Thank you so much, Kelli. Haha, talk about talented!
Yeah, the 3 As. I always used to say that I was going to be one of the three As. Then my daughter was an actor, so that was fun for me. As for archeology, I long ago realized I would be bored with the tedium of the job.
You're so nice. Thanks Luanne <3. And yes, the three A's, hilarious! It's interesting that your daughter was an actor, how neat. I would love to hear stories about that world, the world of acting. And I also would be bored being an archeologist, but the idea of unearthing history is fascinating!
We have to try to meet up some day. I don't know how far away we are from each other, but it can't be hours haha.
I would love that! :-)
I was an avid reader from the time I first learned to read. Writing myself was not something I ever thought about growing up although I wrote a few bad poems during my teenage angst period. (Who doesn’t?!) I never kept a diary. Somehow, Susan Wittig Albert’s newsletter “Story Circle Journal” (snail mail) came to my attention in the mid-90s. I subscribed and Susan published my first CNF piece and my first poem. SCJ was very welcoming, encouraging, & supportive to women’s voices from all walks of life, and that’s what I credit with giving me the courage to submit. I didn’t finish college, I don’t have a degree but Susan made me feel like that didn’t matter. That MY voice mattered. Later, after Hurricane Katrina (2005), I started blogging. There was so much to shout about and I was part of a group of community-based bloggers who shouted. One of the other bloggers was a published poet & he was the inspiration behind my fist submission after SCJ. That first submission was accepted and published in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature in 2010 and I haven’t stopped since. I want to give credit to the workshops I’ve attended and the wonderful lit community on SM for their encouragement and support. Without it, I’d probably have stopped writing by now.
I really loved reading your story, Charlotte. Very relatable to me. I love to hear the strong community you have found in writing--this is something I am in search of myself.
I followed your Substack, Nicole. I have one, too, and I invite you to follow. I have some wonderful and kind writers who read me. If you’re on FB, Instagram, or X I’d be happy to connect there, too.
This is so generous of you Charlotte! I appreciate this.
I can't really remember a time I didn't write. I spent a lot of time alone as a kid and was (and still am) incredibly introverted. I always felt more secure just sitting in the corner watching everything going on around me. Then I'd go home and scribble everything in my journal. I don't have an MFA, but actually a business degree. I didn't get serious about publishing my writing until I was in my late 30s & 40s, though. My first stint was as an occasional slice-of-life columnist in our local newspaper--think Erma Bombeck. I eventually began taking summer writing workshops at UW-Madison and had a very supportive instructor who introduced me to flash fiction and well, the rest is history, I guess.
Kristen! I didn't know you had a business degree. Or that you were a slice-of-life columnist. So interesting. I can just see you as a kid, observing and writing in your notebook. You are such a talented writer, and an amazing mentor and encourager of others. Thank you for that!
You're so kind, Kelli! Thank you, friend.
One of the good things about being a screw up in school is that if you do bad enough, the school gets desperate, and they throw a tutor at you.
I call her Stephanie. I don’t know if that’s her name, it might’ve been Jamie, Christina, Laura, but Stephanie is that name that pops out.
She was a junior in high school and part of the National Honor Society’s mission to help underperforming kids. And I excelled at underperforming.
And I hated reading. Reading sucked. Why have books when you could just wait for the movie to come out later? Like Rambo movies. I idolized Rambo. First Blood was the shit.
Stephanie, my tutor, sat me down and tried to get me to read. Books bored me to tears. She asked me what books l liked, and I didn’t have an answer. I just knew that reading was boring.
The next time we met, she decided to do something different.
“We’re going to make a book,” she said. “What’s your favorite animal?”
"Whales.”
"Wonderful,” she said, and we got up from our cubby. She took me to the
school’s library.
I rushed to find army books, but she made me check out a book about whales. They didn’t have any army books that day. At least nothing close to my reading level. Whales it was!
The next time we met, Stephanie told me to write a story about a whale. I wrote a story about a baby blue whale swimming with his mother. During a terrible thunderstorm, he gets lost and finds his way back to her. It took a couple sessions, but I made a picture book. I bound it with a blue ribbon and Stephanie brought special paper for the cover.
I was so proud. I made a book!
To me, the book was a story about me and my mother, and how my mother lost me and got me back. I gave it to Mom for Christmas.
The following year, I started a Ghostbusters fan fic litmag. I've been trapped ever since.
This is such a great story!
Thank you!
My senior year English teacher stated publicly that I was the best writer he ever taught. I opted for a punk band, heavy drinking and though I never graduated from college, I taught Introduction to Pocket Billiards at a well regarded university. Dabbled in writing, had an essay published in the Detroit Free Press, started to take it a little more seriously, got sober and I've published short fiction daily on Substack since Aug 21, 2020.
I am a writer because without writing I fear I’d sleep my way through life.
Beautifully stated, Romily!
Love this.
I've always been a reader, but I wasn't a writer until going back to college in my 40's and taking a lit class where we read Mrs. Dalloway. I put the book down and said "You can write like that!?!" and started writing. I started with poetry and have been writing flash fiction for about 5 years now.
Ah, I love this. I love "You can write like that?" I feel like I had the same reaction, when I read Best American Short Stories for the first time, the 1998 version I think.
Is BASS an author or a story or ?? I'd like to read it!
Sorry! Best American Short Stories.
Yes. I was wondering too!
Best American Short Stories! I'll edit my response...
Bass, if you’re talking about the Rick variety, is the author of the most stunning sentences you’ve ever read tucked neatly into short stories, essays, and everything else he writes.
To the Lighthouse was the novel that truly galvanized me, I think. It prompted me to read Woolf's letters and diaries as well as her fiction.
Her diaries galvanized me:)
Love your story! As a late in life writer myself, I’m always happy to read stories like ours!
Mrs. Dalloway! Easily in my top 5 favorite novels of all time:)
Childhood memories: sitting at the table, after dinner, and writing stories. Then reading books until Mom declared “bedtime” (then it was time to read them under the covers with a flashlight)! At age 12, Archie Comics published two of my letters. My first official writing credits. ;) Mainly though, it’s my friends and family that tell me, they always knew I would be a writer. I’m just arriving to this time very late, after an unusual and often difficult life journey. I’m grateful to write and share anything now. We don’t know how long we get to be here on this beautiful earth. xx
Karin, you’re so humble. Your work touches so many! Your life journey has made you a sensitive writer - a favorite of mine.
Oh, Charlotte. Always so supportive! <3 I am sitting here in a motel room, in a windy mountain stopover, with glassy eyes. Thank you for your generosity, which lands in my heart ever so softly.
I always knew I wanted to be a writer and wrote stories as a kid. Then at school when I told the careers officer that was what I wanted to do, she scoffed. Said being a writer wasn’t a real job and definitely not one for the likes of me! I left school at 16 and did admin jobs to pay for a party lifestyle. Then after I met my husband we went travelling and when I got back I did a correspondence course in editing and got a job as a magazine editor. I was 28 by then and slowly started finding my way back to fiction through workshops and reading craft books. In my mid-30s, I did an Open University degree in Creative Writing and Literature but stopped half way through as didn’t find it very creative! I had my first story published when I was 40, my first novel when I was 44 and now run workshops and courses myself helping others to develop their craft. Just starting work on my third novel and still love writing!
Wow, incredible story Amanda. I loved reading this.
Thanks Nicole. 😊
What an awesome and inspiring story, Amanda. Kudos to you!
Thanks Charlotte 😊
I still have my first written book, illustrated. It is called 'Sammie the Jam Bear.' I wrote it when I was twelve. I kept diaries when I was a teenager and now, of course, I wish I hadn't thrown all of those away! But as an adult I didn't start writing seriously until the 1990s. When I moved to Hastings, UK in 2000 I started a Diploma Course in Creative Writing and in 2007 I did a part-time MA in Creative Writing at the University of Sussex. I have my bad days, even my bad months, but now I can't stop writing and I imagine I will continue until I'm too 'gaga' to write.
I started writing when I was about 10 years old. Stories and poems just poured out of me. I wrote about secret gardens and cities under the sea. I made little books about the adventures of Winnie the Worm, Satina the Mouse, and other wonderful made up characters. I would sit at the steps of my home while everyone watched TV and write for hours. I stopped writing in high school when I found alcohol and other substances. Although I kept journals throughout my life, I didn't write creatively from age 25 until recently (I'm in my 50s!). I've just recently learned about flash fiction and I'm falling in love with it. In 2013 I fainted in my kitchen and woke up paralyzed from the shoulders down. I'm now working on a memoir.
I'm speechless. I look forward to reading your memoir when it's published.
I have been writing story snippets since I was about 10. Some fiction, some personal reflections, the beginnings of essays, children's books, etc. I never had the nerve to really pursue creative writing because I was always worried about whether I was "good enough," and that I wouldn't make a dime. I It felt frivolous and somehow irresponsible. I do not have an MFA. I have degrees in communications, anthropology, and museum studies. I wrote in all my previous careers, for media, for museum exhibits, for other professionals, for commercial interests, but never for myself. During Covid, my curatorial consulting business closed down because no one was at the office, EVER. And then I got cancer.
I had to rethink my entire life based on my new physical limitations and the sudden realization that life is too short to do something you hate. It was time to write. I approached the task with the attitude, "If not now, when? If not me, who?" I gave myself permission to write and fail and write some more. I knew I had some chops. One of my writing mentors says that dialogue is my superpower. But I knew nothing of true craft. I wrote about 150 poems in the first year, many crap, some now published in lit mags and anthologies. I scribbled story ideas (short story intimidates me). I tried my hand at essay, knowing nothing. By Christmas 2022, I had written the first draft of my first novel. And last summer, I launched my own Substack. It is the happiest I have ever been. I wake up and do what fuels me every day. I am developing the most lovely writing community both IRL and on Substack. It is work, for sure. I am learning a TON. But it is the biggest labor of love I have ever undertaken after raising my kids. It is truly mine.
Also, cancer is gone. I got lucky. I realize that one sentence can really kill a mood.
I am so glad, Ingrid!
Thrilled to hear this!
"It felt frivolous and somehow irresponsible." This resonates for me for sure. You have fought through so much to being a writer, wow.
At twelve, I wrote plays that were performed by the neighborhood kids for our parents to watch. I wrote, directed, made costumes and of course starred in these plays. In college I got my degree in education and comparative literature. I always loved reading. I journaled for most of my twenties, thirties and forties. I was an acupuncturist and stepmom. When our daughter went off to college, we moved out to the country and I went to many weekend writing retreats and began my first novel. I was in a weekly writing group for decades. My second novel is looking for a home. Because of a rare and disabling condition, I am be ridden and have difficulty reading more than a page or two and in the process discovered flash which I love and am learning to write.
Sorry, that’s bedridden. I speak into my phone and it loves to change what I say .
Thirties when I thought I had the permission to write. Always a reader from my childhood, Natalie Goldberg’s workshop in Taos, my wife’s encouragement. Took a three-year hiatus from teaching high school to move to Louisiana for an MFA. The time it allowed to try out different things like performance studies, brought me out of the message “you’re not allowed to write, or call yourself a writer,” embedded in me from growing up in Ireland. Now, I’m writing for myself, writing what I please, some days good, some bad.
James, good to see you! I’m envious of your time with Goldberg. I love your writing & hope to read more. Btw, you, in addition to Kathy, were very helpful to me in Fictionaut so I thank you for your time & attention back then.
Ah, you too. Love Fictionaut, so many rich experiences there reading other people’s work.
Hi, James! Good to see you here!
McCray?
Yes! :)
This is really admirable, James. And these lines are very relatable to my own story, “you’re not allowed to write, or call yourself a writer,”
I wrote in undergrad, just for myself. Then I spent a lot of years writing “professional” stuff - pitches, plans, projections, arguments, opinions, letters, etc. After I retired, and the lockdown happened, I dabbled again in creative writing. But not seriously or consistently. It stayed with me though and I’ve been much more consistent with my scribbles in the last few months, and really enjoying it. Now I’ve found this immersion and this group, and I think this might be my origin story right now. You’re all in it. Cheers!
I had a tumultuous upbringing, living on the poverty line in a rural town with unreliable parents. I felt very different from the majority of my classmates. In high school I read "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros and for the first time I felt seen. It was a revelation for me, and I decided I wanted to be a writer who could make another person feel understood.
That's a wonderful goal - making others feel understood.
Thank you, Lori. I wrote mostly creative nonfiction
Really lovely.
The best reason to be a writer. :)
My Writing Origin Story: My best friend dictated a journal entry to her mother when she was 6 saying she was mad at me because I wouldn't play and only wanted to write stories! I wanted to write so badly, I use 4 instead of 3 fingers because school hadn't started yet, and I had to figure it out by myself. When they tried to get me to do it "right" I refused. I have Alexithymia which basically means I don't know what I think or feel unless I write it down. It's common in those of us with Autism and ADHD. So I think I've always been a writer, and I've kept notebooks since the age of 14 with song lyrics, poems, journaling and stories. I never could figure out how to submit, and when I did, my early efforts were not embraced by editors. Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria made that extra hard. But I got over it, and I got my MFA in Theatre. I tried to get an MFA in poetry, but an old white bearded professor told me to stick to playwriting, and I was too fragile to stand up to him at the time. Now I teach playwriting for the Dramatists Guild Institute. When the pandemic hit, I went back to poetry and fiction. Writing and revising are my favorite things to do!
never heard of Alexithymia before--glad to know of it. And nice to see you here, Emma!
Nice to see you too! It literally means feeling without words A (without)-lexi (words)-thymia (condition of mind or emotion) from the Greek.
Do you "know" that you want to be a writer or do you simply start writing, compelled without explanation to express yourself through the written word both real and imagined?
Good question! I know that I wrote, off and on, for many years from childhood on, but it wasn't until I was 40 that I "knew" I wanted to be a writer.
Always a reader, averaging over fifty a year, I didn't start writing until I was fifty. My son was in the hospital having his gallbladder removed. I was anxiously waiting, reading Paul Bowles's Sheltering Sky, a great novel but a poor choice for a hospital waiting room. The operation took longer than expected. Every waiting moment was seared into my memory. I wrote about it afterward. My brother read it and said this is good and that I should write more and so I have. Mostly flash-length, slice-of-life, micro-memoir, and the mandatory unfinished novel.
I began writing in third grade. My first work of fiction was, I now realize a few decades later, a "novella-in-flash," ten linked episodes of a young child's adventures exploring the solar system. (One on each of the nine planets—Pluto still a planet then—the last adventure on the sun!). At age 12, I taught myself to type and produced, with friends, a fantasy and science fiction magazine, which we sold door-to-door in the neighborhood. We published an issue a month for a year with 5 to 6 stories in each issue and had a paid circulation of about 100. We used our elementary school's mimeograph machine, but by our fourth issue we made enough profits to buy our own ditto machine! I've never stopped writing.
I was always writing but didn't realize it. When i was in my late twenties, it suddenly hit me that I was able to do something that others struggled with. I took a little course on writing for magazines and the teacher pulled me aside and said, okay you can really write. With that validation, I managed to talk my way onto the staff of a magazine in NYC and a few years later decided to try writing a novel. It sold, and here I am all these years later still writing and enjoying myself. (I did get an MFA--a useless degree, really, but I thought perhaps one day I'd teach in an MFA program myself. Never did.)
Mary that is great. I became a teacher in much the same way, just happened into it and fell in love. The writing has always been around too, but not paying the bills…
tough to make actual money through writing. Talent plus timing plus a MASSIVE AMOUNT OF LUCK plus tenacity and also MORE LUCK. But i love to write, so it's all good.
Wow!! Great story. So glad you were encouraged by that teacher and found your calling!
Thank you, Kelli. Sometimes it just takes one person at the right time to make all the difference in someone's life.
Agree <3
I wrote my first story in second grade. It had to have been in April, and I had to have been watching my mother filling out the income tax, because I still remember the words:
"2 +2 = 4. 5+5 = 10," said Mickey Mouse. "Darn, I hate doing these taxes." Fast forward to 2013, when I found myself at retirement age in the writer's Mecca, Iowa City, Iowa, at the same time that the nonuniversity writer's community exploded and I began writing a lot.
I love Mickey Mouse saying this— very funny!
A fellow parent at my daughter’s school invited me to join her writer’s workshop and I’ve been writing ever since. I just finished a novel and I’ve started writing about dreams in literature on Substack. I can’t imagine not writing. I also co-founded a reading series for flash San José that’s been running since2014. My writers community is a joy.
I didn't realize I was supposed to be a writer until I was 39. While in college and grad school (MBA), writing papers was painful. Then I had several jobs requiring writing of letters, newsletters, press releases, and ultimately a how to book (Creating a Farmers Market: Starting From Nowhere). Writing was the only part of these jobs that didn't become boring so I decided to make it my career.
Those press releases were all published verbatim by the local paper. That helped me get paid by them later as a stringer writing about people and events. Those clips led to a gig stringing for United Press International wire service doing mostly rewrite. When that faded away as their business changed, I wrote feature articles for trade magazines through a company that worked for different associations. I still do that, sometimes working directly for the associations.
I have three unfinished novels I haven't worked on in years. Somehow I started writing short fiction. I've been published by lit mags five times (once I was paid $20). I've also published an anthology of two sci fi short stories on Kindle (The Alien Infection and The Cats) and sold a few, mostly to friends. Any day I don't write something I feel sort of disoriented.
I wrote my first poem at 7 years old in a one-room School. The teacher liked it so much she tried to get it published in the local newspaper. I've been writing short forms ever since, now working on a novelette. I publish a literary magazine that features flash fiction and short stories along with poetry, but that's another post for another day. I really appreciate reading short stories, especially flash fiction.
I edited this to read "I really appreciate..." rather than "rarely." Sheesh.
I told my kindergarten teacher I wanted to grow up to be an author. Because I loved books, I wanted to do what my favorite authors did. It took many decades and more than one manuscript to become a book author, but I’ve been writing for fun and on the job my entire adult life.
I started very young and absorbed as many print and media sources as I could. I still do.
When I was a girl I couldn’t imagine anything apart from being a writer. But I grew up poor so I always had a practical side. When I went to university, I thought, ouch, what if I can’t make a living as a writer?
So I went to medical school.
Then I was so busy, I barely had time to pee!
Until I became disabled/on oxygen.
No choice but to slow down. And then I began the arduous task of learning how to write well. I love writing flash fiction and I’m crazy enough to be attempting a novel too! And I learn so much from Kathy Fish. ♥️
Oh man, what a story, Angela. Thank you for sharing and thanks so much to being here and sharing your work. xo
I caught the creative writing bug during the pandemic. I guess I've always written to some extent, keeping a daily diary for most of my life. I now live in France and was persuaded to accompany a French friend to a creative writing class as a way to improve my grasp of the language. I enjoyed it so much that when it had to close due to Covid restrictions, I searched online for a way to continue writing but in English. I stumbled upon WritersHQ, did a few of their free online courses, got hooked on writing flash, sent out my first submissions, had a few online publications, and haven't looked back. Being an avid reader has no doubt helped. I write for no other reason than that I enjoy it. I started my own Substack last year, sending a post out on a weekly basis. It's currently on hold while I deal with personal matters, but I'm already looking forward to restarting it in a few weeks.
You could say I was something of a late starter. At school I dropped English Literature in favour of Technical Drawing. Then after several years working and producing reports, critiques and facts and figures, I started writing articles for Cycling & Triathlon magazines, all good factual stuff. Heading towards retirement I decided to try fiction. I signed up for a Creative Writing course and was advised to think of a character and write a novel!
After numerous years I’m finally closing in on a first draft. In between I’ve undertaken short stories and more recently flash fiction, but at the moment I’m concentrating on completing the novel first draft. I’ve kept my character waiting far too long. Fortunately she is very patient!
Good question, I started as a kid primarily because I’m the youngest and writing is one way to be “heard”, I was always encouraged to by one sibling in particular, and as an introvert it’s always been one of two favorite means of productive ‘me time.’ Thanks for asking, what about you (particularly flash, which my wordy ass cannot write to save my soul)?
A lifelong reader who gradually realized I could write (I was kind of a late bloomer), I majored in English and Technical Writing, and enjoyed a nice career in the latter for many years. I also studied nonfiction writing through an extension program and had a little success with publishing. Fast forward to when my kids started school: I got more serious about writing and published more, but it's been fits and starts for me the whole way. Two observations about my experience: I've slowly "graduated" from writing 2,000 word pieces that included (too) many beautiful sentences to shorter and shorter pieces. One of my favorite stories I've published is 30 words! I like writing and reading stories based on constraints.
Observation #2 is an ongoing issue for me. Back in the day, I used to be able to put my head down and write, not really worrying about what other people might be writing and how mine stacked up. Now we have access to so much incredible writing online, and it often paralyzes me. And yes, I realize the irony of talking about this in this awesome forum! And I've enjoyed many online classes over the years. So, if anyone wants to commiserate about this with me or give me a tiny peptalk, feel free! haha
I wrote from an early age. One of my earliest writing memories is writing a chapter book about a bird family and constructing a cover out of cardboard box in front of a wall heater during the winter in Iowa.
But I didn’t have permission to take my writing seriously or any creative venture really for most of life. Both of my parents worked in factories and it took me a long time to discover my own creativity and then another long process to believe that pursuing a writing life was “allowed” for me. I grew up surrounded by people that worked very hard for what they had--art was for rich people.
After college, I worked in a drug and alcohol rehab for 5 years. Then, there was another 5 years I spent as a chef. I tend to burn down careers every 5 years. I came back to writing after being sick and needing to be mostly in bed for about 6 months. I wrote then out of necessity from being in such a low place.
During the pandemic, I took a few writing classes that lit me up inside and made me feel alive and connected to my writing in way I couldn’t shake loose from. So, I came to writing in my late 30s-I’m 39 now.
It's just been a few years, I am just in the beginning of submitting work and I still feel very much like I am finding my way. Reading many of your comments, is a great encouragement to me.
Nicole, it sounds like you have lots of life experience to draw from in your writing. We have a couple of parallel threads: similar parents, work in rehab. I hope you’re on the mend from your illness and I can see you used that time to hone your writing skills. You’re a survivor and an inspiration. Keep on going!
Yes, I am fully better and so grateful! Thank you.
My 5th grade teacher read the first story in what became a series— Super Baby Saves the Day— and began sending me every day to another class to read the next adventure and the next. I wrote them at my kitchen table each night for the rest of the school year. Then I played sports and didn’t really come back to writing until college.
I started writing when I was in primary school, kind of drifted away from writing fiction and into writing for role-playing games for groups I ran, nothing published, for over 30 years.
Started to write fiction again after my wife got me a place on a creative writing course 5 years ago.
I'm writing short form, but slowly increasing my word count.
I started off as a sportswriter, covering high school, college, and pro sports. When I left newspapers for general communications and then politics, I also focused on family and fatherhood. Now, with a near empty nest, this rediscovery has fueled me when I needed it the most. I've published one novel, releasing another one in April and my Substack keeps me on a pace. Thanks for asking.
My dad had trouble telling jokes. He'd start but then get tongue tied and would just blurt out the punch line without any setup or explanation. Then he'd laugh so hard my mother had to slap his back and yell "Tom! Tom! Tom! Not while you're driving!" By age 7, I was writing stories about whatever happened in the car, sort of car pool novellas.
My first written words were “NO BED!” a protest sign I made and held over my head as a toddler and I’ve been a writer and an activist ever since.
Ha, I LOVE this! You discovered the power of the. pen (or crayon) very early, Jennifer!
I started writing fiction at 35 because my internal stories wanted to be out in the world. If I could have had a career in dance or the theater I would have done that but this was not to be.
Mostly a reader as a young kid but added “poetry writer” to my persona in high school. Wanted to teach but moved toward publishing opportunities after graduating with English/Journalism major. Met my poetry-writing husband in college and we published a little magazine for a few years. Spent most of my career editing or writing 3,000 word feature articles. Once I left the working world, I discovered flash and new poets and workshops—and it’s been a lovely and invigorating road to travel.
I was ok at English at school but never had a burning desire to write. I was more interested in science and maths and became a qualified accountant. However, I wrote in diaries all my life and when I was pregnant, blogging was a big thing and I got into that. As I wrote and read blogs I decided I wanted to improve my writing. From doing different courses, I then got into writing short stories, flash fiction and even had a job for a while writing about accounts.
My mum used to take me to libraries all the time. I fell in love with books. And there isn't much else I have wanted to do since, than to write.