Okay guys. So this week I decided to talk about my first piece of writing. No. It is not my very very first piece of writing. No. I will not be sharing my very very first piece of writing at another date. No. I am not writing this post to show off (if I was trying to show off I would not show this piece of writing believe me). We are going to look at my first piece of cohesive writing and we’re going to talk about first drafts and revisions. So without further ado –
Getting Started: First Pieces of Writing
My first piece of cohesive writing began in fifth grade. I heard my very smart uncles talking about some middle eastern war. I was learning about Florence Nightingale for a school project. I was in love with French because my mother had just told me she knew some and was teaching me to count in French. One of my friends was telling me about the different native cultures of different places of the earth. Somehow all of these mixed up in my brain and began and totally not realistic historical fiction book written by the fifth grade me. Its called Stargazers. Stargazers (as written by young JM) is about a girl named Olivia and her little sister Violet. They lived in France during WWII and were caught at home when their city was bombed. For some reason, after one night of walking they ended up in South Africa. Except that it was not South Africa. It was some sort of fantasy culture that I developed myself. It was strange and not all that well put together. I clearly did not build the world before I wrote the story. I wrote all the way until the beginning of my seventh-grade year and even ‘made’ covers. I ‘commissioned’ a couple of my artist friends to draw covers when pasting pictures into Microsoft word and writing titles and bylines on it didn’t work. I paid for these commissions in erasers. I printed copies and my friend wrote fake reviews for it. All in all, it was a beautiful piece of self-publishing for a 12-year-old.
I look back on this piece of writing with some major regrets. The covers completely suck. I could do a lot better with Canva, picmonkey, and lunapics. I can now commission covers from real cover creators and pay with my own money. The plot did not make sense and the map in my mind was a lot smaller than in real life. I never write historical fiction anymore. I just can’t do it. The writing itself left something to be desired. This was the first real novel written by me and I wrote it from the time I was ten till the time I was twelve while also working on other writing projects that turned out just as bad. But I will give my younger self points for creativity even if some of the scenes (like the scene in the third book where Olivia gets trapped under a thin layer of ice in a pit filled with vipers that was slowly filling with water (( explain to me that how that happens in the middle of South Africa)) while trying to save her one true love John) are a little cliché. Here’s a line I will forever regret.
It had been weeks sense he had told us he was the chief.
Sense
Sense
Sense
Sense
Sense
That’s not even the right kind of since! There were a lot of other lines that I regret just as much. But there is a lesson to learn from my crappy childhood writing. You can improve. My first cohesive story was written when I was ten. It didn’t make sense, the characters sucked, the setting was wrong and the plot was cliché. But I kept writing. I recently got second place in a writing contest. I’m working on a five book series that I think is actually really good. I have written stories that people enjoy on wattpad. My writing has improved. But I also recently hit a stubborn writers block in one of the my books that had lasted for a whole year. I have dropped more books than I have completed. I also didn’t place in another writing contest. But that’s not what writing is about. Writing is about weaving stories because you can. Writing is about creating things that haven’t been created before. For me, writing is fun and always changing and improving. Writing can be whatever you want it to be. So keep it up. Don’t give up. Get Started.
So that’s all for this weeks post. If you guys want to hear more about my childhood writing tell me. I would love to hear about your childhood writing as well. First drafts suck but they have to exist. Next week I’m going to talk about writing communities and writing sites. Stay tuned for that. So,
Get up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!