Not sure where - or rather, when - to start. So let us just run backwards in my own personal timeline, and let us examine what in my history brought me to where I am now in regards to writing.
So, let’s look at me in Primary School, a student of a teacher that I loathed. Mrs Hutton - one of the very few people I can say I hated. I must have been five or six years old, and I have no idea what this woman was doing as a teacher. I seem to remember she once stood in the middle of the class and cackled, ‘I’m evil!’ I would have to agree with her - for the entire year I was in her class, I hated going to school; I would cry every morning before school.
Mrs Hutton didn’t think much of me either. She once suggested to my parents that I was dyslexic, and that I would never be able to spell or writing correctly. I have often joked with my mum that my interest in writing came from wanting to spite that horrible teacher.
Let go forwards a bit more, towards my time in Middle School. I was back with kinder teachers, and although I was put in the remedial class for English (whilst simultaneously in the top one - weird, non?), I was happy. There was a book fair at my school, and although I didn’t have an interest in reading, my mum took me and my brother anyway, and had us pick a book each. I chose one with an interesting looking cover - it was Animorphs 1 by K.A. Applegate.
I tried reading Animorphs, but had a bit of trouble. It was too advanced for me. And it didn’t help that after the first few chapters, I stopped reading, because I found it scary.
But a few weeks (or months, I’m not sure) later, I gave Animorphs another shot. Although I still had trouble reading it, and it still scared me, I stuck with it to the end. And loved it. As soon as possible, I got the next book in the series. And then the next, and then the next (and so on). My ability to read gradually improved over time, and by extension, my performance in English class also seemed to improve with it. I moved onto other books - such as Harry Potter and Redwall, but it was Animorphs that really started me off.
Let us jump forwards again. This is me only five or six years ago, as a new student at Secondary School. All my reading must have really paid off, for my English teacher was impressed with the stories I wrote in class, and told my parents of my excellent (for my age) writing skills.
With this boost in confidence, I decided to try my hand at writing a story of my own outside of school. Of course, it was terrible. Scribbled on a few pages of A4 paper, it really was horrendous. I rewrote and edited it countless times - so by the end, the paper was smothered in pen.
Around this time, my family got the internet. It wasn’t long before I found my favourite site - druchii.net, a Warhammer website (which I played at the time). I would post often on the forum. For reasons I cannot remember, I decided to try my hand a Warhammer story and posted it on the forums. The only reply I got was from a member called ‘Death&Binky’ (who, incidentally, also joined this site as ‘Binky’ out of the blue), saying ‘Hey, you’re 13? So am I!’
I carried on writing Warhammer stories, and although I never proof-read or edited them, I improved. I didn’t receive any critiques (beyond, ‘proof read your work - its got spelling errors’), and only got praise, but I improved, mainly because I was very self-critical. With each story I wrote, I would identify what was weakest about it (such as the dialogue) and worked on improving that aspect in my next story.
Let’s go forwards another few years. I randomly typed ‘writing’ into Google, and up came a website called ‘writing.com’. I made an account on there, fully intending to use it, but never did.
Let’s go forwards another year. For some reason, I decided to return to writing.com. I posted a story on there and received a few critiques. Wow, people were actually giving me advice on how to improve my stories! Pretty soon, I was hooked on writing.com, posting stories and receiving crits for them. Unfortunately, as a non-paying member, I could only post five stories at a time (which was a bummer).
Whilst browsing through writing.com, I saw an advert: ‘Young Writers Society’. Interested, I clicked on it, and found myself here. I made an account, commented on a few stories and posted one or two of my own, and then disappeared for a while.
Around a month (I think) later, I came back, and I’ve stayed here ever since. I don’t visit writing.com all that often (I really dislike the whole having-to-pay-to-post-more-than-five-items thing). YWS has really improved my writing, and it’s thanks to the large number of crits I’ve received: this is an excellent writers site.
Recently, I have had two short stories accepted for publication by a pair of magazines (both under the name of ‘J.J. Hyams’ - my initials and surname), and I blame this largely on YWS
. My writing skills have certainly come a long way from the time when Mrs Hutton told my parents I would never be able to write properly.
And what does the future hold for me? Well, no one can tell for certain, but I have received offers from six Universities to go and study English Literature and Creative Writing at them. My favourite of the bunch is Kent University, and so if I manage to attain the grades (which I’m sure I’ll be able to do) I’ll be off there.
(If you’ve managed to read all the way through this essay (standing in at around 1000 words) - then well done
.)
. Most the time they're not even needed, so I dunno why I keep on using them 
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) I liked the first half of your life more.
