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Young Writers Society


A walk through your journey!!!



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Wed Mar 12, 2014 7:00 am
dhyan says...



Becoming a writer is definitely a journey worth hearing about. And I’m quite sure every individual find there’s amazing. There is always something behind the curtains.
Please share your journey as a writer. Not to take it too personal. Just answer the questions you feel comfortable sharing :)

1. When did you start as a writer?
2. What or who helped you the most?
3. What was your purpose or motive for writing?
4. Did you believe in yourself?
5. What habits did you form?
6. What benefits did you gain from the moment you started to write until now?
7. How has writing had an effect in your life?
8. How would you describe your journey in a nutshell?
Writing to change myself.

That will change the world.
  





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Wed Mar 12, 2014 11:05 pm
Tenyo says...



I love quizzes. They keep me busy while I'm not being productive 8D

1) I remember sitting in nursery when my teacher was showing us how to write. I could read, I don't remember how but I had just picked up the way words looked as they'd been read to me. My teacher wrote C- A- and before she finished the T- I realised I could make the words that I saw in books and my head exploded.

2) I wish I could come up with some cool answer but I can't think of anything I would say helped *most*. YWS, I guess? Because I can be part of a community of writers that I don't have way over here. Feeling safe behind a computer screen when I was at that point of adolescence that I was most vulnerable helped me to assert my own identity as an artist instead of creating insecurities to bury my desire to create anything else.

3) Writing just happened to be the easiest available medium for creativity. I wasn't allowed paint because it was too messy, sculpting was too expensive, so was photography because I didn't have a camera. I didn't own an instrument or a CD Player. Now after so long I feel sentimental towards literature and the power that words have, but in the beginning it was just because I could.

4) I don't have much sense of self to believe in when I'm writing, it's usually my characters or story that I believe in. My first draft always feels like it's been written by someone else, which is why editing is so hard I think. I don't believe in myself much when I'm editing, because it's taking something imaginary and putting it into a real world context, and I tend to believe in imaginary things more than real ones.

5) Habits... You mean like waking up at stupid oclock because a scene demands to be written? Or like, typing in the superman position because I'm too tired to physically keep my head up, but my brain still won't stop buzzing? Or when I'm focused enough to forget my inhibitions I accidentally start poeting everything I say and forget that people don't actually talk like that.

6) People are scared of the blank page. I can understand to some degree, but not entirely empathise. To me a blank page is like having a giant fairground, and the moment you think about something it's already there. It's also a library and a battleground and a maze. It's space- to think and play and love and angst, and I've yet to find anywhere else that offers the same kind of space as a blank page.

7) Writing keeps me sane. I have an unsatiable desire to create and if I couldn't write poems on the back of bus tickets or pour out novels into a keyboard I'd go crazy.

8 ) Journey is to nutshell as TARDIS is to phonebox.
We were born to be amazing.
  





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Thu Mar 13, 2014 12:27 am
deleted30 says...



Wow, @dhyan, you come up with some awesome threads. :D

Here're my answers:

1. When did you start as a writer?

I've basically been writing my whole life. I first got into it I guess in first grade or kindergarten... kindergarten, I think. But I was pretty bad at reading and writing then, so my stories were only composed of scribbles and crudely-drawn pictures. :smt003

Around second grade is when I started writing with actual words and sentences. And I've been doing it ever since.

2. What or who helped you the most?

My third-grade teacher was a pretty lousy teacher (seriously, he used to play video games during class), but he was very encouraging about my (terrible) writing and told my mom how impressed he was with how quickly I could write five or six pages.

As for what has helped me the most, I'd credit reading. That makes all the difference in the world.

3. What was your purpose or motive for writing?

I had a huge imagination when I was younger (still do), and was fascinated with books. I don't remember what exactly made me want to pick up a pencil and start actually writing, but I would say my fascination played a large part.

4. Did you believe in yourself?

At first? Absolutely. When I was younger, I had a terrible ego and thought everything I wrote was amazing.

As I've gotten older, of course I realize now how bad I was when I first started. I mean, I was seven, how good could I have been? :P But I'm actually glad I had that huge ego, because if I realized all the flaws in my work, I think I might've given up and not gotten to where I am now.

As for if I believe in myself now... I would give a very, very hesitant yes.

5. What habits did you form?

Define habits.

I've certainly picked up some tricks of the trade during my time writing. I also find that I write best late at night, before I go to sleep, if that counts. Usually around nine at the earliest, twelve at the latest.

6. What benefits did you gain from the moment you started to write until now?

Benefits? Well, there's some cred that goes along with telling people you write. Some, especially those that can't write themselves, are very impressed. I don't actually tell people I write (I get a little shy about it, actually), but my mom loves to tell just about everyone she knows.

Not sure what else to say to this one.

7. How has writing had an effect in your life?

I've self-taught myself how to spell words I once found intimidating through writing and reading. Also, technical stuff—like when you should capitalize things or when you shouldn't, or where you put commas and where you don't, et cetera. All of that I learned in part due to writing.

It sounds weird, but I've also learned more about myself through writing. I think I've grown from writing. It's comforted me when I've felt sad, and been there for me when I felt happy. Writing's kind of like a person for me now... which might sound crazy, and probably does. But I feel more understood now that I write. More free. More whole.

Writing has led me to do things I never thought I would, and meet people I might not have otherwise. It led me to YWS, too. :wink:

It's played an instrumental role in everything I've done, every choice I've made, and I'm glad about that. There was also a point when I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life or what career I wanted to pursue—and now that I've become a pretty good writer, I feel like I have an idea of what I want to do as an adult and which road I want to take. If that makes sense.

8. How would you describe your journey in a nutshell?

Well, my journey is still very much ongoing, since I'm quite young. But so far, I'd say it's been a great experience and I love writing more than anything. Without it, I'd be empty. I don't know what I would do or who I would be. And I've loved every second of my "journey," even the times when I had the most irritating writer's block or was stressed beyond belief. :smt003
  








If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
— Mark Twain