I wrote my first story when I was seven-years-old. It was three pages and I was so proud of it I insisted that each family member read it. I even took it to a big family get-together and wanted all of my extended family, whom I looked up to, to read it and tell me they liked it. I found that story years later, tucked behind my many notebooks, and read it again. I was mortified that I ever showed it to anyone, and how silly I must have looked to my smiling family. But I did not let that embarrassment stop me.
I continued to write. Most of the family knew what to get me for my birthday, a notebook, and I soon had a mountain of notebooks trying to stay on my shelf. I eventually kept them stacked under my bed, which was my writing desk until I was able to move out of the room I shared with my siblings and have a proper writing desk in my own room. I wrote the stories my sisters and brothers would act out, I naturally went into narrative mode as we played, preferring to be on the sidelines, as an author, while my characters(my siblings and cousins) moved about as I directed.
In my teens I sent a manuscript off to be published. Hindsight is 20/20 they say. I know now how much work that story needed, but when the publishers rejected it(as they rightfully should have) I was crushed. I’d had this dream since I was a child, of being a published author, and my family was supportive of the idea, though my mom did wish I would spend more time outside. The letter from the publishers was very nice as I remember(I tore it up into pieces so I can’t recall it all entirely) but while they said I had a good imagination, they didn’t publish my type of story.
This drove my determination to write more and learn all I could about the world of writing. It also started me looking at self-publishing, which later brought Amazon to my door. One summer a man came to see my grandmother, he was from an obscure college in outback New Hampshire and, knowing how I wanted to be an author(most of the family, in several bordering states, knew at this point) she invited me up to meet him. Upon learning I wanted to be published, the man told me about the excellent writing program offered at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts and with support and prayers, I was off to New Hampshire by the end of August.
A few years before, I had started the first draft of “A Warrior’s Journey”, and continued to work on it here and there. Sophomore year at TMC I met one of the best writing teachers ever, Dr. Zmirak, and, after much deliberating, I finally talked to him about my dream and the story I was working on. He asked to see what I had and I spent all night printing out the 200 page story so I could give it to him in class the next morning. He liked it, but he also had a lot of advice which I took to heart, believe me.
Those four years I spent at TMC were the most influential experiences to my writing I could have ever received. I went to Italy, England, and, more importantly, had classes for three years focused on writing and studying various Literature genres. I graduated college eager to continue writing and get published.
Ten massive rewrites, an editor with an evil red pen, and I finally published my first book last September on Amazon. I’m working on another story now, that’s looking like it’ll be a trilogy. Remember that stack of notebooks under my bed? I still have them. I have tons of story ideas, and I can only hope I can get them all finished.
Thanks for reading. 🙂