The brain child of DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude, the co-sponsors include Alex J Cavanaugh, Katie Mills aka Creepy Query Girl and Matthew MacNish at The QQQE.
On Monday, February 13th, post your own origin story. Tell us all where your writing dreams began. It could be anything from how you started making up stories as a child, or writing for the school newspaper, or even what prompted you to start a blog. How about stories about the first time somebody took an interest in your writing, or maybe the singular moment when you first started calling yourself a writer. It all started somewhere and we want you to tell us your own unique beginnings.
There were always stories when I was a kid and it seemed like we went to the movies every week. I became enthralled with the art of the story. It felt natural to write my first story in the third grade.
After we had moved to San Diego in the summer of 1959, I started my school season at James Whitcomb Riley Elementary School in Mrs. Stork's class. The Twilight Zone debuted on television that year and I was an immediate fan. When Mrs. Stork gave us the assignment to write a short story I was ready.
My intent was to write a scary story in a Twilight Zone mode, but what I ended up with was probably a bit too gory to be a Twilight Zone kind of story. The story was about a cross-country truck driver who is going from Pittsburgh to California. I don't recall what exactly happened, but I do recall the driver disintegrated into a bloody mess..
I liked my story and thought I was a pretty good writer. From that point on I was hooked. Never afraid to experiment with my writing, I tried my hand at writing poetry, songs, essays, and journalistic style articles. The short stories were my favorites though. I liked to let my imagination go wild.
Third grade. That's when I decided I wanted to be a writer. I've often slowed down and taken many a break, but the writing dream has always been there. And that's the once upon a time when it all began.
