Thread: My First Attempt at Writing

In a couple weeks I will be celebrating the one year anniversary of my first post on this website. I decided it was time that I explore the many different pages within the site. I was impressed by the wide reaching parts of the world that the members inhabit. I was also impressed by the diversity of the writers. However, I was most impressed by the number of young people that aspire to write.

I tried to remember when I first became interested in writing. Although I have only been letting people read my words for a couple years, I started writing things down many years ago. I recall staying with my cousin for a couple days when I was somewhere around twelve-years old. My cousin’s older sister liked to write, and I read a short story that she left lying on the kitchen table. It was a mystery. I remember thinking it was pretty cool and decided to give it a try myself a few days later.

I had no idea how to create characters or build a plot, but I faked my way through it for a few handwritten pages. I got to the point where I was lost; I didn’t know where I was going with the story, and decided I needed to wrap it up. My solution was to tease the reader by breaking into a Dr. Pepper (brand of soft drink for you international readers) commercial at a dramatic point in the story. I let a couple family members read it, and they thought it was funny. Little did they know – being funny wasn’t my original intention. Regardless of how I got there, I was hooked.

For many years I scribbled down my thoughts on paper. I tried writing short stories, essays, and poetry. I would finish something then fold it up, and stick it in a drawer somewhere. I couldn’t tell you how many times I did this. It continued on after I was married. I was a twenty-year-old father of two, and didn’t have time to think about a career in writing. I had to feed my family, so I worked while continuing to write in secret.

A few years ago I let my guard down, and left one of my essays where my wife could find it. I was embarrassed when she told me she read it, and shocked when she told me she started finding them a long time ago. She added, “I have many of them stored away in a safe place.”

My wife’s acknowledgement made me feel a little more confident in my writing. I decided I needed to figure out what type of writing that I felt most comfortable with, and try to stick with it. I sucked at fiction, and it bored me. I couldn’t write ‘anything’ that took too long. Not sure what else to call my lack of writing stamina, I decided I was an essayist.

Today I am much more confident about my ability to write. In fact, I am driven by my passion to one day write something that the world will see as truly inspiring. I know it is there. I know that I can do it and… I know that the crisp and clean taste of diet 7-up can quench the deepest, strongest thirst.

Sorry… He-he (giggle, chuckle)… Some things never change.

Inspiring story CW, I enjoyed the read. As you say, your wife finding your work, much to your surprise, then stating she'd be reading them for what I presume was in fact years must have been quite a confidence builder. Eh?

That's a great story closetwriter. Your forthrightness regarding your attempts at different genres is refreshing, & is probably something we all can relate to.

It was sweet the way you showed us about your wife finding your writing; almost like the mother who finds that kind of magazine under her teenage son's bed. That last paragraph was a gigle for me, too.

Try this:

and I read a short story—a mystery—that she left lying on the kitchen table.

Don't ever stop writing. We'll get discouraged, disheartened, & disillusioned. Sometimes we wonder if we were destined for this. We are.