Our First Attempts

[SevenWritez]

The cut-off from the beginning of a titled thread here caught my attention. "Your first chapter..." and what I originally thought was behind these words instead led to something entirely different. But it got me thinking.

I'm guessing most people here have at one time or another attempted to write a story, be it a novel or just a short little tale.

Does anyone here remember their first attempt, you know, deciding to cut with the surrealism of being lost in an imagination and instead putting the pencil to paper?

I'm not asking for anyone to actually post anything they've done (I'm sure we'd all be embarssed to show our first efforts), but I was just wondering what people remember from first setting out to create a vision set in their mind.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is: How do you compare your new work to your old work, what changes do you see from your very first chains of words to your newer monologue of dictions? What do you remember most about what was going on in your head when you first wrote something down for yourself.

Just curious.

 

[mehastings]

I remember. I wrote a story about a turtle who went to the city to become a chef. He cooked a lot of cherries jubilee. It was an illustrated tale, and I've still got it hidden away somewhere.

I was probably eight at the time, so I don't remember much about the "writing process" other than that my father helped me a bit (I would never have come up with cherries jubilee on my own). These days, I don't write much, so I can't honestly compare.

 

[Stewart]

My first memorable story was about my dog and my friend's cat about to have a bath but, when their owner left the room, a big bubble came from the soapy water, sucked them up, and then dropped them into the bottom of the bath where their squeaky toys came to life.

The story after that was an eight page western. I would have been ten years old.

 

[SevenWritez]

Wow, quick responses--and those both sounded great in their own right. I wish I remembered my first attempt (I'm 16 for Christ's sake, I should know), but a lot of my younger days--and now I sound like an old man--were shrouded by some dark blanket of insecurity. Problem with me, I believe, was that even at a young age I was fascinated by the epic, wanting things to be big, wanting things to be perfect. Even though I could be wrong, I believe my first attempt at a story was a full-blown attempt at a fantasy novel. I've since trashed it, and my newer stories tend to stay steer clear of that genre, but no matter when I write, that little tale that first set me going...well, it's always in the back of my mind. Odd how we can be loyal to things we try to discard.

 

[FrodoLIVES]

My first attempt was a story about seven wild dogs who lived in a cave and had lots of happy adventures. This later spawned an epic series of the same story. I wrote a biography for each of the dogs and got up to DOGS 6 on the real story. It was...quite interesting. I was about 8 years old. And I was convinced that someone would publish my amazing story. The binder is hidden in the back of my closest somewhere probably.
I know what you mean on having to write 'epic' tales. I wrote a story like that as well a couple years ago (I'm 17). It was perfectly horrible but it was dense and complex...and bad. It got trashed as soon as I realized that I'd better start with the basics before going on to write novels.
It's still a challenge for me though because even though I know I need to practice short stories, my mind doesn't work that way. I instead get these epic ideas that would suit a 700 page book and trying to work them into a short story is a daunting prospect.
Great idea for a thread!