Wednesday, March 29, 2006

The Reading Writer

I have always been a reader. Always. I don't actually have a memory of not being able to read. My mother was a grade school teacher before my brother and I were born so we were taught that skill earlier on.

In kindergarten, I won an award for reading the most books of any of the students for the school year. (125 books, I believe.) My mother says I ran to the stage to collect my blue ribbon.

I wrote my first book in kindergarten, too. About the adventures of a pinecone. That book still exists somewhere. I'm sure my mom has it tucked away, along with the second book I wrote about my cat, Mystery. That would have been a best-seller, I assure you - any book written on loose-leaf notebook paper and bound with orange yarn is destined to zoom up the charts.

The gift of storytelling came from my grandmother. A petite, quiet German woman with a knack for crazy sayings (you're the boss of the chicken coop, tell it to the preacher, let an electrician check your shorts) and the uncanny ability to imitate Donald Duck, she would send us to sleep with wild tales of kittens and bunnies - all spun from her mind on the spot. Have you tried to make up a bedtime story on the spur of the moment? It's harder than you think.

Anyway, the point is I was a reader first but the desire to write followed very closely. I can trace where it came from, who nurtured it. Is every writer like that? Do you know what pushed you to write? Where your desire came from? Tell me, I'd love to hear it.

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:57 AM

    Well I've always been a reader too. Storytelling came as a result of being a daydreamer as a kid. I'd be in class, mentally telling myself a story instead of working. At recess, again I'd come up with a story etc. I was a HUGE daydreamer and the writing came from that :)

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  2. I'm going to have to write a whole post about this on my blog...

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  3. Reading did it, Kristen. I fell in love with the stories and wanted to try my hand at creating my own.

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  4. My parents aren't readers. I just am. I'm like the black sheep of the family when it comes to reading 'coz since I was a kid I'd read as many books as I could. If there weren't any books, then I'd pick up the encyclopedia. *lol*

    As for writing, I started writing songs when I was 10 and learned to play the guitar. It was a way to express my feelings. So the progression from songwriting to bookwriting seemed like a natural one.

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  5. I'm a reader. Always have been.

    And I'm a daydreamer.

    I think I became a writer because I wanted to meld the two.

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  6. The voices in my head. LOL No, seriously. I was an avid reader for a _very_ long time before I even attempted to write, although I dreamed of doing it. I guess I was just absorbing, or my focus was elsewhere. Then, one day, I woke up and the urge to write overpowered me. That was the end of the non-writer life for me. Now, I can't seem to stop. Except now. LOL Now, I'm too excited to write. My novella was released today! Woo-hoo!

    Kit

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  7. I won my reading award in the third grade, narrowly beating out my bf.

    I, too, began writing soon afterwards. When I read Louisa May Alcotts biography. After I read she used to sit in an apple tree to write, my parents had a hard time getting me out of ours. LOL

    Teri

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