My first story - Sabrina

What we could call my very first story was written in second grade for the Young Author's Faire. That book is still sitting at my parents' house. I'll have to share it with you another time, because y'all, there are pictures. And they are awful, even for an 8-year-old.

I did actually write quite a bit growing up; I think the YAF got me in the habit of creating stories (which is why it is the best program ever, and if I should ever become a gazillionaire, I will totally fund that for as many schools as possible). Anyway, I never got very far in any of those stories, mostly because it was more fun to plan and draw pictures in my notebook. Like Sheena, I also had a story featuring a girl and a dog, though my dog was a golden retriever, and my story was going to be a survival-in-the-woods story a la Hatchet.

But my first finished story happened when I was 15. And it was about vampires.

Photo "Interview with the Vampire" courtesy of Frederico Casares on Flickr through a Creative Commons license

In the 90s, as today, there was a surge of vampire fiction. And my friend and I - we'll call her Rei - were totally into it. Our favorite authors were Laurell K. Hamilton (this was well before the books had any sex in them) and L.J. Smith (she of Vampire Diaries fame, but Rei and I most loved the Night World series). Rei and I had a lot of classes together, and we used to love to talk about books, and about how awesome it would be if we could be badass vampire slayers.

Shut up, we were 15, and the epitome of over-imaginative.

Just for fun, I decided to write a story for Rei, that would star us as vampire slayers. And this is super embarrassing to write, but I also gave us vampire boyfriends. I spent a lot of time working on the story - I wrote it out all in a spiral notebook. I still remember the moment I gave her the notebook to read. She loved it, and for the rest of our high school years, we were forever plotting out the future adventures of Alyssa (my character's name) and Rei (her character's name).

For many, many years I thought I'd lost the notebook that contained the original story... but then a few years ago, I found it. And looking at it now... it's bad. Cliches galore (Alyssa has violet eyes*), all sorts of telling rather than showing, and completely nonsensical plot developments.

And yet, this story is still very precious to me, for a lot of reasons. One reason is that it gave me a gift of confidence - it was my first story that I finished because I wanted to, not for a school project. Before, I'd always given up on a story before it's end. I'm not sure anymore why it's such a big deal for beginning writers to finish a story, but with the writing of this one, I no longer felt that fear. And the confidence I gained was invaluable as I started to write more and more often in the upcoming years, until I finally had my first finished novel, and after that, my first published story.

And I haven't stopped yet.







*That would be Tamora Pierce's fault rather that romance novels; at that point in my life, I desperately wanted to be Alanna when I grew up.

My First Story - The Year Was 1984

I'm sure I wrote stories here and there throughout elementary and middle school, but the first story I wrote with intent was called, "A Few Changes". I wrote it my freshman year in high school, for a Creative Writing class.

That was a lot of years ago.

I believe I typed it on my Commodore Vic20 (that's a computer, kids) that I had bought with my own money when I was ten. There was some sort problem between the computer and the printer because double letters would print randomly on the page. The one and only copy I have of the story is testament to that. We never did figure out the problem, nor did the geniuses at The Federated Group. No Geek Squad back then.

The story is about 500 words. Nowadays we would call that flash fiction. That term didn't exist when I wrote it. "A Few Changes" is a quirky little story about the end of the world - and there's a blatant Douglas Adams reference regarding Norway. For reasons I'll explain in the next paragraph, I hesitate to tell you any more.

The scary thing is, as I look over this manuscript – double letters and all – I'm thinking that with a little polish, there are a few pro markets I could send this to. That doesn't seem right, of course. But, why not? Wouldn't it be the funniest thing if 30-year-ago me actually knew how to get my third SFWA qualifying sale? So I am throwing down a challenge to myself. I am going to clean this story up and start submitting it. I'll keep you updated on its rejections and responses.

This is a funny parallel to something that happened a few days ago. In a quest for fodder for a new middle grade SF novel, I pulled out my 2009 NaNoWriMo book. This was the first, and only, time I did NaNoWriMo. The story was horrible, no two ways about it. The characters, however, are quite intriguing. I'm almost certain that I'm going to recycle them somewhere, sometime soon.

When we first start writing, before we have a clue what we're doing, I think we have an instinctual ability that emerges from enthusiasm and ignorance. This is why I never throw anything away, no matter how bad it is. I have stolen from myself countless times. Sometimes it's just a name, sometimes a concept, or even chunks of story line. Everything I know now built upon what came before it, so I see no reason not to re-use some of the bricks.

Go ahead. Take a look at your old work. Look for the gems in the pile of doody. You may be surprised at what you find. Past writer you might have been smarter than you think. At the very least, you'll be able to see how far you've come. And who couldn't use that little ego-boost now and again?

On the other hand, it might be good for a laugh, and that's never a bad thing.

Now, off to do a little editing on a certain old story…

First Story -- Karen

First Story

Well, before I begin, I need to acknowledge this auspicious occasion. It’s my PROSERVERSARY! J I began writing with The Prosers just one year ago (*today* - honestly, the symmetry is so appealing.) This was my first post.

(I’ll do a small update in an afterward.)

But on to the fun for today. The other Prosers and I chatted this week about a topic we could each do our own take on, something kind of fun like a blog tour, but since we all blog together here it’ll all be in one place. So the topic we chose to write about is our First Story.

Unlike a lot of other writers, I haven’t always known I wanted to write. I didn’t grow up writing stories like a madwoman (like my 10 year old daughter does!) I journaled on and off for a long time, and saved those journals (hat tip to my 6^th grade teacher, Mrs. Carroll, who told me that she kept her teenage journals so that when her boys were teenagers and were complaining that “you just can’t understand what it’s like!” she could shove her journals at them and say, “Um, yeah I can.”)

Instead, I fell into writing suddenly, like a meteor crashing down to earth. I started writing as a New Year’s resolution in 2007. After rediscovering reading and my love for fiction that prior holiday season, I just decided to start writing. I was instantly drawn to science fiction and writing for YA and MG (Middle Grade) ages because it was discovering the science fiction section in the library when I was about 12 that lit the fire of a lifelong reader under me. I couldn’t believe all these stories existed about adventures out in space. I dove so deeply into that section I think I read every single book my small school library had that was categorized as science fiction. Asimov, Heinlein, Douglas Adams. My first true loves.

It was a natural fit, then, to begin my writing career by trying to write my own science fiction tale, but one with a girl as the main character. As much as I loved the authors I had found, none seemed to be telling the stories about smart clever girls who were good students and interested in boys and nail polish and went on adventures. Did not seem like a hard thing to me! 

So with all that as a long intro, I bring you the opening to my first story, Apples on the Moon, which was a winner in a contest sponsored by the National Space Society and Hadley Rille Books (when I finally got the nerve up to submit it!) and appears in the Return to Luna anthology. It’s also available on all major ebook outlets as a 99c short story. Enjoy!

“Jack says a freighter drone from Earth’s due in tonight, C-Dock.” Julia said. She flopped down next to Ali on the bottom bunk of the room they shared. “His cousin is on shift. He said there are…” Julia paused for dramatic effect, eyebrows raised, “…Apples! And if we bring some credits he can arrange to get us a few, ahead of the rush.”    

“Apples! Are you sure?” Ali said. Her eyes narrowed. “You’re not just saying that to get me to go, are you?” Ali didn’t usually join in Julia’s Lunar Colony adventures.    

“No, I swear, Jack is positive. If I were telling you something to get you to go, I’d mention that Kofi will be there.” Julia winked. “Some of my friends from school too. Interested?” 


A mighty battle waged in Ali’s head as she considered Julia’s proposition. Kofi and apples; what could be better? Kofi was cute, and it had been at least three months since fresh fruit had come through the LuCol docks. But she had Molecular Physics homework due next week. And the thought of going out with all those kids had her a bit paralyzed. Ali wasn’t as sociable as Julia was. She had a few close friends, not a crowd of kids like Julia. Then again, she’d lost two friends to Earthside transfers this term alone. Her pool of acquaintances was shrinking fast.

Afterward: We lost my Dad on August 21, 2013. I miss him every day and still have that general feeling of “he’s just on a long trip.” A really long trip, eh? It’s hard to know how to be here in this post-Dad space, but we’re each finding our way. I realized in a roundabout way that the experience we had as a family--sharing our journey through Dad’s illness with our writing--was unique. Death is not a subject we discuss much here in the U.S., and our openness opened a lot of people’s hearts, and gave us the space, I think, to grieve out loud, something we so rarely give ourselves permission to do.