Monday, February 13, 2012

KSM - The Start of Something

Today is a day of beginnings.

A lovely group of blogger buddies is encouraging us to share our writerly Origins. I am going to approach this fest analytically (I am a math teacher after all) I plan to visit as many as I can and tally how many of you all started your writing journey as:
  • youngsters, 0-tween
  • teenagers, 13-19
  • young adults, 20-35 or
  • oldies but goodies, 36+
I never got into writing at school, though I do remember a few writing assignments I enjoyed. My true start to writing began when I was a young adult. My friends and I experienced so many crazy adventures in the fabulous city of Hotlanta, I had to write a story about it. When life got too busy with marriage & kids, I filed away my story, temporarily.

As my kiddies grew and didn't need me so much anymore, I pulled out my story & finished it. I researched online how to get published. Why not? That is when I found out what I had written was undesireable Chick Lit and in terrible form!

I have learned so much since then and written another novel which I've been editing my butt off. Editing is like raising children - as soon as you conquer one challenge, another comes up. But I think I'm getting close to seeing my baby graduate!

Looking forward to reading about your roots in writing!

I will post the results of my data collection on Friday!

Don't forget about the "It's getting hot in here" blogfest tomorrow <3
And for all you campaigners out there, the first challenge is Wednesday, 2/15!

49 comments:

Stina said...

It's amazing to see how different all our writing starts have been.

Glad that you finally got into the writing bug. :D

Jen said...

I wish editing as was fun as writing!

Annalisa Crawford said...

I like your comparison to raising children - I sometimes think my kids give me less hassle!

Juliana said...

I hate editing lol but it's part of the job =P
Thanks for sharing ;)

MISH said...

You've approached this in typical TTT style! :)
I definitely fall under your "oldies but goodies" category...
Thanks for adding some analytical fun to the blogfest!

M.J. Fifield said...

I'll be curious to see your tally later on. Be sure to share it!

Rena said...

I love your categories. And holy capotle, I fall into your youngsters category. I took some time off for Sciency behavior, but I've been writing forever.

Brinda said...

I wish you good luck in your editing. I know exactly how you feel. It's difficult to find the end of it!

Theresa said...

My first attempt at a novel was also about me and my friends and our adventures. But like you I discovered it wasn't exactly what agents and publishers were looking for so it's collecting dust on the shelf.

Laura S. said...

Great analogy about editing, Tara! The writing bug hit me when I was a very little kid and learned to read on my own. Writing my own stories gave me more of what I wanted until I could get back to the library for more books to read!

Arlee Bird said...

Your statistical analysis reminded me of when my 7th grade social studies teacher had us do a statistics project. I decided to collect data from the newspaper obituaries to see comparative ages of death. I guess I could be somewhat morbid at times when I was a kid.

Will you be reporting your statistical findings to us?


Lee
Wrote By Rote
An A to Z Co-host blog
Twitter: @AprilA2Z
#atozchallenge

Civil War Horror (Sean McLachlan) said...

"Editing is like raising children." Yeah, exhausting!
I started as a youngster. I wrote my first tale around age five. there may have been earlier ones but I don't remember back that far.

Matthew MacNish said...

Interesting scientific approach! I can't wait to hear about the results.

Angela Cothran said...

"Like raising children"--that is perfect :)

Emily R. King said...

I'll be at your "graduation party"!

Jeremy Bates said...

interesting post..keep it up!

Jessica Salyer said...

I can't wait to see the results too. Good luck with your "baby".

Leigh Covington said...

This is awesome Tara, and I agree. Once you've conquered one issue, another pops up to brighten your day. *sigh* Awesome that yours is so close to graduation tho! Whoo-hoo! That's a good feeling!

Marta Szemik said...

Looking forward to your graduation:) All the best!

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

I can't wait to read the math. I like how you had some great times to write about. I also hit a wall of reality when I tried to get my first book published. Nice to know your origin.

Sarah Ahiers said...

i love how you researched publishing right away. I put that off for years!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Hey! Someone else who pulled out an old manuscript.
Thanks for participating in the blogfest.

Heather Day Gilbert said...

Definitely get you on the mommying, then writing thing. Yes, every book is one step closer to letting our book babies go into that wide world. Nice to meet you via the fest!

Notes Along the Way with Mary Montague Sikes said...

Nice to meet you on the blog fest. Interesting that most of us have discovered along the way that writing is harder than we think!

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Monti
Mary Montague Sikes

DL Hammons said...

I will be very interested in seeing the results of your study! One thing I have learned so far is that with a LOT of writers, the writing passion has gone dormant for awhile when real life interferes.

Thank you for sharing your ORIGIN with us today! :)

Scarlett said...

Hi, Tara! Scarlett Here *grin*

I was just telling DL on his Origins post how my perspective has changed in the last 24 hours. There are so many stories similar to mine, both in the struggle and in the Life Timeline, that I am feeling less and less like the oddball out!

Do give us the math! Percentages keep me honest.

Christine Rains said...

Great post! Man, editing is like raising children. I'm doing both and I have so many new gray hairs.

Dianne K. Salerni said...

Can't wait to see the results of our mathematical analysis! Does the sample skew the data in any way? That is, mathematically, will the sample be random if it only includes writers who blog, heard about this blogfest, and participated? Just wondering! As my husband and I were just discussing, my verbal SAT score whupped my math score, lol.

Kristin Rae said...

YAY for being close to seeing your baby graduate!! Best wishes on your editing!!!! :)

Empty Nest Insider said...

It's great that you've put together a study for the Origins Blogfest! I love your "editing is like raising children" analogy, and I'm sure you'll see your "baby graduate" soon! Julie

Rek Sesh said...

Good luck with your graduation...we will be cheering from the sidelines.

K.T. Hanna said...

I love that you're going around to tally the ages. But I do think it doesn't really matter when you fell in love with writing, just that you've found out you do love it.

And that it shuts up the voices in your heads for a while ;)

Bish Denham said...

There's such as thing as undesirable chick lit? I've enjoyed learning about all the different journeys people have gone through to get to this place called Writing. Welcome to the family. May your editing go smoothly.

Tyrean Martinson said...

Loved your comparison between editing and children . . . although I think my revision work is far more troublesome than my kids at this point in their lives.

nutschell said...

Great to meet you on this blogfest. love the writing stats, I'm looking forward to seeing the results of your data collection.

your newest follower,
Nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com

Mark Koopmans said...

Hey Tara,

Thanks for the comments and I'm intrigued to see what your research suggests :)

Cherie Reich said...

Ooo, that's a great idea to see what age people became writers. I like your analogy with editing and children.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

ahah i had a chuckle of knowing when I read this line: "Editing is like raising children - as soon as you conquer one challenge, another comes up."

mshatch said...

what does that mean, 'undesirable chick lit'? Just curious :)

M Pax said...

It'll be interesting to see how the poll turns out. I'd be 0-tween. I used to write stories for my friends in hs. Usually in comic book form and using soap operas as inspiration.

Jemi Fraser said...

I'm interested to see what the results of your tally are!

I 'wrote' stories in my head, but rarely put anything on paper until recently :)

Anonymous said...

What a great idea to tally up when everyone got started. I'm intrigued. I'll be stopping back to see what you found out!

Anonymous said...

Hey, Tara. I popped over because of the ORIGINS and stayed because your topics are too flipping fun to ignore.

Great topics, fun posts.

If I ever put one of my protags in a corset, shoot me. ;-)

Unknown said...

I wrote my first story when I was eleven I believe. I love that you are tallying everyone and can't wait to read the results.

I hear you on the editing. That is something that never seems to be done and I have to force myself to stop re-working things. :)

kjmckendry said...

Great idea to gather all the data. It will be interesting to see. Those of us who did start early, it seems a large number stopped when marriage and kids came along. It's a crazy time for all of us.

Jennifer Hillier said...

I can only imagine your adventures in Hotlanta! :) Thanks for sharing.

Happy to be a new follower!

Sophia Chang said...

I love that you're compiling! I didn't make it clear in my origin story but that took place in middle school.

Nicki Elson said...

Oh awesome - looking forward to your analysis, Professor Tyler. ;) I'm an oldie but goodie!

I'm glad you found your way back to writing.

Jeremy Bates said...

Writing a story sometimes you found on your self or in to others. just explore your imagination and easily to write want you want to.

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