Have you ever wondered where an author was when she made the leap from reader to writer?
Would you believe my very first novel began in a tree house on the slopes of Mt Rainier? It’s true. I kid you not.
Dear Husband’s sister and her hubby were visiting the Pacific Northwest from their home in Colorado and had arranged for a stay in a tree house. They kindly invited DH and me along for the experience.
There must have been something magical in that mountain air. My muse broke free and gifted me with dreams of druids and dragons.
I snuggled in a hammock and dreamed up characters and plot. Mind you, I didn’t have a clue about story or craft, but ignorance is indeed bliss. If I’d known just how clueless I really was, I’d never have had the courage to begin this journey!
Six years later I’ve published two novels, two novellas, and had my short fiction included in several anthologies. I’ve also been blessed with representation from a well-respected literary agency. Not a bad track record.
Of course, the story I dreamed that day in the tree house has never seen the light of day—totally clueless writing rarely does. However, my muse and I have developed an awesome relationship and I’m delighted she decided to come out and play.
So what about you? Where were you when your muse broke free?
I can’t remember when I first decided I wanted to be a writer, I think I was 11. I do, however, remember when I decided this was it, I had found the story that was going to do it and I was going for it, balls to the wall. It wasn’t even my idea, not the beginning kernel anyway.
My very good friend who I’d been writing with just for fun for about 2 years had come up with a vague idea for a 5th century angst-ridden erotic romance for her 2005 NaNoWriMo novel (I’d never even heard of NaNo before then and thought she was nuts for trying it). She dropped out of NaNo on day 3 with about 2 pages written. She sent those pages to me and poof, there showed up the second main character on my desk demanding I get him in that story NOW. I love Marguerite, but I knew if I didn’t get in on it and crack the whip that story would never get written and it was too good, too insistent to let die.
So I begged, I wheedled, I coerced and I bribed…okay, it really didn’t take that much, it was more like “Margie, if you don’t want me to horn in on this idea tell me right now, otherwise I’m getting ready to write the next section.” She didn’t tell me not to and so our professional collaberation (and my professional writing career) was born. That book is only next spring going to see real publication, but it was the impetus to everything that’s happened in between and everything that’ll happen in the future.
Oops, I wrote a book here, too! Sorry!
What an awesome story, Fae. Thanks for sharing…and you can write a book on my blog any day!
My poetry muse hit me when I was 13 right after my heart was broken for the first time by an oblivious 16 year old that I caught kissing my cousin at a party.
My story muse, hit me around February of this year. I was chatting with a friend of mine who is deep into Role Playing. She talked me into trying it and I got hooked on making plots and developing characters. Next thing I knew my head was filled with ideas for stories, and characters were fighting to get out of my head.
I had a job for a while where I traveled all over the East Coast, staying in a different town each week, for about a year. The job was driving me crazy, and I don’t remember why I thought to try and write, but I did.
I didn’t keep writing then, though. It wasn’t until about a year or two later that I really started writing. I had just moved into a new place, had no internet or cable, and the word “Run!” was in my head, so I had to figure out who was saying it. I finished the story about a year later (I hate it now–saw it too much, LOL, but it was the first completed story). It wasn’t that bad, not for a real first attempt.
As for when I really let the muse go…when I joined Divas. Being around that many great writers was bound to shake something loose!
Great post, Debbie–and I love that picture of the tree house!
I remember being young when thought, “I would love to write a story.” And as a kid I wrote a lot, but didn’t start really getting into writing until after my kids hit Junior high school. I have since published a few non-fiction articles and a few short stories. Soon I should be ready to send off my first full length novel mss.
Congrats to you Debbie. I wish I had a moment like yours to Fae’s, but really it was just a sort of a slow evolution.
I love all these stories! Thanks for sharing, Andrea, Maya, and Chris.
I have to admit that I didn’t go back far enough to completely chronicle my journey with the muse…I wrote my first story at about 4. Dictated it to my mom and then proceeded to illustrate it with abandon *lol* But the tree house marked the beginning of my serious desire to write for publication.
The first story I remember clearly writing was about a pair of magical sneakers. I I was in the 3rd grade though and had the attention span of a fly, so I quickly forgot about it by recess time, I’m sure. When I was in high school, I participated in NaNoWriMo and the idea of writing fiction again appealed to me, then it somehow faded away (college pretty much killed my free time). But now, I’m hooked back on again. This time, I plan to make my muse stick around forever 😀
Ha! I can’t remember where I was when I wrote my first novel, because that was 30 years ago.
As far as the first of my recent novels, I was sitting in the den listening to music when the idea for A Soldier’s Love came to me.
It was late at night, I was alone listening to a 6 CD set hubby had sent to me of ’80’s tunes. I heard a song that reminded me of the house I lived in one summer in England when I was 16. During that summer I visited London and saw the yummies punk ever and wrote a little story about him & an American girl falling in love.
I found my memory box and the little story I wrote. My mind began wandering of ways I could chage the plot, the characters and such. I called my best pal who had been with me on that trip so long ago. She had grown up to become an editor. I told her my ideas and she told me to write them down. So I did, and after 30 handwritten pages I called her at midnight to read what I wrote. She told me to keep going, the muse had arrived.
That little story became “Painted Soul”, the first book in a series of five, released in 2008. Two more followed this year. And I’m still writing.
Thanks for sharing memories, Stone, Lucinda, and Mary! Great stuff.