I might have been in the 5th grade when I read Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, but the reason I bring it up is because (mostly because it's my pre - Stephen King era) it was the first real time I got into a book and realized, "Hey this is what I want to do - write stories."
Reading gave me hope that perhaps the fact that all these ideas running through my head could be enjoyed by others on a large scale. That dream continued all the way through school - at the ripe old age of thirteen or so I did start reading Stephen King. I believe Misery was the first book of his that I owned and read. Of course it was after I saw the movie, but after that I was hooked and read all kinds of his books and short stories. (watched all the movie versions of course as well)
Somewhere along the way I spent a lot of time in school writing stories. Which my English teachers loved - the math teachers were puzzled by the assignments but you can't please everyone.
I never got a book published. Hell, I never really wrote a full length novel (until now that is). The chances of finding a publisher seemed hard - people like Judy Blume and Stephen King must have got lucky.
Not the right attitude - maybe you can relate? Now as an adult (and because of the Internet) writing stories and getting them out there has become a much bigger reality then even just ten years ago. Between blogging and print-on-demand publishing it seems like things are looking better as far as odds go - so if you are reading this and you have a similar story - don't panic - or waste as much time as I did - start writing and take chances - but mostly GET YOUR WORK OUT THERE!
I spent way too long worried about every little details and looked at my work (sometimes as much as a good 80 to 100 pages of work) only to quickly send them to the trash bin on my computer desktop because I like most artists - am my own worst critic.
That's enough for now. This has been a random and seemingly pointless blog post - but I still hope it helps someone out there.
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