Mary Shelley
No...Not me. The first piece I wrote was a
poem about New York while I was
in Elementary School. The teacher liked it but I received my first rejection
from my fellow students—what, I thought, do kids know about criticism? In High
School, my first attempt at writing romance was crushed by the teacher and
became my last. He printed the following in CAPS, in red ink, “THE WORST STORY I EVER READ.” I thought he should
have given me credit for not writing about “What I Did on My Summer Vacation.” I
picked myself up, kept writing and years later the first story published was in
a little magazine called The Villager—the
story loosely based on my family. When I received my copy and held the magazine
in my hot and sweaty little hands, I reacted by running around the apartment
screaming, “I’m a writer, I’m a writer.”
I’m no genius and under no circumstances
would become a child prodigy—I was long past my salad days when I began to be
published—never a would-be Mary Shelley or her Percy. I would never emulate the
frail Alexander Pope who published his sophisticated verse Pastorals at the age of sixteen and went on to translate Homer’s Iliad or Stephen Crane who wrote his
first known story “Uncle Jake and the
Bell Handle” at the age of fourteen. By the time he was twenty, he had 14
stories published in the New York Tribune and his The Red Badge of Courage, published at 23 and stayed on the best
seller lists for four months. Then there is Jane Austen—who I read over and
over again—Jane began writing novels at
15 and by the age of 23 had completed Northanger
Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and
Pride and Prejudice. Wow!
Now I know we’re all too modest to claim
the title of genius or child prodigy but I am curious: When did you begin writing?
Receive your first rejection and saw your first article, story or novel
published? How did you react?
9 comments:
I wrote the usual school projects, but the first thing I remember getting published was a poem about a tumbling leaf as it was blown about in the autumn wind. That was for "Parnassus" - my high school's annual literature journal.
I began writing romance in about 2000, and didn't finish my first story until 2003. Finished several more but wasn't published until 2011, and am currently working on book 6.
Looking forward to reading the comments and seeing what others' journeys have been like...
Oh! Just remembered that I had a piece of artwork (a drawing) published in the local newspaper when I was in second grade. Guess that counts. ;)
Do you still have the poem and the artwork, Anne Marie?
I was a storyteller before I could write. Then I put them to paper. Got in troulbe for telling lies and writing trash and filth. (that was my 4rh grade teacher Sister Cecilia’s critique of a story about a blues singer in Chicago) Wrote a play for a HS class. Started writing again in late 2007 cause there wasn’t anybody around to stop me and here I am.
Won an essay contest in 9th grade. Prize was a $25 savings bond. Still remember going up on stage to receive it. Heady stuff!
Rita: I'd love to read about your blues singer in Chicago.
Jean: Did you frame the bond?
Elise, I wish I knew where the artwork was! Maybe I'll find it someday as I sort through my parents' things. I do have the published poem somewhere. I think I actually had two poems in that "magazine."
My first wiff of trouble was having my letter to the editor printed in the Weekly Reader magazine/newsletter. Mmmm, an audience!
Btw, that teacher of yours ought to have been retired or fired, against a wall, probably. That is a horrible way to talk to a student!
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