How Long Have you Been Writing?

John Guillen97 Comments

Simple question.

I’ll say I started writing in May/June of 2013. And I stopped a year later. Ha. But basically that’s true. Anyway, I know some of y’all are in high school with stories to be told later on in your life, but I also know several people on WordPress who have been writing for decades. DECADES.

Which means there’s a mixed bag of writers on WordPress. Some who have accomplished absolutely nothing and others who have more stories or books published than James Patterson. Maybe not, but still. There are some really accomplished people on WordPress and I bet somewhere along the line they’ve come across my little part of cyberspace. Maybe. Wait, James Patterson, are you reading this?! (Let’s see if he responds).

But seriously, I’m just curious to see how long some of y’all have been writing and what you’ve been able to accomplish during that time. Have you been published by a Big 5 publisher? Self published? Maybe you’ve written some collections of short stories or poetry? Or perhaps you’re working on your first major project? Just tell me so I can stand here in admiration.

On this day in 2014 I published 1,000 WordPress Followers and Giveaway!. Currently sitting at 2,813 WordPress followers. Not too shabby.

 

97 thoughts on “How Long Have you Been Writing?”

  1. Hahaha! “Just tell me so I can stand here in admiration.”
    My first memory of writing is when I was about six. The story was about a rabbit or something, but it wasn’t very long. I didn’t write much again until I was in junior high and high school, and that’s when I started writing short stories, short chapter books, poems, etc. And that’s also when I began making notes and outlines and such for the fantasy series I’m currently working on. As for hardcore writing: as in, writing every day (or almost), plotting, pantsing, brainstorming, etc, that didn’t happen until later in college and during/after grad school.
    Kind of a conglomeration of different writing histories, so pick whichever one you want and bask in my awesomeness.

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  2. Also laughing at “stand here in admiration” along with Phantom. LOL

    I won a story writing contest in the second grade. I wrote a story about riding my horse in a show. I won another story writing contest in the fifth grade. That one with a graphic story (i.e., comic strip) I didn’t consider myself a “writer” at that age.

    In junior high, I wrote for my school newspaper, was placed in advanced English, and wrote a bunch of poems that got published in our school’s literary magazine. Still had no idea I was a writer.

    In high school, I wrote speeches while on the debate team, took AP English and wrote books full of poetry. I also ran a long-standing D&D campaign that was entirely story driven. Nope, still didn’t register that I was a writer.

    It wasn’t until college, when I had a handful of stories and poems published in the college literary magazine… and one of my teachers asked why the hell I was an engineering student. That’s when it finally hit me that I’d been a writer since… forever.

    The sad part? Just like my music, and just like my art, I put my writing on the back burner for another 20 years. I wrote as an escape, or I’d write in spurts. I started a lot and finished nothing. I avoided submitting stories, keeping my work mostly to myself.

    It wasn’t until last year I decided that this is really stupid… I should be writing, submitting and publishing. Now I have a book written and through the beta readers. I have a handful of edits to slap into place, and I have three agents who want to see it. I have a slowly-building portfolio of parenting, technical and travel articles floating around cyberspace. And I’m trying like crazy to convince the world that I’m a writer, not a software engineer (It’s way harder than it sounds).

    So, to you I say… I stand in admiration at the fact that you know you’re a writer at your age. Had I to do all over again, I know where I’d focus.

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    • There’s a lot of accomplishments there to not realize you’re a writer. 😞 But at least you’ve realized it now. And you’ll be publishing books and going on book tours in no time. 👏

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  3. I’ve been writing since the 1970s, but only realized any success about 15 years ago. Since then I’ve sold 20 short stories and self-pubbed four books. I wish I’d been more disciplined early on, but what can you do?

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  5. I started a journal when I was 15. I started a serious journal was I was 23. I started writing short stories when I was 24. I started writing books when I was 30. I’ve published a few things on blogs, but for the most part I just do it for the fun of it. The only one I ever had evaluated was a story called ‘Joy’ I wrote in 2006 that got me a 4.0 in a creative writing course.

    Good luck with your writing and God Bless!

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    • Woo! Can I ask the difference between your journal and serious journal? How many books have you written to date? And sane to you! Although I doubt you need any luck. 👏

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      • Well the first journal I wrote was basically a high school journal full of ‘I love so and so’ and not much else. The serious journal is full of thought out essays and things like that.

        I wrote half of one book(maybe 60,000 words) starting in 2011. It was largely fan fiction so I gave it up and decided to do more serious stuff. I’ve completed one book(more of a 30,000 word novella) on New Year’s Eve 2014. I have three under way right now. As much as I enjoy writing books, I actually enjoy short stories far more. They are quicker and can make my point in far shorter time. I’ve written between 20 and 30 short stories.

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      • Haha I have a couple years’ worth of letters to myself like your high school journal. And I’ve never once written a short story. I’m not sure I even know the format well enough to try.

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  6. Since I was knee-high to a grasshopper! Mom still has some of my poems from K-Jr. High, when I started keeping my own records. I had about 3-5 poems put on Poetry.com, and some published in a college book (along with some of my art. This currently (WP site) is where I have been writing for others to see. I have about three stories which I am currently revising and updating in the hopes to have them on Smash books someday. I am currently in my 50’s.
    😀

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  7. I’ve been writing since I could hold a pencil, though I hate #2 pencils. My college and law school adventures required a great deal of writing, which I excelled at. Then seven years after law school I got a job a managing editor of a newsletter titled “The Lawyers Business Valuation Update,” and I wrote a lot of the material for that newsletter. The first time I was published in a book was in 2000 when I contributed a chapter to “The Lawyers Business Valuation Handbook” published by the American Bar Association. I was also the project manager for the primary author of the book. In my current job, I still write quite a bit, including blog posts and conference presentations.

    But my true passion for writing is not in the legal or business valuation realm. So in 2009 I started blogging at http://lindakruschke.wordpress.com. I write essays, recipes, and poetry. And in 2014, I self published my first book of poetry titled “Light in My Darkness” via CreateSpace. It’s available on Amazon.com. I’m currently working on another poetry book as well as a book proposal for a mid-sized Christian publishing house.

    Thanks for asking and for your genuine admiration. Peace, Linda

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    • Whoa. So much writing! I like how you’ve been in the legal profession but quickly make it known that your passion (at least for writing) is elsewhere. I’m giving you a nice round of applause because I probably won’t come close to what you’ve done. 👏

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  8. I’ve been writing on and off for about 2-3 years now however I’ve only just actively started up my blog at the start of this year along with publicly working on my novel and posting it online on Wattpad this year!

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  10. Ah, John Callaghan – saucy but made me laugh. I shall never look at snowflakes in the same way again. That’s actual frozen snow, not ‘lady snowflakes’ 🙂

    Wrote a lot as a teen, but lost faith in myself for years.
    Then seven years ago, an unsusual birthday present triggered a book idea and I’ve been writing ever since. I’ve written three (unpublished) novels in that time and countless short stories, filled thirty-odd notebooks with plots, ideas, impressions, overheard conversation. It all feels like an ‘apprenticeship’.
    My writing group had an anthology published two years ago which won a national prize here in the UK – pretty chuffed with that, though only had a handful of other stories published so far. Getting togather a submission package at the moment, though, so who knows.

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  11. I remember writing a story in primary school, and having to take my book up to a teacher in the upper school, who told her class off for not writing as well as me. I’ve written bad poetry off and on and had a few things place in local competitions. I lost confidence in myself for a long time. Wrote for school only. Picked it up for fun again a few weeks ago.

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  12. 7th grade geography. A short story assignment. Got a “C”. Teacher (a young guy) wrote,”Too much about the people and not enough geography.” His kids must have grown up to be literary agents.

    I wrote “true stories” for 36 years. Sad tales mostly. “Victim stated that person(s) unknown forced entry…” “The wife of the victim discovered his body when she returned home…” That sort of thing. My first crime novel began about 20 years ago but got put aside for more practical things. Once I retired a good friend asked to read it and I dusted it off and rewrote the whole thing. The cops needed to upgrade from beepers and Chevy Caprices to smartphones and computers. I’m researching novel # 5 now. I should have retired sooner!

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  13. I don’t have plans of publishing, but, Gods, I love to write.
    I started blogging and writing seriously just a year ago, after joining a creative writing course. But otherwise, I’d been writing occasionally since I was 8 or nine. I think.

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  14. I’ve been creating stories since I was 3, didn’t start writing them down until I was 6. I was so young when I started making up characters that my parents just thought they were typical “imaginary friends.” Aside from my hiatus during college, I’ve been writing pretty consistently since then.

    But I can’t say I’ve accomplished anything. I can’t do much with the stuff I wrote as a child, although I still plan on rebooting my very first story into something grown-up some day. Only now am I beginning to encroach upon a skillset that might get me published one day. And I still *barely* feel like I’ve reached the level of talent where I’d deserve it.

    So yeah, in a way, I feel like I haven’t had the chance to be accomplished in writing yet. I still feel like I’m just getting started.

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    • I think you don’t ‘need’ to feel you have done it well before you do it. I mean, you don’t have to wait until you are sure you have accomplished something.

      My advice is simple. Start publishing your stories if you did not do this yet as it seems,according to your comment above. I’m not a good writer, to be frank. But, I have started putting up what I have anyway before it is well done. You never know your work may be one of the best out there.

      You can learn the know-how (Publishing) by reading on my website. Oh, my website is not the best out there yet! It is http://www.discipleshippress.com

      John

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      • Eh, my lack of having published anything at all is mostly due to the fact that I have 100 WIPs, but no finished products. Except a lot of fanfic, a novel in the editing stage, and maybe one short story.

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      • Fiction that exists in a pre-existing universe with pre-existing characters. Like, writing an alternate ending to the Harry Potter series, or continuing the story of Firefly, etc. It usually sounds strange to those who’ve never imagined writing it.

        I haven’t written fanfic since high school though, as I’ve been more interested in my own stuff since then. However, I do accredit fanfiction with teaching me how to write, as it allowed me to flex skills with training wheels on, so to speak.

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  15. I’ve been writing since kindergarten, at that point it was picture books and got slowly better. My first novel I finished and self published was when I was 16, then another at 18. It wasn’t until then I realized I was a writer and finally gave up my horrible idea of being a vet (I suck at science) and went into journalism. Since then I published many articles in newspapers and magazines and finished a third novel hopefully going to be published soon.

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      • My second novel was traditionally published. I’m trying to do that again but if i don’t find a place soon I’ll self publish. I gave myself a year to find a publisher and that’s about run out.

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    • Well done! Keep it up. I still have to decide whether to quit my daily routine job for writing or not. But, I think not now. I’m new to writing even though it is what I love doing. I have a problem with creative writing. I just write as plain as I can.

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  16. I have been writing seriously since 2009. That’s when I began blogging and writing fiction as well! I don’t write much anymore. Going through a phase, I suppose. But my novel is in the hands of my literary agent.

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  17. Oh, you mean I have to leave “my own reply to the post?” I see.

    Here we go!

    But, sometimes I just got caught up with what other commentators are saying about the idea or topic. If this is not kind, but rude as you put it, then I have to learn how to “just” read and like their comments.

    Is it fine to like what others say on your blog?

    John

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