Story Minds all Start Somewhere

By the time I was old enough to have pet rabbits, a power-hungry rabbit with malocclusion (misaligned teeth that don't stop growing) took over the world and sent people on a run for their lives. In college, I made an animation out of it just for fun. Trust me, it was bad.

Our rabbits were sometimes proof that one such occurrence hid just over the horizon. They had pen pals, you see, and thus co-conspirators. You should have seen the crap they talked about us! Ungrateful beasts.

One of them even growled at us as we walked by, and took care to show us just how far her bite could reach, but we kept her because she was show quality.

Her neighbor, Ida, did not care for such ambitions. She lay like a lump on a log—or in our arms—or on the couch—or laced in a bonnet, happy as can be. I imagine she would be the comic companion in the quest for independence.

But what about some the famous authors? What did they first write?

Margaret Atwood

She began to write plays and poems at age six.

Age six! I was still discovering fish sticks and relishing in extravagant grape juice at age six!

Steven King

He started by copying comics and seeing his mother's disappointment when she found out they were copies. On to bigger and better...comics of his own such as I Was a Teenage Grave Robber in 1965.

JR Tolkien

He made a few of his own complete languages in his teen years and knew several real languages as well.

I tried a secret language once with my sister. We wanted to be like Harriet the Spy. It never really took off.

Jane Austen

She wrote stories and plays and poems from at least age eleven on, probably performing a few plays with her family. Her first works from between 1787 and 1793 were compiled into a novel she called Juvenilia. She titled them Volume the First, Volume the Second and Volume the Third. According to scholar Richard Jenkyns, the works are "boisterous" and "anarchic."

John Steinback

He locked himself in his room at age 14 and began his writing career over poems and stories. As with most writers, it took some years to get going. His work is influenced by the Salinas Valley, which is fairly close to me. I'd like to read Grapes of Wrath again with an adult mind that can pay attention.

So what about you? What did you first write?

Every writer and author started somewhere. Even if you are working on your first work right now, I'd like to know!