Comments on: What was your first time like?

By: Leyla Giray

Leyla Giray — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:50:19 +0000

I grew up in Spain – my first ever publication was a song, at the age of 12… followed at 13 by my first piece about a musical group for a Spanish teen magazine, Discobolo.

Funny thing is, I kept moving away from writing as a profession, but it kept finding me…

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:44:38 +0000

I remember writing a story about a ghost ship when I was pretty small…plus illustrations, of course! Also I had a thing about witches, thanks to the Pongwiffy series, and weirdly, wrote one in year nine also about a Glinda! (This might not be weird to most people, but the nearest I ever came to the Wizard of Oz, was being in the Wiz in secondary school). She didn’t have a million names though…just a million cats, who were all listed (took about two pages…!)

First pitch…about half a year ago now. Technically not even rejected just…silence… though I did try following it up. A pretty big deal for me then with my phone phobia! But following work experience in newsrooms I now know that “____ just left/will be back on monday/is on lunch” can usually mean “they’re sat right here, buuut they don’t want to talk”. A few more pitches now. None taken up yet but I’m trying! The Renegade writers help me through

By: Jenni

Jenni — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:00:45 +0000

My first “real” story was in the form of a book I made in 3rd grade. Bound with cardboard and fabric and illustrated, I presented it to my mom who made copies to send out to the family. Mine was “The Secret Land of the Unicorns” who were named after Greek gods.

Thanks for inspiring that memory!

By: Debbie

Debbie — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:13:02 +0000

My first book was in first grade. I wrote some poems on paper, stapled them together and made a cover “My book of Powems”. My mother took the book to work to show her boss, who wrote on top of my nice, carefully planned out cover – “Nice powems”. Boy was I angry – that my mother showed my book to someone I didn’t know, and that this person had the nerve to write on my cover!. I threw the book away.

However, I’ve since realized its a good thing when other people read at your work, and that you should double check your spelling before you finish your work. But, it’s still not nice to write on someone else’s things without asking!

This is a fun thread.

By: Star

Star — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:42:21 +0000

My kid wrote this little poem when she was 8. Now, she’s 26 and won’t write anything or read a book. So this may be her first and only, darn it!

Idioms

I’ve got a bone to pick with you.
I’ll have to burn the candle at both ends to get through.
Bite the bullet and you’ll get by.
Giving me the cold shoulder is really rude.
You really get under my thick skin, dude.
So, if you don’t mind, please fly my coop.
If you don’t, you’ll be the fifth wheel in my loop.
Hitting below my belt was low.
But now you’re like a scared crow.
We never see eye to eye.
I guess it was all just pie in the sky.
Now, look at the pot calling the kettle black.
To me it’s just water off a duck’s back.

By: Geoff Williams

Geoff Williams — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:21:49 +0000

Nice post, Linda. [ED: You mean Diana???] You just brought back an embarrassing memory. I had my first rejection from Random House when I was 12, I guess, though I’m proud of that. But I think when I was 15, somewhere around there, I had a Writer’s Market book, and I queried “YM” magazine. I thought it stood for “Young Men,” and of course, it’s “Young Miss” and a teen girl magazine. And I believe the editor actually wrote me back and set me straight. Good grief. But it was a good lesson, to actually, um, read the magazine you’re querying, before sending out a query.

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:01:50 +0000

Oh, the nostalgia. When I was in fourth grade, I wrote a nature fairy tale that won the local Young Authors award. I got to dress up and go to a fancy ceremony at the school district’s headquarters.

When I was in high school I started submitting stories to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword and Sorceress anthologies. And collected a bunch of rejection letters.

When I was a freshman in college, I wrote a short story in one evening and emailed it to MZB’s Fantasy Magazine. Almost a year later, they tracked me down through an email I’d almost stopped using to accept the story for publication. To this day some of my friends who were on the third floor claim they heard me screaming on the first floor of our dorm.

By: Chloe

Chloe — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:50:00 +0000

I made my first submission to a youth literary magazine when I was 14 (it was the minimum age at the time). You were allowed to submit up to three pieces. I was submitting these two heartfelt teen angst poems that I thought were genius. But at the last minute I decided to get experimental. I went to the kitchen and pulled out the junk drawer, and tipped it out on my bed. Then I made a list of every single thing in the drawer in one huge block of text, with no spaces or punctuation. The magazine published the junk drawer piece and ignored my angsty crap. I didn’t care though – I got forty bucks!

The first time I attempted to get freelancing work was in response to an advertisement seeking writers for a free music magazine. I was in my first year of university, studying visual arts but hating it and thinking that I might want to be a writer instead. I wrote a typical job application in response to the ad because I didn’t know any better. But I got an inkling that I should throw in something extra, something to show that I could write. But what? Did I enclose examples of my work, say an essay or an article I had written for my self-published zine? No, I sent in copies of my school reports from my high school English teachers. I didn’t hear back from the magazine.

I think Alison’s querying attempt at 8 years old was much more professional than me at 19.

By: Mike Harling

Mike Harling — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:43:38 +0000

I’d been writing since I was 10 but never submitted anything. Then one day at work, when I was about 26, I got an idea for a humorus article on Christmas shopping. I wrote it on my lunch half-hour and then wondered what to do with it. I called the local paper and they said to send it in. The next Thing I knew, it was in the Sunday supliment. Then they sent me a check for $50. Once I caught on that people would pay me for my funny articles, there was no turning back.

By: heiddi

heiddi — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:33:35 +0000

As a kid I kept a diary. I wrote about things I saw at school. One thing I remember writing was about a fight between two girls in my class. As far as submitting, that didn’t happen until three years ago. But I’ve been writing since I was a child. Great post.