SiteWhat was your first time like?
Yesterday, freelancer and Renegade Writer course instructor Alison Stein Wellner blogged on her website about her very first effort to get published — at age 8! (She even included the actual query letter sent to Highlights, along with the story she was selling. Already a pro before she hit junior high!)
My parents tell me that “Glinda and the Golden Pin” was my first finished literary work. I think it was written in 1972 when I was in Mrs. Carpenter’s second grade glass at the Randolph Elementary School in Vermont, and came complete with crayon-drawn illustrations. It was presented to my mother as a birthday present. I ended up writing dozens of stories throughout the 70s, mostly about princesses with long, flowing blond locks and matching long names like Latisha Marinda Felisha Sienna de von McBandersee the 3rd. (My mother claims the names would go on for several lines before I moved onto lengthy descriptions of my heroines’ “frocks.” Plot was never very important.)
My first query letter was to Seventeen magazine when I was in high school in Connecticut in the early 80s. I think I wrote some kind of short story about a girl who’d gotten revenge in high school on the popular girls who’d teasted her in junior high (perhaps Carrie was my inspiration?), and was shocked, when a month or two later during summer vacation, I received a form letter wishing me the best of luck placing this literary masterpiece — okay, my words — elsewhere. I was so devastated, I tore up both the letter and my story. One day a neighbor of ours, Mrs. Hills, who actually seemed to know something about professional writing, saw me lurking around the neighborhood and asked me how my nascent writing career was going. When I sheepishly told her about my first rejection and how I handled it, she actually praised me for sending my work out and urged me to find a new market for my writing, which really confused me because at 15, I was totally unsold on the concept of persistence.
What were your first literary efforts like? What do you remember about them? Have they influenced you in any way? Tell us in the comment section below! [db]
16 Responses to “What was your first time like?”
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
monica
Said this on November 18th, 2008 at 7:52am:This post sure brings back memories… When I was around 10 or 11 I pitched a story to Ranger Rick, a kid’s wildlife magazine, about hiking during deer hunting season. I wish I had saved that letter!
I’ve always been into writing and journalism in some form or another. I used to make my own “travel guides” by tearing out pictures and articles I liked from magazines and reassembling them into little books, usually about places I’d never been to but dreamed of visiting. I vaguely remember something about white water rafting and canyonlands.
Interesting… I’m still going for the outdoor and travel magazines. So I guess those early endeavors have had some influence on what I do now!
LindaFormichelli
Said this on November 18th, 2008 at 9:05am:Diana, when I was a teen I wrote angsty science fiction stories. One of them, along with a poem about a girl who was so smart her head exploded, ran in the high school literary journal.
But my first real submission, when I was probably 17 years old, was a story called “Doing Poughkeepsie on a Red a Red a Day.” It was about how the government banished numbers in order to keep its citizens in slavery. In my story, the main character discovers old documents with numbers on them. I submitted it to several sci fi pubs and though they all rejected the story, I got a two-page, typewritten rejection from Pandora’s Box magazine. The editor was very nice and encouraging and gave lots of suggestions. If that had happened today I would have written the editor to thank him, but back then I never did. I wish I remembered that editor’s name so I could look him up.
Chris Clark
Said this on November 18th, 2008 at 11:00am:I never submitted anything when I was a kid. I probably didn’t really figure out how to do it. I know when I was about 7 or 8 my Mom signed me up for a creative writing class. I know we wrote a Curious George story but I also penned “Life on the Mississippi” a loosely adapted memoir (read embellished) from our then recent trip down the Mississippi in a houseboat. I think my Dad still has it.
I know my second grade teacher, Mrs. Gring, whom I still see occasionally was just floored by my efforts. While most of my peers were writing on the front of those specially lined handwriting pages for our in class creative writing time, she eventually had to break out notebook paper for me as my stories were running into the 10-12 page category on the little paper!
My first actual freelance query was made to Old Cars Weekly (and accepted) though it was after I was already a newspaper journalist. Since I started out with an acceptance, and a few stories for them, it’s still always kind of shocking to me when I get rejected. Of course, it’s always rather euphoric when I get accepted as well.
Sue Roupp
Said this on November 18th, 2008 at 11:09am:When I was in third grade a poem of mine was published in a Chicago newspaper. For some reason I always gravitated to poetry - capturing the story in metaphor and in a short form was natural to me. For many years I did other things: freelance, short stories, a novel finally returning to poetry and it is there I find I am home.
We nest where we are comfortable and fly when we are either ready or kicked out of the nest and have to learn to fly on our own. Yet we always return to where we feel comfortable doing what is natural for us as if it is part of our creative DNA. And that is just plain wonderful.
Star
Said this on November 18th, 2008 at 12:09pm:Iwrote a short story about Castro when I was about 10. My mother still has it–she can’t remember a lick now, but I remember she kept it.
Lisa Chan
Said this on November 18th, 2008 at 12:42pm:Since I work in independent publishing, I believe that anything bound qualifies as a first publishing experience success! Heh.
My first experience with writing for an audience came in 1986. My fifth grade class was doing a small bookbinding project.
My book was called “Halloween” and features a sleepy vampire smiley face on the front, complete with bloody teeth.
Goblins and witches
Bats and spiders too
Even the ghosts come out
To say a Halloween BOO!
Draculas and mummys
Good and bad spirits too
Even the ghosts come out
To say a Halloween BOO!
Hope that doesn’t scare the pants off of your readers. *wink*
heiddi
Said this on November 18th, 2008 at 3:33pm: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.
Mike Harling
Said this on November 18th, 2008 at 4:43pm: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.
Chloe
Said this on November 18th, 2008 at 6:50pm: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.
Caitlin
Said this on November 18th, 2008 at 8:01pm: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.
Geoff Williams
Said this on November 19th, 2008 at 11:21am: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.
Star
Said this on November 19th, 2008 at 2:42pm: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.
Debbie
Said this on November 19th, 2008 at 3:13pm: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.
Jenni
Said this on November 19th, 2008 at 6:00pm: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!
Laura
Said this on November 20th, 2008 at 9:44am: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
Leyla Giray
Said this on November 25th, 2008 at 4:50am: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…