What types of stories did you write when you were young? How, if at all, have your interests changed over time?
When I was in elementary school, I was writing stories set during the French Indian War, the American Revolution, and the westward expansion of America. It’s interesting to me that my preference for writing historical based fiction has not changed since childhood, just the time period in which I write. The backdrop of my stories may be on a different continent now, and five to six hundred years earlier in medieval Europe, but the passion for writing in an historical setting has not changed.
This is an interesting question, Steven!
For me, I started out writing science-fiction type stories in grade school, and then morphed to fantasy in middle school. In high school I went more for poetry, and in college, well, I wrote papers!
So you’re thesis here is correct for me, I haven’t fallen far from the apple tree of my early years. Although I don’t think I’ll ever write science fiction, I do enjoy it. And its all speculative, right?
My first “real” introduction to King Arthur was the movie Excalibur, and that along with the Lawhead books have jumbled my imagination enough to get me writing again.
Thanks for sharing.
-Robert
I have (somewhere) a book of stories from when I was in second grade. From what I remember, there’s a story about my pets, a story inserting my parents into a generic sort of fantasy tale, and a couple of retold fairy tales. It’s been a couple of years now since I’ve retold a fairy tale, but I was writing them all through high school and college (I think I may have gotten them out of my system). And I still write, and have always written, lots of fantasy. It was usually the more generic medieval type, but I’ve been getting into Victorian/steampunk lately.
I remember that my parents used to force me to write book reports for them (not school related). It was horrible! I complained enough that they eventually let me stop.
I wrote many papers throughout junior high, high school, and college. I recall one college course in which I wrote a debate between The Grand Inquisitor (from The Brothers Karamazov) and Socrates. That was fun.
These days I only write non-fiction for professional purposes. I do write a LOT of it though. I’d estimate 10-15 pages per week of text for work. Ugh. Fiction is more fun.
Clare, it’s funny that you mention Steampunk. I was just reading the Wikipedia article on it. I’ve been a passive Cyberpunk fan, but I can’t say that I’ve read any Steampunk. Would you recommend any particular books?
Thanks to everyone for sharing a little bit of their childhood. Someone will have to explain to me what exactly Steampunk includes? 🙂
Steven,
Wikipedia has a great introduction to Steampunk. See here –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk
Thanks, Ben. I can’t say that I’ve read too much Steampunk. I do have an idea for a novel that actually might be classified as Steampunk, now that I think about it. The idea is alternate history. For example, if a certain invention never existed, how would the modern world be impacted? I suppose that would be considered Steampunk, in a sense?