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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Discussion What Was Your First Story?

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction and Writing Resource' started by s_heffley, May 1, 2016.

  1. s_heffley

    s_heffley Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jun 7, 2015
    It doesn't have to be a fanfiction. What was the first story you remember writing?
     
  2. WarmNyota_SweetAyesha

    WarmNyota_SweetAyesha Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Aug 31, 2004
    Mine was a fanfiction called "Two Dances Across Time." :) [face_sigh] Involved Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade, dancing as newly minted friends and then as engaged. :) [face_dancing] A SQUEE!-ing experience because I got to explore the differences in how their relationship had changed to get them together. :cool:
     
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  3. Sith-I-5

    Sith-I-5 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 14, 2002
    [face_blush]

    Oh gosh, the earliest piece of writing that I can remember, was a chaotic free-for-all between heroes of about seven different genres, including science fiction, and Westerns (I had just seen Chisum, so my memory says he was in there), up against villainous Christmas Trees.

    My ability to create original villain protagonists has not much improved, I ruefully note.
     
    Last edited: Jun 28, 2019
  4. s_heffley

    s_heffley Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jun 7, 2015
    I should probably post mine, titled School Wars. I wrote it when I was six or seven, and it shows. The main character was me, and I was bored in school so I got up and ran around the room. The teacher thought for some reason that warranted an arrest, so she called the cops. The cops (all of them) showed up, but they were the Canadian cops, not the American ones. For some reason the American cops were busy that day, so the Canadian cops took their place (I wasn't to keen on the details). However the American cops came back to save the day, and a war ensued with battles between Canada and America throughout various locations in the school. The climax occurred in the gym, with a fairly deadly game of dodge ball.
     
  5. yahiko

    yahiko Jedi Master star 2

    Registered:
    Nov 12, 2015
    My first fanfiction, in 2008, was about the manga Naruto. Its title was "Le Démon m'a dit" (The Devil told me) and started inside the main character's subconsciousness.
     
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  6. Jedi_Lover

    Jedi_Lover Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2004
    I can't remember the title, but I wrote a short story for an English class. I was supposed to take a book I read and change the ending. I think this was 1978 and I just read The Splinter of the Mind's Eye. So I changed the ending to have Luke and Leia get married. After ANH everybody expected those two to hook up. The thought of them being siblings was not on anybody's radar. [face_laugh]
     
  7. TheChosenSolo

    TheChosenSolo Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 9, 2011
    I've been writing stuff for a long time, so long I can't remember a lot of my early stuff. Most revolved around adding in myself as a character into Jedi Quest :p
     
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  8. TrakNar

    TrakNar Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 4, 2011
    In like third grade, I had a story called The Twin Spires and it was about this mysterious rock formation in the ocean that would cause ships and planes to vanish. The heroine of the story was a teenage girl who teamed up with some air pirates to try and find out the secrets behind this rock formation and loot the bounty of treasure left behind.

    I recall it being halfway decent, but really friggin short at like eight pages, and the resolution being literal smoke and mirrors.

    And the more I think about it, I think I yanked the plot from an episode of Talespin.
     
  9. jcgoble3

    jcgoble3 Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 7, 2010
    I had an assignment in fifth grade to write an original short story. I did so entirely in class with pencil and paper and no editing. Sadly, I no longer have that story as, to the best of my knowledge, my parents didn't bother to keep it.
     
  10. Jedi_Lover

    Jedi_Lover Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2004
    My parents actually kept mine for decades. When they died I found it in a lockbox at their house. I have it somewhere in my office, but I am not sure where. I guess that means I have been writing fanfic for 38 years. You would think I would have improved by now. o_O
     
  11. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    I was six and half, in the first grade and...a weird kid, I guess.

    The story had little to no plot and it revolved around a little boy who came to me in a dream and who looked exactly like a boy from my class, had the same name, but a much different life. I had a fixation on this boy and, when I look at the photos from back then, he was a ridiculously cute child, but I think there was more to it. He is a lawyer or something now, which automatically disqualifies me from inserting him into a sequel.

    The boy was born in the town of Babun (phonetically identical to Baboon!) to a single mother who already had two sons and those sons were hoping for a baby sister. Once she gave birth to yet another boy, her sons spontaneously exploded from disappointment. The mother then stuck the bodies in the trunk and drove around in a car with her new baby for two years and then they stopped to perform a proper burial. Not quite sure what happened next, but there were multiple versions of it, ranging from a complete supernatural WTF to this extraordinary boy meeting a girl who became his best friend for life.

    I had my mother print numerous copies of this and give it away to her coworkers, all scientists and engineers at the time. They demanded more photocopies and they laughed a lot. But that wasn't enough. I went to the publishing house next to our home, which was otherwise publishing only stuff where you were supposed to glue a sticker where a piece of the scene was missing, and I demanded that they publish my book. I was an endless source of entertainment to the obese company owner and her staff.

    The next thing I wrote was some sort of a poem where I inserted The Shoe People into the Romanian Revolution of 1989.
     
  12. Goodwood

    Goodwood Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 11, 2011
    I honestly don't really remember what my first story was or when I wrote it, but it must've been pretty late by the standards of most authors. I was a nut for reading as a child, but not so much for writing and in fact always hated handwriting stuff because I always ended up getting wrist cramps due to literally drawing all of my letters. That unwillingness to perform the mechanics of writing didn't end until I was pretty far into high school, when computers first became really accessible for me to use for writing and printing out assignments. Even then, most of the stuff I wrote was reports and homework that was decidedly nonfiction in nature.

    It wasn't until college and my ensnarement within the World Wide Web that I started getting my muse on, and naturally that's when the cringe era made itself manifest in a number of abortive "war stories" that pretty much screamed "tryhard!" at anyone who so much as looked at them. It wasn't until '02 that I started finally taking my writing seriously, and that was only down to a lark; an Internet mate of mine had written a story about a bomber pilot chickening out, that he changed to going out in a blaze of glory on the advice of a veteran who'd read it, and I thought that surely I could do better. What resulted was the original novel I ended up finishing the first draft of two years later, though even that wasn't without hiccoughs—the first few pages of my first attempt were so overwrought with pompous exposition and rhetoric, and ended with such a shameless introduction of the main character, that I threw it out and started fresh.

    Funnily enough, at the time of the restart it occurred to me—without knowing why—that it would've been better to just start with a narrative and to keep going, seeing where it led me since I already had a fairly decent idea of the subject matter. In essence, I'd discovered in medias res without even realizing it, and I've never looked back. Of course by the time I'd started writing in the first place, I had a pretty good set of examples and inspirational material to go by, and in the years since, as I absorbed more material and talked with more folks (including one Kess Banta, who was Navy), I've simply added to it.

    The strange bit was that I didn't really fully understand or internalize the concept of fan fiction until after I'd finished my novel's first draft, nor was I much of a fandom geek either—though as I've said a couple of times recently, there is an argument to be made for calling my novel "WWII fan fiction." That said, once I played the KotOR games and got seriously hooked on the EU, I spent a lot of time doing roleplay at another site that gradually included a small spate of fanfiction stories, mostly taking place in Beyond territory. After a break of several years during which I had to essentially reboot my life, I eventually came back to fan fiction after getting booted off Wookieepedia (long story), which resulted in some pretty decent works. Early recognition over at the Fanon Wiki got me hooked, and I expanded on what I'd done, including a total rewrite of my second bit of fanfic over there to make it about 10x better. Eventually I just started spending more time here...

    Well yeah, that was probably more babble than necessary on my part, but there you are. :)
     
  13. Sith-I-5

    Sith-I-5 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 14, 2002
    You were a little go-getter, even at that age.
     
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  14. Lady_Misty

    Lady_Misty Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 21, 2007
    I recorded stuff on cassettes around five, in third grade I wrote a short story about a girl going to live with her brother in a museum/observatory and goes to another planet in her sleep, something about superheroes in fourth grade, when I was around twelve I started a story about a magical family in America (I had recently read at least the first Harry Potter book if not the second one) I did a Letter Game with two friends and then my first REAL fan fic is posted here.
     
  15. Annia Piet

    Annia Piet Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2015
    This thread is fascinating, I love reading about others writing journey's.

    I honestly couldn't tell you my first story, because I don't remember not writing them (this sounds precocious but there is I think a logical reason: 1) I started school v. Young, 2 1/2 so find it hard to pinpoint early memories around reading/writing - they all merge into one early years blur, and 2) I was lucky that my school teachers encouraged creative as well as factual writing right from as soon as we could start to write.) as a child I assumed EVERYONE wrote stories and got books published (there are so many books in the world, this seemed obvious. But if a shock when I later on found out how hard it actually is!!)

    Despite always having written stories and having become a Star Wars fan age 13, I didn't write my first fanfic until I was about 20. I discovered fanfic through Club Jade but for some reason was nervous to try it myself. The story was about Mara Jade's parents. I no longer have a copy, all I can remember is that I had her come from a mountainous world with a very Celtic inspired culture.

    I then didn't write much more until a couple of years ago. Something about the Legends decannonisation 'freed' me to write whatever I wanted about my favourite characters. It's a way to keep them alive. It's interesting seeing various BNFs recently promoting this idea for Legends fans, as it was my reaction back then. So almost every fanfic I've written is in the last two years and is on these boards or at AO3.
     
  16. Darth_Furio

    Darth_Furio Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2008
    I used to love writing stories in grade school and I was inspried by Top Gun when I wrote a story called "The Canadian Pilot" featuring me as the "Maverick" of the story. :cool: Ah, to be 13 again. :p
     
  17. Lazy K

    Lazy K Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Sep 22, 2012
    I can't remember the first story I wrote, which is probably a blessing. It was probably for Reading/Language class - either a writing assignment, or one of those Write a sentence using this word vocabulary thing, only I stringed together the sentences to form a very short story.
     
  18. Goodwood

    Goodwood Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 11, 2011
    That's true; I certainly had those kinds of assignments in primary/elementary school as well. Didn't really think they counted, however, since they were assignments and not usually done of one's own volition... ;)
     
  19. Lazy K

    Lazy K Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Sep 22, 2012
    I remember some of the stuff I wrote outside school back then and, frankly, I'd rather not. I think it's safe to say that I wrote much better with a prompt than without. :D
     
  20. ardavenport

    ardavenport Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2004
    First story: 3rd grade creative writing assignment: write a story about your favorite TV show. I did a food fight in the galley for Star Trek (original series). The class laughed when I read it aloud in class, but we were all 8 back then and since it predated the internet by 3 decades, it is long since gone and cannot embarrass anyone. :p
     
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  21. JadeLotus

    JadeLotus Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 27, 2005
    Fascinating to read about everyone's early writing experience!

    At primary school I had a bit of a reputation as a story writer (which incidentally earned me the dislike of a boy who had previously been told he was good at story writing, and apparently thought I'd swanned in and stolen his thunder. I only found this out years later though, at the time I had no idea why he hated me.)

    My year 3 teacher used to like to say that she knew I would have a book published someday, and would have to send her a free copy! My year 4 teacher said he was going to send one of my stories to his publisher friend but I never heard anything else about it, so either the guy didn't like it and my teacher didn't have the heart to tell me, if he was just trying to raise my confidence since I was so shy.

    One of the earliest proper stories I remember writing was when I was deep in my Arthurian obsession - it was about a girl and her friend who get sent back in time and had to help King Arthur defeat an evil wizard. At the end of the story the girl decides to remain in Camelot. This story my teacher read aloud to the class.

    Another epic I started but never finished was about the adopted daughter of Arthur and Guinevere and her friends who have to help destroy and evil witch and a curse she's enacted.

    And yeah, these were thinly veiled self inserts.

    One other story I remember was a girl who stows away on an alien spaceship, makes friends with one of the aliens and together they have to help make peace between the two races. This was the story my teacher said he sent to his publisher friend.

    My next story was when I was in my Ancient Greece obsession, about a group of friends who have to fight a demon sent by Ares to start a war, and they end up defeating him by once again releasing Hope.

    I wish I still had some of these stories, although reading them again would probably make me cringe. Looking back they are all variations on a theme!
     
  22. mavjade

    mavjade Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 10, 2005
    I remember writing stories when I was in grade school, I always had some sort of story going in my head. I don't remember what they were about, I'm sure my mom still has some of them somewhere. But then I stopped writing for a long time unless it was for school. We really never had any creative writing, so I guess it just fell off and I danced in my spare time.

    Then in college I rekindled my love of writing. The first thing I really wrote is still here on the boards and strangely I feel a lot better about it than I do of some of my more recent stuff.
     
  23. CowMoo

    CowMoo Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Aug 12, 2001
    i think my first real story was back in college, when an assignment was to write a sci-fi related short story. I don't think i have it any more, but I do recall that it was heavily influenced by B5 (Babylon 5) mixed in with some time travel. Now that I think of it, it is somewhat odd that Star Wars wasn't the inspiration for my first story ...
     
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  24. divapilot

    divapilot Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 30, 2005
    These are all so very interesting! I love we all come from so many different places in our writing lives. Some of us started in school, some later, some don't remember ever NOT writing.

    I know I wrote, I just don't remember what. I wrote poetry for a long time. I think the first thing I kept of my writing was a collection of haikus that I wrote and illustrated when I was about, say, 10 or 12 years old. Every haiku was about cats. :rolleyes:

    I remember writing in high school but darned if I remember what the heck the stories were. I don't think we had a creative writing class in my high school. Then I went through this very long period where I didn't write any fiction or poetry. (I read a lot, though.)

    My first fanfiction was maybe 20 years ago? or so. It was based on Star Trek: The Next Generation. I didn't even know it was fanfic because I didn't know that was a thing; I was just so dissatisfied with the way a particular character was killed off that I rewrote the death as I felt it should have been. As for intentional fanfic, my first fanfic was here on these boards. It was a Mara-centric story. I can't find it anymore which probably isn't a bad thing because it is probably poodoo.

    I DO have a collection of my son's stories that he dictated to me when he was about four years old (he's 24 now). My favorite story of his is entitled "The Giraffe That Wouldn't Brush His Teeth." (He was in his noncompliant animal bedtime phase.)
     
  25. K'Tai qel Letta-Tanku

    K'Tai qel Letta-Tanku Jedi Grand Master star 3

    Registered:
    Apr 18, 2000
    My first story was probably a fable assignment in elementary school..."The Very Vain Peacock" or something like that. I think I have it somewhere. My first serious attempt at a short story was for an assignment in my freshman year of high school. I don't remember the name or much of the plot other than it was sci-fi/fantasy, had elements of ESP and echoes of the original "Tomorrow People." What makes it stick out for me is how much it changed as my teacher gave me feedback and asked me to think about how Edgar Allen Poe, Jack London, and even Anne McCaffrey built worlds in their short stories with details. Even now, I remember Mrs. Stover's advice to make sure that the reader can see the picture in my head in full-color. I'm still not sure I do it all that well, but I keep trying.

    Outside of assignments for class, I didn't write much fiction in high school, although I wrote a lot of angsty poetry. My inner Goth had to have a voice. Most of the writing I did then was for the school newspaper, which at the time I had a love hate relationship with. I was never overly fond of the writing aspects of newspaper. I preferred to do photography and layout. However, I credit newspaper with making me a much better writer in the long run, between writing often and learning to write so that your story can be chopped after the first paragraph without losing any of the essential stuff.

    I didn't write fanfic until I stumbled upon the boards here while taking a break from writing my dissertation. The USJS started up, and I joined as a way to work through writer's block on my dissertation. I still find that I'm most productive with my fiction writing when I'm stuck in my day to day technical writing.