By James L Hill (aka J L Hill)
Right after I told my friends and family I published two books, one a month after the other, I got hit with, “I didn’t know you was a writer.” Mainly because I never tell anyone I’m working on a novel until I’m done. It saves me a lot of time explaining the story, instead of writing the story. Then I get hit with the follow up, “when did you become a writer?”
I’ve been asked that question a lot and I heard other writers asked the same question too. And a lot of times the answer is the same, or close to it, “when I was in grade school” or “when I was 10”, “12”, etc. It seems to me writers don’t become writers; we are born writers. Much the same as other artist, for example, you will find a painter draw pictures from childhood. Not the simple stick figures and misshapen cats and dogs, more complete pictures with stick figures mom and dad, misshapen cats and dogs, their house on a hill, flowers and birds. Pictures.
As I look back I notice there were signs that pointed me to being a writer. Signs I recognize in other writers too. If you want to know if you should become a writer, here are a few telltale signs to let you know if you or someone you know are on that path.
First do you have a story to tell? I don’t mean snitching on your kid brother or sister, or spilling the office gossip at the water cooler. I mean do you have ideas, movies running inside your head, do you see a stranger on the street and give that person a complete life of your choosing. When I was a kid I always had something to say, I use to talk a lot. And when there was nobody to talk to I’d talk to me, I still do. I have full blown conversations as other people, and I know what you’re thinking, there is medication for that. But I have stories to tell, I just have to remember to write them down. Here’s a tip, if you come up with a good idea that you think would be a good story write it down. Even if it is only one sentence, you can come back to it later and flesh it out.
When you were in school and giving the assignments, write a book report; an essay; a story or poem about this or that and it had to be 100; or 500; or 1000 words. Did the first thing that popped in your head was, ‘I don’t know anything about this or that’? Did the word count not bother you? In fact, did it excite you and challenge you to see if you can beat the word count on a subject. It did for me. I went to a Catholic school and the nuns were notorious for giving summer reading list. They did not like you to have fun, ever. It was usually three books you had to read and two or more books of your choosing. And of course book reports when you returned in the fall.
Now I like to write, my friends and I would make up our own comics, but I did not want to spend my summer reading. I wanted to go to the beach, the pool, play stickball, anything but read a bunch of books. But I did not mind writing the book reports. I usually read the first two or three pages of the chapters to get an idea of what the book was about and who was in it, then I write a report giving my opinion. Opinions are never wrong. I thought it was great work to see how much BS I could get away with, I eventually go back and read the books that looked interesting or we were going to be tested on. Nuns are great at pulling out some trivial fact buried deep in the book and making you write a couple of hundred words essay on how it affected the story or protagonist. For that you need FS (factual stuff) not BS.
Finally, do you get a warm and fuzzy feeling inside watching people read, or listen to what you have to say? I loved getting up to read my work before the class. I have terrible anxiety going up there to read, but the satisfaction I got from watching my classmates and the teacher was worth the stomach knots. And if a classmate didn’t do the assignment I’d gladly give them one of the drafts (of course I had more than one and no I never gave them my A stuff) because then I could sit back and watch the reactions of the class. If you get this kind of satisfaction, I dare say, you are a writer.
So when someone asks you when did you become a writer, tell them before you learned to write. You, like me, were born a writer, you just learned to do it better as time goes by.
Right after I told my friends and family I published two books, one a month after the other, I got hit with, “I didn’t know you was a writer.” Mainly because I never tell anyone I’m working on a novel until I’m done. It saves me a lot of time explaining the story, instead of writing the story. Then I get hit with the follow up, “when did you become a writer?”
I’ve been asked that question a lot and I heard other writers asked the same question too. And a lot of times the answer is the same, or close to it, “when I was in grade school” or “when I was 10”, “12”, etc. It seems to me writers don’t become writers; we are born writers. Much the same as other artist, for example, you will find a painter draw pictures from childhood. Not the simple stick figures and misshapen cats and dogs, more complete pictures with stick figures mom and dad, misshapen cats and dogs, their house on a hill, flowers and birds. Pictures.
As I look back I notice there were signs that pointed me to being a writer. Signs I recognize in other writers too. If you want to know if you should become a writer, here are a few telltale signs to let you know if you or someone you know are on that path.
First do you have a story to tell? I don’t mean snitching on your kid brother or sister, or spilling the office gossip at the water cooler. I mean do you have ideas, movies running inside your head, do you see a stranger on the street and give that person a complete life of your choosing. When I was a kid I always had something to say, I use to talk a lot. And when there was nobody to talk to I’d talk to me, I still do. I have full blown conversations as other people, and I know what you’re thinking, there is medication for that. But I have stories to tell, I just have to remember to write them down. Here’s a tip, if you come up with a good idea that you think would be a good story write it down. Even if it is only one sentence, you can come back to it later and flesh it out.
When you were in school and giving the assignments, write a book report; an essay; a story or poem about this or that and it had to be 100; or 500; or 1000 words. Did the first thing that popped in your head was, ‘I don’t know anything about this or that’? Did the word count not bother you? In fact, did it excite you and challenge you to see if you can beat the word count on a subject. It did for me. I went to a Catholic school and the nuns were notorious for giving summer reading list. They did not like you to have fun, ever. It was usually three books you had to read and two or more books of your choosing. And of course book reports when you returned in the fall.
Now I like to write, my friends and I would make up our own comics, but I did not want to spend my summer reading. I wanted to go to the beach, the pool, play stickball, anything but read a bunch of books. But I did not mind writing the book reports. I usually read the first two or three pages of the chapters to get an idea of what the book was about and who was in it, then I write a report giving my opinion. Opinions are never wrong. I thought it was great work to see how much BS I could get away with, I eventually go back and read the books that looked interesting or we were going to be tested on. Nuns are great at pulling out some trivial fact buried deep in the book and making you write a couple of hundred words essay on how it affected the story or protagonist. For that you need FS (factual stuff) not BS.
Finally, do you get a warm and fuzzy feeling inside watching people read, or listen to what you have to say? I loved getting up to read my work before the class. I have terrible anxiety going up there to read, but the satisfaction I got from watching my classmates and the teacher was worth the stomach knots. And if a classmate didn’t do the assignment I’d gladly give them one of the drafts (of course I had more than one and no I never gave them my A stuff) because then I could sit back and watch the reactions of the class. If you get this kind of satisfaction, I dare say, you are a writer.
So when someone asks you when did you become a writer, tell them before you learned to write. You, like me, were born a writer, you just learned to do it better as time goes by.
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