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Grade 1 I think. It was a 1 page book, with illustrations and a cover. Masking tape over it to protect it. It was about a gorilla.
My grandma kept it for me, and another one. She was a writer herself and always encouraged it in me. Didn’t matter the age, just always keep writing. And she was still getting published in some local historical magazines in her early 90s.
Thats so cute :) i remember getting a little discouraged that the youngest published author ever was like 4 [I canbot find her name, but I know the book sounded very complicated and advanced - it had to do with space, specifically Jupiter] but my 2nd grade teacher said it should encoueage me that I could start a career before I was even an adult. Ive been writing ever since :)
Edit: Her name was Dorothy Straight, who published "How the World Began" at 4 years old.
I wrote stories already as 11-12 (with the grammar and sense of said age XD)
actually wrote some long stories too.
But real writing, with grammar and sense I was 15-16 maybe
Was writing stories as a kid, all through childhood. Not sure why I stopped, but I picked it back up again in 2020, at the age of 30, and started undertaking projects seriously. Haven't looked back.
Grade 6 - I was probably around 11.
Had a story assignment for English class (free reign on the type of story I wanted to share). This is back when assignments consisted of a draft on an 8.5x11 lined paper (written in pencil), and then whatever you'd written had to be rewritten in pen before submission.
I'd written 10 pages (single-spaced, front and back) and then sat through class and a school-wide assembly (on the gym floor), rewriting it all in blue ink because that's something everyone had to do.
That's when I realized how much I loved writing and storytelling because my most of my peers had 2-3 pages at most, and how stupid it was that I had to rewrite it all in pen, all things considered.
Lol for a recent school assignment I thought I went about 2-3 times the max, until I realized the limit was about half what I'd thought and it was supposed to be double spaced. Writing way more than you need to can be really satisfying. (Except when you have to rewrite it all, I feel for you)
I almost always wrote way more than I needed. Didn't matter if it was creative writing or just essays. They assign me one page and I write five. They assign me five pages and I write fifteen. It's insane.
Probably not the first! I think Harry Bernstein and Arthur C Clarke were writing after the age of 100, and I'm sure there were others. And they seem like the type who were writing as toddlers, also.
Shortly before my 40th birthday. I enjoy it as a hobby and do it quite often now. I also watch a lot of writing vids and have gotten into the theory behind it.
Fourth grade. My teacher that year was an incredible human. It didn't take her long to stop hassling and embarrassing me in front of the class by calling me out for doodling, tapping, or staring out the window (or whatever other seemingly inattentive, and thereby *criminal* act I committed during class). She also stopped making me stand and dictate responses during pop quizzes, allowing me to write my answer instead. When she decided she needed to speak with my mother, I had no idea what to expect, so I was terrified. They talked a lot about my "strange" attention span, fidgeting, etc. More importantly, they discussed my inability to clearly communicate, not only the answers to academic questions, but also basic things like needs, wants, and emotions when expected to do so verbally (it wasn't a speech problem, it was just a *me* problem). She recommended that I start writing, and gave me a small stack of composition books the next morning when I arrived at school. Because of her, I found my outlet and the one hobby that my wonky attention span never loses interest in.
Good for you! I started writing when I was fourteen as well—on a *typewriter*. I wrote a series of short plays called *Summer Fun*. They were terrible, but I kept at it at got a little better with each play, poem or story I wrote.
Don't be afraid of failure—because everyone fails sometimes—but learn from failure. Growth takes time and effort, but it's worth it. Keep writing!
Type writer wow. I really want to try one out just to get a feel of how people wrote in those days. Thank you for the advise. I keep writing almost everyday and hope to become better.
Started at like 6th grade (9-10 years ago) as a means of escape and by goodness it's showing that I was having too much fun writing. Fanfiction written by a middleschooler trying to write for high school is a crime I took.
And yet I can't manage to delete any of my old stories off the internet. They're relics and I'll treasure my cringy memories
Thank you, I don't think I will. Just in case someone ever gets sentimental and decides they want to go back to my Quotev stories, I want to make sure they're still there 😌
To some extent I used to write from before I could really write, because I'd create short stories using images and brief words to explain what I was trying to say 🤣
But first time I gave it a real attempt probably would have been when I was about 12. Thats when I got my first phone, and started writing in notes. I was writing some (really bad) books up until I was about 13-14, which is when I first really became a reader. Becoming a reader made my writing skills vastly improve, but, I kind of turned to Fanfiction for a while. I was probably 15 when I restarted writing original stories, and its pretty much been on and off since. I now have 40 book ideas/plans in drafts/etc. 39 are original, and 1 is a fanfic.
Age 10 poem got published during a writing contest.
Age 12 short story won an award. The writing is horrendous looking back but I did achieve something.
After that the rest is history. Probably earlier for the writing bug but those are my earliest memories of the writing bug.
Age 13 decided I was gonna get an English Degree (not to teach, but I applaud those that can teach and went to school for teaching. You guys are amazing.)
Wavered only once because of another passion I discovered (during high school thought I was gonna get a Social Work Degree) but during freshman year of university decided to just do volunteer work and stick with the English Degree plan.
Started when I was about 16 but I didn't really find my style until I was 24. Now I can write without thinking... even if it isn't market friendly stuff :(
Oh, gee, I don't know. Younger than ten. I don't remember much, other than my great aunt being so delighted by my story about a friendly vampire named Bob that she subsequently named her computer and every character in her search-and-find computer games "Bob."
The oldest stories that I still have access to are from when I was around eleven or so. Mostly cringey fanfiction about One Direction, but several (mildly) original ideas, too.
I think I was...thirteen when I decided to start writing seriously? At least, that was the age that I started writing my main project. Which still isn't finished seven years later. 😅 (But it is the only book I have ever completed an entire draft of, before I decided to completely overhaul it, so I consider that a major accomplishment.)
Yeah I used to be a really avid reader during elementary school. Still am but it died down when I moved back to Asia. I think it helped me start off since reading really does help with writing.
I was 10. My first story was two pages long and after that, I was addicted. I started writing more stories (lots of fan fiction), fiction, and some little “news” articles I kept in a binder about my favorite band. I wrote some poetry and song lyrics too, here and there.
Over the years, I’ve been a content writer, copywriter, ghostwriter, and author with 11 self-published books.
I started writing as soon as I learned to write. By first grade, I carried around a bag with my stapled little "books" inside. My elementary school had a publication lab where we could bring our stories and they would format them into "real" little books with wallpapered covers and everything (this was in, like, 1990) and I spent more time there than in class. They got so used to me coming there every chance I got that they acted like I worked there and treated me like I belonged there, which meant the world to me since I was sort of a social outcast and a loner. I even got a "job" at the school post office as a mail sorter, which was run out of the same room and was an experiment being done to improve kids' writing abilities by having them write letters to kids in other classes and "mail" them through the pretend mailroom.
They even made us submit a resume to be considered to work in the mailroom. I remember I wrote on my resume that I didn't have any paid experience but that I was very good at sorting my magazines and books at home. I think I was probably six around that time and was so proud to be "hired" as a mail-sorter for the school post office where I could sit and sort the letters and talk to the librarian and the publication ladies.
I wrote for the rest of my life. I didn't want to go to college because I didn't think writers needed college but my parents insisted I go (I would have regretted it if I didn't, I guess). I planned to major in creative writing but switched to sociology instead because the sociology chair made the material come alive and it really appealed to me. It didn't stop me from writing, though, since I was able to take every sociology class to fulfill my major requirement plus all the writing workshops I wanted since I always took the max amount of credits allowed, which is something I advise doing if you know you can do that, because knocking out the classes you need early gives you a lot more freedom to take anything you want later on. Like in my senior year I took things like Drawing 101 just for fun, and even some economics courses that led me to declare a minor in economics.
I thought I would grow up to be a famous author when I was a little kid. I ended up becoming an obituary writer and then I went back to school for my MSW and became a social worker after a few years in obits. I burned out in the social work field pretty fast, moved away, and became a reporter for a small paper in the south (I was from New York and was shocked at how fast they hired me and even let me pitch stories as a newbie).
I did sell one book in my life and I wrote two. I'm waiting for my first book to go through final edits before it's released and then if it gives the house an ROI, I'll submit another manuscript. A lot hinges on whether my first book can return the investment to the house because if it does, they'll probably buy other manuscripts from me and if it doesn't, it just doesn't look good although they might give me another chance if I send a manuscript they find particularly compelling.
TL;DR--I have been writing for my entire life and it's all I ever wanted to do and it's the only thing I ever thought I was actually good at. Not everyone fits the same mold, though. Some people don't get interested in it until much later in life and become successful anyway so you don't need to be a lifer to start a writing career and it's never too early or too late to start trying.
Before I could write, I started telling stories by drawing them. I had an old pocket calendar and I used to draw pictures in there, continuing my story about a bunny's adventures with each drawing.
Then, I started to record stories on cassettes.
My love for writing came about as soon as we we're asked to write our first story in elementary school. I had so much fun with each of these assignments and I often wrote way more than was expected of me. Around that time I started to write poems, new lyrics for already existing songs, as well as stories just for fun. One plot that I told through several media was a story about a Mustang filly in the Wild West.
When I was 15, I started to take my writing more seriously. I was still experimenting with storytelling in various media formats (such as video games), but pure writing stuck with me, as it's the best format to express what I want to express.
And so, here I am, in my thirties, never stopped writing and loving it more each year.
I always liked stories, but as a child I wasn't a big reader. I watched lots of movies and shows instead and only discovered my love for books as a teenager. Also, the only reason I looked into "how to write a book" was because it seemed more realistically to be successful with than with a movie script.
Funny enough, I was also 14 when I started and finished my first book! (it sucked, but that's part of it)
3rd grade was the earliest I can remember. I created a multi-chapter book starring all of my classmates which I read to the class
Maybe my teacher shouldve proof-read it before, because quite a few of them died in my story 😂
I was a very angsty child.
I’m 25 and just started this month. When I look back on the times I had to write short stories for school, I realise how much I enjoyed writing. I find it similar to journaling in a way, often I find I have so many words building up in my head and writing it all out feels super relieving. Plus it’s a bonus if some of it comes out sounding like a coherent story or character.
When I was around 13, I wrote the first of my main story (I've now rewritten it many time) but before that, I wanted to become a manga artist! I then realized I sucked at drawing and decided I wanted to become a writer inside to mae my stories!
Oh manga artist is actually something that I want to do as well. I really think manga is a great way of story telling though I am practice writing more.
I was always coming up with characters and stories, even long before I could write. The first thing I remember writing down on paper was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fanfiction when I was around 9 (the OG cartoon began in 1987). I also illustrated it. :D
I wrote more fanfiction in high school, stuff like X-men and La Femme Nikita, which I shared through fanfic mailing lists. I also started writing stories set in my own worlds, with my own characters. I recently found some stuff I wrote back in *1994*!
I don't exactly remember how old I was, but I think I was around 5-6 where I wrote a story in my journal with illustrations. That was eons ago but I'm like 20 now pfft. I never decided to take writing more seriously to the point I wanna share it to the world till I was like your age; 14.
I wrote a kids’ alphabet book in 1986 when I was still in kindergarten myself (I was very advanced), and started kids’ chapter books in 1988. I started fanfic in 1990 before knowing it was a thing. Fiction novels (I hate the word “novel”) in 1996. First published in 2010.
Middle school for me. Seventh grade when we were reading *Brown Girl Dreaming* (Jacqueline Woodson) in class and I remember clear as day my first poem in my head as I was walking down the stairs lmao. Took me a few years to properly find my style. If you want to develop your writing faster than that you could definitely look into youth programs/workshops; I know the Incandescent Summer Studio is both phenomenal and highly affordable so if you're interested look into that :\]
High-school teachers, two of them, told me separately. One of them said. I have a very interesting way of storytelling. The second said that my story is unique, unlike the rest of the classes. They were both different grades, and they didn't know each other. That's how I got into it.
i wrote my very first short picture book when i was maybe 6, and then i drew tiny little comics after that. i got into actual writing when i was maybe.. 8 or 9? then i wrote until i was early 13, then i got into a huge writers block, and now i'm \[almost 15\] back into comic making, but more serious this time. maybe one day i'll go back to for real writing someday.
Never too early or late to start! I’ve been writing since I was five or six, and got really into it around 11 or 12. Majored in English with a writing focus in college. Currently 27 and writing my second novel.
I’ve written stories for a while, even aspects of fan fiction since 2021. I really started writing my story (the same I’ve been on now) for over two years atp, I started when I was 14.
It’s coming along, even after two years. I was at the end of my freshman year and at the time, the highest level English class was CP. It’s now IB HL.
Do not delete anything you write- just start off with a sentence that you think is good and see where it goes from there. I’ve done that and have got 103,277 words and 391 pages.
Just keep writing! Let the ideas come and write them down, but I would finish the first draft. That’s my plan, and my estimate is 470 pages. Then, I’ll read and jot down notes. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I started writing song lyrics and poems as a teen but didn’t start with essays and short stories till I was in my early 20s. Didn’t publish a book till I was 50.
In third grade I plagiarized the general plot of a movie for some assignment, but had written it in such a way that my teacher found it promising. I was given an opportunity to write something new, or fail. So I wrote something new, and enjoyed it a lot. I wrote a bunch of little stories after that. Then around 11, I found out about fanfiction, and really went ham on that.
Just this year, at 17, I've started my first original novel.
I've been writing inconsistently for years. I could never finish a story. But this time, call me crazy, but I feel like I've been called by some divine energy to write my own retelling of an ancient myth. And I'm having so much fun and it's going so well.
Basically as soon as I could read/write! So kindergarten I think? One day I just sat down and wrote a story about a fox and a fish that were best friends. I also wrote a story about a magic rainbow glitter unicorn at school that won a medal (baby’s first literary award)… i always hope it hasn’t all been downhill from there lol.
One of my First Memories Is me writing with my dad helping me find an end for the story, i am. 14 too and now i love to write, a lot, bit i Can't tell and exact age, i should ask my parents.
Btw i started writing seriously last year, by seriously i mean "thinking of It as a career"
I started at the age of 8. I won an essay contest at school when I was 9. My 8th grade English teacher still uses my work in her classes, and she hasn’t taught me since 2008 lol. I’m 30 now, and working on a novel that I hope to get published in the next year or so. It’s cool to look back later in life and see how much you’ve grown creatively. Stick with it, OP!
I started writing in middle school. Stopped because I was forced to share my works with each English class in high school, not just turn them in to the teacher. I hated sharing my works aloud to others and a couple times I was bullied for what I had written, whether the concept was too close to another published work or for my writing style or whatever. I kept writing bits and pieces in secret, some poems, story concepts, scenes, etc. I finally took a hard look at why I supposedly "didn't like writing" and now I'm working on my first full novel. Bits and pieces have already been shared with friends and now I'm looking for a peer review writing group. I hope to have a full manuscript by the end of the year and hopefully then I can start editing.
I have intense anxiety and my parents refused to get me treated medically ("oh its just hyperactivity" or "he's just being a hyper little kid"). I started writing at eight and have been writing for 29 years. If I'm writing it helps with my anxiety and my need for stimulation.
I’ve been creating stories my whole life. But actually putting pen to paper and writing? For me that mostly started in 6th grade (first year of middle school). I didn’t actually finish any of the stories I’ve written until a couple years ago; and I’m still on the long editing process (my least favorite part of writing lol), but will eventually get it done. It just takes persistence.
As a kid. But never thought about doing it as a career. I was an arteest! So I went to art school. Didn’t start thinking about writing as a dream job until my late 20s.
But I used to write little cartoon stories all the time. Theron the Hunter & Dante the Dragon was my first “epic” fantasy I wrote at 9 😆 Then I wrote a sci-fi at 16/17, got 72 pgs in and the computer ate it 😑 What’s even more crazy is that it was basically the same plot as the movie The Island with Ewan McGregor that came out like 8ish yrs later in 2005! That moment actually made me think I might be ok at storytelling, and I was so mad I’d lost it.
Then I didn’t really write again (other than creative college papers) until I was 26/27 around 2010, right when Amazon & kindle ebooks were emerging. I wrote & pubbed my first fantasy novel in 2014, but did I keep writing? Nooooo. Cause y’know, youth, ignorance, & had to pay rent. And there were no Amazon pioneers & YouTube roadmaps like there are now.
Now at 40, after a decade+ of learning and not giving up on writing, I am finally able to pursue it FT. Making money? Nope! Not yet. But that’s because I didn’t know what I didn’t know, didn’t have the opportunity to write FT, and always treated it like a hobby instead of a business/career until last year.
I’m envious you can just watch YouTube or read countless books about writing and publishing now. So, you have no excuses! Lol, jk. Keep writing & learning! It’s a long game and takes years/decades of practice & learning, which never actually ends.
I started when I was about 9 or 10 technically...or at least I remember making up poems after an author visit at school. Then I tried writing a book when I was 11 or 12, but about half way through wasnt sure how to finish it. I started journaling about then which I heard helped with writing skills. Then we started to get more essays assigned in school so unless it was an assignment I didn't really write for fun until after college. Then one summer when I was 23 I decided that I was finally going to write a book like I always dreamed. That's when my writing really took off. I finally had picked up the tools I needed to overcome my perfectionism. That was four years ago. Now I'm 27 and getting ready to publish that book this fall!
7th grade. Wrote a short story about a machine that could clone a girl from her picture for a class. *Yeah...... I know...*
Got an A on it, I think. I doubt I still have it, though.
In High School I spent all of senior year writing a terrible DOOM-clone with two characters whose initials spelled "BIG GUN" murdering hundreds of aliens with laser weapons in good ol' corridor-shooter fashion. I'd started the sequel when the year ended and the spiral notebooks they were written in both vanished. Oh well. They were... bad.
A few years later I started my current project, took around 1.5-2 years to "finish" it, and now, years later, I've realized just how much work it needs, so I'm doing that work daily.
I first started writing when I was probably 8, give or take a year. I didn't really have any plans of becoming a writer, but my idea (people with... elemental powers!) was so good I just had to write it. Or, well... like a chapter of it. Then when I was somewhere 10-12 I started to actually consider writing as a career/lifelong hobby when I got into reading Brandon Sanderson. When I was 14 I started writing my first actually thought out book, but I only wrote on and off, switching projects and never making real progress until this January (I'm currently 18), when I managed to actually maintain dedication and make significant progress for the first time ever. I just finished my first rough draft the other day.
My advice: don't wait as long as I did lol. It pains me slightly to think how much more accomplished I could be as a writer if I'd put the work in consistently since I started. If there's one tip that ended up working for me, it's to focus on simply enjoying the process and appreciating your progress no matter how small and infrequent. That will make it way easier to actually maintain your motivation than setting goals in terms of time and word count.
Good luck!
Gods, maybe 4th grade? I wrote a little 25 page short story about mythology. It was terrible, but rlly funny. I think I more seriously started writing at 14, when I began putting actual effort into full length stories
I started a book 11 years ago at age 39. Circumstances changed, so I left it and only started again with another last year. I've now written four and agonise daily about how I should have started 30 years ago or at least continued with that first one.
It's never toonlate to dart, but it can feel like it from the other side.
In law school, I got a nerdy obsession with the modernists and postmodernists. I would read Joyce or Virginia Woolf or Pynchon or whoever, plus Kafka. I knew how badly I wanted to think like these people. I wanted to be able to show the world thoughts like theirs.
But I was too busy, and too mentally unwell. It wasn’t until I stabilized my bipolar, years later, that I was able to focus on writing long-form and could draft a novel.
I was four when I “wrote” my first story. I folded myself a little book and took it to show Dad what I’d done - mostly scribbling, and my name in big crooked letters on the cover
30s. I’m also a musician. I did lots of songwriting since I was 19. Wasn’t until I deciding a concept album I wrote needed a novel with it that I sat down and started writing my first book.
I think I was like 15-16? I was mowing the lawn one summer day, and my parents have a huge lawn so it would take most of the afternoon to mow. I had forgotten to charge my iPod the night before (oh God I just aged myself there) so it died about an hour in to the 5 hour process.
Going round and round on the mower I started to day dream to help pass the time and came up with a story in my head about the Antichrist being forced to become a superhero and fight for the good side. I kept that idea in my mental bank because it seemed unique. I hadn’t really ever written any story before but that night I looked up how to write a screenplay and got to work. It took about 2 weeks to finish, and it was… absolutely God awful. But I was hooked. And even though I know it’s highly unlikely any of my screenplays will ever be produced, I just like making em and having my friends read them sometimes.
I think I started writing when I was 11 or 12 then I didn’t write for years and started dabbling again in my late 20’s early 30’s because my girlfriend at the time was doing NaNoWriMo.
I married her, I’ve still not finished a book, she has a publishing deal.
Hi, 13 year old here, i have always had a passion for writing.. i truly started writing when i was 8, writing a short story about something called a moonlight stone, and i may have to find that story to incorporate it into my current works
I started writing more intensely when I was about 9/10, though I think even before then I was writing short stories. I’ve always loved writing novels so I think I was 11/12 when I wrote my first novel.
I’ve also kept everything I’ve ever written which I definitely recommend as you can look back and see how far you’ve come (and probably have a little cringe too while you’re it XD)
Although from what I remember of it it was indeed super cringe, I do feel some sadness that the unfinished story I began when I was 10 or 11 no longer exists. I had backed it up on floppy disc 😬
I was eleven. At the time I was feeling like I couldn't do anything. I wasn't the top of my class anymore in French, I sucked at sports, et cetera.
Classmates said I was good at writing stories so I just latched onto that. Being autistic helped me hyper focus on it too.
Looking back at what I wrote when I was that age: I want to burn it all. What was I thinking? XD
I have a memory of writing a book when I was 6, maybe 8. I'm not even sure how much of actual writing ended up inside it, but I remember being 100% sure it's proper writing. It was about a boy with some animal friends, making friends out of enemies. I was so embarrassed I hid it and never found it again. I've asked my family around 20 years later and they knew nothing, so it's been one of my best kept secrets.
Later I picked up writing again when I was 14.
I was seven. Was given the opportunity to write a story and get it professionally bound (a classmate's mom was doing it for every student). Was hooked ever since.
I started at 4 or 5, then had bursts of courage/enthusiasm on and off for years, where a book would come out of me, but it wouldn’t go any further, and I’d lose confidence again. Now, in my 40s I’m finally publishing whatever I like.
Enjoy your writing and don’t lose confidence in yourself. Learn and grow and accept yourself in the moment too.
I was 11 when I "officially" started writing, but even before I would come up with stories, usually in the form of comics or just making up bed time stories together with my dad.
I started writing at around age 10. I was inspired by *Reading Rainbow* when one of the books highlighted was a book about cats that a child (6-8 years old, I forget the precise age) wrote. And I thought that I could write, too.
I think I was 7. I wrote a story about a cheetah who stole the power of speed or something and everybody was jealous lol. Drew pictures and everything. I wrote stuff on and off since then. Been writing in earnest these past 8 months though.
I started writing as a young elementary-age child, and my teachers supported me. It was maybe 3rd of 4th grade when I first remember being singled out for it.
As a 41 year old professional marketing writer, it was that early support that caused me to continue down this path. Without believing in my natural skill I would never have had tough enough skin to learn what I needed.
My professors in college also picked me out for my skills, and that really made me confident! Undergrad through grad school my belief was constantly reassured without me asking for it.
Of course I wrote some absolute garbage too, but I had the confidence in my ability to take criticism and use it, rather than be offended.
And the confidence to submit the garbage for review.
The compliments have continued even at work for years.
I started, and was supported in my dreams, early. That made ALL the difference. It let me really believe I could do this, and helped me understand that first drafts sometimes need a lot of work.
I was like 12 and had read the Emily books by L.M.Montgomery, and basically wanted to be her. I wrote my first novel at 14, I think it was really well written for my age, but unpublishable for several reasons. Then I wrote role playing games that I played with friends. Worked full time for some years with something unrelated, then began to study creative writing to pursue writing more seriously.
I am currently 35 years old and published one novel and 68 short stories so far.
I was nine! It was poorly advised Harry Potter fanfic typed on the family computer. My mom printed it out and put it in a file folder for me and asked me to draw a cover for it. I obliged.
ETA: I’m 33 now but my mom still has that folder.
i think in second grade was when i started writing creatively. they put me in a writing group that was some kind of after school competition (can’t remember much about it anymore) but that was when i really fell in love with using my imagination
I wrote my first “book” when I was about five. I went on to have my first piece of writing published aged seven… so I’d say then, but I started to take writing more seriously as a “future career path” when I reached my teens. But you’re never too young or too old to write!
I think I was in kindergarten when I wrote my first story. I was in 7th grade when I began my first novel (which I haven't finished because school, work, and inspiration for different stories have gotten in the way lol).
In 3rd grade, our teacher read us Harriet the Spy and I became obsessed with it (tl;dr a kid observes people and writes everything she sees in a notebook and hijinks ensue- they made a movie; it was okay) I wanted to “spy” on my neighborhood, too. Except my neighbors were so boring - all they did was invite friends over and give each other sugar packets and insulin needles. One of them must’ve been related to a cop because they stopped by all the time
Anyway since my neighbors were so uninteresting to my dumb-child brain, I started making up things I wished I saw and those eventually evolved into stories
I've been writing since I was introduced to the concept of writing a book in Kindergarten. So age 4.
Through high school and in my 20s, I posted a lot of stuff online. I was content with that for years. But I decided to publish in 2021 at age 37.
I was probably 13 and I got introduced to the idea of fanfictions. Before then I thought only published writers had the right to create stories.
I wanted to be a mystery writer.
Started writing when I was nine. Was introduced to fanfiction at age thirteen and now I write plot to my own stories. I’ve almost started one, actually ^7^
I have been telling stories when I played are talked as long as a I remember, but the first time I put them on paper was when I was in sixth grade at the age of 10 (I was early because of lots of stuff) and i wrote for a contest because grandma found me writing a story about horses. I won honorific mention in a nationwide contest. I wanted to continue writing, but I was soon told to stop as "There is no future in this."
I have recently picked it up at the age of 24. But I have always been writing small stories or poems in between those years. And, I have been planning my current story since 7th grade.
I started in 5th grade by writing cringy “plays” and by 7th grade rolled around I started writing fanfiction and in 9th grade I started writing non fanfiction stuff.
I was 20 (I’m 21 now). I was a freshman in college and I came in as a nursing major but then I realized in the middle of my first semester that I wouldn’t be happy doing that for the rest of my life. I wanted to do something that made be happy. I love to read, I love to write, so being a writer. But I am deciding between being an author or writing for animation.
3rd grade. I had visual processing disorder when I was younger so I only learned how to read and write by the end of 2nd grade. I started writing the moment I could and I loved it. I used to show my teachers the poetry I wrote or the comic books I drew.
8 years old. if I ever wrote down "a" story before that point, I only know that at 8, I was doing it regularly and taking it seriously. I had several stories, often in series, with fake publishing companies and illustrated covers and often illustrations inside, too. over the years I have written more or less over time (with my most productive streak being since 2011), but I would say 8 was the first time I was really prolific. I wrote *constantly*, and in between writing, all I did in my spare time was come up with ideas and premises for stories, and drawings of characters, and lists of characters and their family trees, and maps of their locations.
i started writing seriously in fifth grade, when i was around 10. but i’ve been writing ever since i could think of a good thing to write about. my first “book” was actually a bootleg percy jackson ripoff, but hey, we all start somewhere!
Honestly, as long as I can remember (I’m 25 now). It’s always been something I loved and something kept me calm and gave me an outlet from my normal world. Anything from Fanfics to original stories, or even just little passages.
If I have any advice to give, it would be that don’t view writing like a job just as something you love to do. And no matter what even if you hate your work someone out there may love it.
(Yes the advice part is a little unwarranted but I still wanted to share it😅)
My creative juices were a bit delayed as a kid, so that stifled my desire to write for a while. It wasn't until high school that I started seriously writing (notes for characters for a novel, an actual chapter, etc.), and it wasn't until college and I realized my original choice of major (chemistry) wasn't going to work for me that I gave it serious thought. So I chose English for my major with the goal of becoming a writer. I graduated from college 10 years ago, and my first novel went through more than one retool, which is part of why it took me so long to write it. And I'm still waiting for feedback on my rough draft (though I already got a headstart on the sequel and a standalone work).
I wrote my whole life, but I didn’t see get much traction (or call myself a writer) until I found speech-to-text input. This was around 2020, before the tools were as good as they are now. I would record my voice while moving around, dancing, pacing my house, or practicing yoga. When I tried to get back to the keyboard, I never had that same clarity and creativity.
Leaning into voice input changed my life. I became a professional writer and made a career pivot because of it. Back then, you had to speak punctuation, and the transcription wasn't very accurate, but now it's super easy.
By the way, I used speech input to create this comment because I'm practicing my voice input writing skills. It's not exactly how I would type it, but it's worth it to be a free-range writer.
Honestly I don't remember not writing. Started with my own comic books. Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, because Saturday cartoons were another week away. Did the same for the Hulk TV show and the A-Team.
Late elementary and into highschool I switched mostly to poetry though I'd still do the occasional comic book.
Moved on to short stories and screenplays in my 20's. And now at 50 I'm trying to do a novels from my screenplays.
It was definitely elementary school - not exactly sure the age.
I started by taking various characters from TV shows my family would watch and creating a new story/episode with them.
I’ve written fiction and non-fiction. I love both for different reasons.
If you enjoy it, keep going!
It’s great you’re getting started young. There is a lot of opportunities. Focus on the content that makes you happy.
Good luck!
I didn't start taking it seriously. (Meaning putting a lot of thought into getting better and practicing.) Till recently. Last ten years or so. I'm 34 now but have always wrote poetry. Start off in the emo days and continued through to now writing horror poetry, short stories and working on my novel.
I didn't start legibly writing until I was about 54 and then it took four years to put my first book together. Since then, in the past year and a half, I've published three more.
Four months ago. I'm cutting my teeth with fanfiction, but hope to write something original someday when I've improved more and feel more confident in my voice/style.
Started writing in second grade. I put together a little hand made journal with loose papers and wrote until I ran out of pages.
I continued to write various stories and poems throughout the years, but my first actual project started around 6th grade, and took me through 7th and 8th grade to complete. The resulting novel was published my 9th grade year, so I was 15 at the time.
I’m 14 too! I’ve been writing since I was 8, and I’ve always known this is what I’m meant to do in my life since I started. Becoming a writer is my biggest dream ever and I’m determined to make it happen :3
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Grade 1 I think. It was a 1 page book, with illustrations and a cover. Masking tape over it to protect it. It was about a gorilla. My grandma kept it for me, and another one. She was a writer herself and always encouraged it in me. Didn’t matter the age, just always keep writing. And she was still getting published in some local historical magazines in her early 90s.
Thats so cute :) i remember getting a little discouraged that the youngest published author ever was like 4 [I canbot find her name, but I know the book sounded very complicated and advanced - it had to do with space, specifically Jupiter] but my 2nd grade teacher said it should encoueage me that I could start a career before I was even an adult. Ive been writing ever since :) Edit: Her name was Dorothy Straight, who published "How the World Began" at 4 years old.
I did that too, "The danger of the cheetah!" Illustrated with clip art.
I wrote stories already as 11-12 (with the grammar and sense of said age XD) actually wrote some long stories too. But real writing, with grammar and sense I was 15-16 maybe
Was writing stories as a kid, all through childhood. Not sure why I stopped, but I picked it back up again in 2020, at the age of 30, and started undertaking projects seriously. Haven't looked back.
Grade 6 - I was probably around 11. Had a story assignment for English class (free reign on the type of story I wanted to share). This is back when assignments consisted of a draft on an 8.5x11 lined paper (written in pencil), and then whatever you'd written had to be rewritten in pen before submission. I'd written 10 pages (single-spaced, front and back) and then sat through class and a school-wide assembly (on the gym floor), rewriting it all in blue ink because that's something everyone had to do. That's when I realized how much I loved writing and storytelling because my most of my peers had 2-3 pages at most, and how stupid it was that I had to rewrite it all in pen, all things considered.
Lol for a recent school assignment I thought I went about 2-3 times the max, until I realized the limit was about half what I'd thought and it was supposed to be double spaced. Writing way more than you need to can be really satisfying. (Except when you have to rewrite it all, I feel for you)
I almost always wrote way more than I needed. Didn't matter if it was creative writing or just essays. They assign me one page and I write five. They assign me five pages and I write fifteen. It's insane.
Age 3. I’m in my 40s now. I’ve always been a writer.
Damn. 37 years.
If I live to be 100, I’ll still be writing every day or at least every few days.
Keep up till 103 and you’ll be the first writer with a century of experience
Probably not the first! I think Harry Bernstein and Arthur C Clarke were writing after the age of 100, and I'm sure there were others. And they seem like the type who were writing as toddlers, also.
This is me, my parents tell me I was telling stories before I could talk hahaha
Shortly before my 40th birthday. I enjoy it as a hobby and do it quite often now. I also watch a lot of writing vids and have gotten into the theory behind it.
Fourth grade. My teacher that year was an incredible human. It didn't take her long to stop hassling and embarrassing me in front of the class by calling me out for doodling, tapping, or staring out the window (or whatever other seemingly inattentive, and thereby *criminal* act I committed during class). She also stopped making me stand and dictate responses during pop quizzes, allowing me to write my answer instead. When she decided she needed to speak with my mother, I had no idea what to expect, so I was terrified. They talked a lot about my "strange" attention span, fidgeting, etc. More importantly, they discussed my inability to clearly communicate, not only the answers to academic questions, but also basic things like needs, wants, and emotions when expected to do so verbally (it wasn't a speech problem, it was just a *me* problem). She recommended that I start writing, and gave me a small stack of composition books the next morning when I arrived at school. Because of her, I found my outlet and the one hobby that my wonky attention span never loses interest in.
Sounds like an amazing teacher!
She really was. It's a shame there aren't more teachers who genuinely care.
Good for you! I started writing when I was fourteen as well—on a *typewriter*. I wrote a series of short plays called *Summer Fun*. They were terrible, but I kept at it at got a little better with each play, poem or story I wrote. Don't be afraid of failure—because everyone fails sometimes—but learn from failure. Growth takes time and effort, but it's worth it. Keep writing!
Type writer wow. I really want to try one out just to get a feel of how people wrote in those days. Thank you for the advise. I keep writing almost everyday and hope to become better.
Started at like 6th grade (9-10 years ago) as a means of escape and by goodness it's showing that I was having too much fun writing. Fanfiction written by a middleschooler trying to write for high school is a crime I took. And yet I can't manage to delete any of my old stories off the internet. They're relics and I'll treasure my cringy memories
You shouldn’t delete fanfiction. I promise you that no matter how cringy it was there will readers for it that find your works amazing
Thank you, I don't think I will. Just in case someone ever gets sentimental and decides they want to go back to my Quotev stories, I want to make sure they're still there 😌
I started when I was 11. Six years later, and I still love it. Have improved a lot as well.
To some extent I used to write from before I could really write, because I'd create short stories using images and brief words to explain what I was trying to say 🤣 But first time I gave it a real attempt probably would have been when I was about 12. Thats when I got my first phone, and started writing in notes. I was writing some (really bad) books up until I was about 13-14, which is when I first really became a reader. Becoming a reader made my writing skills vastly improve, but, I kind of turned to Fanfiction for a while. I was probably 15 when I restarted writing original stories, and its pretty much been on and off since. I now have 40 book ideas/plans in drafts/etc. 39 are original, and 1 is a fanfic.
Age 10 poem got published during a writing contest. Age 12 short story won an award. The writing is horrendous looking back but I did achieve something. After that the rest is history. Probably earlier for the writing bug but those are my earliest memories of the writing bug. Age 13 decided I was gonna get an English Degree (not to teach, but I applaud those that can teach and went to school for teaching. You guys are amazing.) Wavered only once because of another passion I discovered (during high school thought I was gonna get a Social Work Degree) but during freshman year of university decided to just do volunteer work and stick with the English Degree plan.
I started writing when I was 12 but it didn't became serious until I was 16.
When I was 17
Started when I was about 16 but I didn't really find my style until I was 24. Now I can write without thinking... even if it isn't market friendly stuff :(
Oh, gee, I don't know. Younger than ten. I don't remember much, other than my great aunt being so delighted by my story about a friendly vampire named Bob that she subsequently named her computer and every character in her search-and-find computer games "Bob." The oldest stories that I still have access to are from when I was around eleven or so. Mostly cringey fanfiction about One Direction, but several (mildly) original ideas, too. I think I was...thirteen when I decided to start writing seriously? At least, that was the age that I started writing my main project. Which still isn't finished seven years later. 😅 (But it is the only book I have ever completed an entire draft of, before I decided to completely overhaul it, so I consider that a major accomplishment.)
Yeah I used to be a really avid reader during elementary school. Still am but it died down when I moved back to Asia. I think it helped me start off since reading really does help with writing.
I started writing in elementary school around 9. I read "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" and just loved it so much that it inspired me.
I think it was sometime in middle school, so sometime from the ages of 10-13.
I was 10. My first story was two pages long and after that, I was addicted. I started writing more stories (lots of fan fiction), fiction, and some little “news” articles I kept in a binder about my favorite band. I wrote some poetry and song lyrics too, here and there. Over the years, I’ve been a content writer, copywriter, ghostwriter, and author with 11 self-published books.
As a child but more seriously around 18
I started writing as soon as I learned to write. By first grade, I carried around a bag with my stapled little "books" inside. My elementary school had a publication lab where we could bring our stories and they would format them into "real" little books with wallpapered covers and everything (this was in, like, 1990) and I spent more time there than in class. They got so used to me coming there every chance I got that they acted like I worked there and treated me like I belonged there, which meant the world to me since I was sort of a social outcast and a loner. I even got a "job" at the school post office as a mail sorter, which was run out of the same room and was an experiment being done to improve kids' writing abilities by having them write letters to kids in other classes and "mail" them through the pretend mailroom. They even made us submit a resume to be considered to work in the mailroom. I remember I wrote on my resume that I didn't have any paid experience but that I was very good at sorting my magazines and books at home. I think I was probably six around that time and was so proud to be "hired" as a mail-sorter for the school post office where I could sit and sort the letters and talk to the librarian and the publication ladies. I wrote for the rest of my life. I didn't want to go to college because I didn't think writers needed college but my parents insisted I go (I would have regretted it if I didn't, I guess). I planned to major in creative writing but switched to sociology instead because the sociology chair made the material come alive and it really appealed to me. It didn't stop me from writing, though, since I was able to take every sociology class to fulfill my major requirement plus all the writing workshops I wanted since I always took the max amount of credits allowed, which is something I advise doing if you know you can do that, because knocking out the classes you need early gives you a lot more freedom to take anything you want later on. Like in my senior year I took things like Drawing 101 just for fun, and even some economics courses that led me to declare a minor in economics. I thought I would grow up to be a famous author when I was a little kid. I ended up becoming an obituary writer and then I went back to school for my MSW and became a social worker after a few years in obits. I burned out in the social work field pretty fast, moved away, and became a reporter for a small paper in the south (I was from New York and was shocked at how fast they hired me and even let me pitch stories as a newbie). I did sell one book in my life and I wrote two. I'm waiting for my first book to go through final edits before it's released and then if it gives the house an ROI, I'll submit another manuscript. A lot hinges on whether my first book can return the investment to the house because if it does, they'll probably buy other manuscripts from me and if it doesn't, it just doesn't look good although they might give me another chance if I send a manuscript they find particularly compelling. TL;DR--I have been writing for my entire life and it's all I ever wanted to do and it's the only thing I ever thought I was actually good at. Not everyone fits the same mold, though. Some people don't get interested in it until much later in life and become successful anyway so you don't need to be a lifer to start a writing career and it's never too early or too late to start trying.
Before I could write, I started telling stories by drawing them. I had an old pocket calendar and I used to draw pictures in there, continuing my story about a bunny's adventures with each drawing. Then, I started to record stories on cassettes. My love for writing came about as soon as we we're asked to write our first story in elementary school. I had so much fun with each of these assignments and I often wrote way more than was expected of me. Around that time I started to write poems, new lyrics for already existing songs, as well as stories just for fun. One plot that I told through several media was a story about a Mustang filly in the Wild West. When I was 15, I started to take my writing more seriously. I was still experimenting with storytelling in various media formats (such as video games), but pure writing stuck with me, as it's the best format to express what I want to express. And so, here I am, in my thirties, never stopped writing and loving it more each year.
I always liked stories, but as a child I wasn't a big reader. I watched lots of movies and shows instead and only discovered my love for books as a teenager. Also, the only reason I looked into "how to write a book" was because it seemed more realistically to be successful with than with a movie script. Funny enough, I was also 14 when I started and finished my first book! (it sucked, but that's part of it)
3rd grade was the earliest I can remember. I created a multi-chapter book starring all of my classmates which I read to the class Maybe my teacher shouldve proof-read it before, because quite a few of them died in my story 😂 I was a very angsty child.
I’m 25 and just started this month. When I look back on the times I had to write short stories for school, I realise how much I enjoyed writing. I find it similar to journaling in a way, often I find I have so many words building up in my head and writing it all out feels super relieving. Plus it’s a bonus if some of it comes out sounding like a coherent story or character.
When I was around 13, I wrote the first of my main story (I've now rewritten it many time) but before that, I wanted to become a manga artist! I then realized I sucked at drawing and decided I wanted to become a writer inside to mae my stories!
Oh manga artist is actually something that I want to do as well. I really think manga is a great way of story telling though I am practice writing more.
I was always coming up with characters and stories, even long before I could write. The first thing I remember writing down on paper was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fanfiction when I was around 9 (the OG cartoon began in 1987). I also illustrated it. :D I wrote more fanfiction in high school, stuff like X-men and La Femme Nikita, which I shared through fanfic mailing lists. I also started writing stories set in my own worlds, with my own characters. I recently found some stuff I wrote back in *1994*!
I don't exactly remember how old I was, but I think I was around 5-6 where I wrote a story in my journal with illustrations. That was eons ago but I'm like 20 now pfft. I never decided to take writing more seriously to the point I wanna share it to the world till I was like your age; 14.
I wrote a kids’ alphabet book in 1986 when I was still in kindergarten myself (I was very advanced), and started kids’ chapter books in 1988. I started fanfic in 1990 before knowing it was a thing. Fiction novels (I hate the word “novel”) in 1996. First published in 2010.
Middle school for me. Seventh grade when we were reading *Brown Girl Dreaming* (Jacqueline Woodson) in class and I remember clear as day my first poem in my head as I was walking down the stairs lmao. Took me a few years to properly find my style. If you want to develop your writing faster than that you could definitely look into youth programs/workshops; I know the Incandescent Summer Studio is both phenomenal and highly affordable so if you're interested look into that :\]
I started when i was 13.
High-school teachers, two of them, told me separately. One of them said. I have a very interesting way of storytelling. The second said that my story is unique, unlike the rest of the classes. They were both different grades, and they didn't know each other. That's how I got into it.
i wrote my very first short picture book when i was maybe 6, and then i drew tiny little comics after that. i got into actual writing when i was maybe.. 8 or 9? then i wrote until i was early 13, then i got into a huge writers block, and now i'm \[almost 15\] back into comic making, but more serious this time. maybe one day i'll go back to for real writing someday.
Never too early or late to start! I’ve been writing since I was five or six, and got really into it around 11 or 12. Majored in English with a writing focus in college. Currently 27 and writing my second novel.
I’ve written stories for a while, even aspects of fan fiction since 2021. I really started writing my story (the same I’ve been on now) for over two years atp, I started when I was 14. It’s coming along, even after two years. I was at the end of my freshman year and at the time, the highest level English class was CP. It’s now IB HL. Do not delete anything you write- just start off with a sentence that you think is good and see where it goes from there. I’ve done that and have got 103,277 words and 391 pages. Just keep writing! Let the ideas come and write them down, but I would finish the first draft. That’s my plan, and my estimate is 470 pages. Then, I’ll read and jot down notes. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I started writing song lyrics and poems as a teen but didn’t start with essays and short stories till I was in my early 20s. Didn’t publish a book till I was 50.
My role model is still grandma Moses xxx it’s never too late
In third grade I plagiarized the general plot of a movie for some assignment, but had written it in such a way that my teacher found it promising. I was given an opportunity to write something new, or fail. So I wrote something new, and enjoyed it a lot. I wrote a bunch of little stories after that. Then around 11, I found out about fanfiction, and really went ham on that. Just this year, at 17, I've started my first original novel.
15
I've been writing inconsistently for years. I could never finish a story. But this time, call me crazy, but I feel like I've been called by some divine energy to write my own retelling of an ancient myth. And I'm having so much fun and it's going so well.
Basically as soon as I could read/write! So kindergarten I think? One day I just sat down and wrote a story about a fox and a fish that were best friends. I also wrote a story about a magic rainbow glitter unicorn at school that won a medal (baby’s first literary award)… i always hope it hasn’t all been downhill from there lol.
One of my First Memories Is me writing with my dad helping me find an end for the story, i am. 14 too and now i love to write, a lot, bit i Can't tell and exact age, i should ask my parents. Btw i started writing seriously last year, by seriously i mean "thinking of It as a career"
I started at the age of 8. I won an essay contest at school when I was 9. My 8th grade English teacher still uses my work in her classes, and she hasn’t taught me since 2008 lol. I’m 30 now, and working on a novel that I hope to get published in the next year or so. It’s cool to look back later in life and see how much you’ve grown creatively. Stick with it, OP!
I started writing in middle school. Stopped because I was forced to share my works with each English class in high school, not just turn them in to the teacher. I hated sharing my works aloud to others and a couple times I was bullied for what I had written, whether the concept was too close to another published work or for my writing style or whatever. I kept writing bits and pieces in secret, some poems, story concepts, scenes, etc. I finally took a hard look at why I supposedly "didn't like writing" and now I'm working on my first full novel. Bits and pieces have already been shared with friends and now I'm looking for a peer review writing group. I hope to have a full manuscript by the end of the year and hopefully then I can start editing.
I was 9 when I first sat down to write, and I’m still at it 26 years later. (Not the same project of course. 😂)
I have intense anxiety and my parents refused to get me treated medically ("oh its just hyperactivity" or "he's just being a hyper little kid"). I started writing at eight and have been writing for 29 years. If I'm writing it helps with my anxiety and my need for stimulation.
I’ve been creating stories my whole life. But actually putting pen to paper and writing? For me that mostly started in 6th grade (first year of middle school). I didn’t actually finish any of the stories I’ve written until a couple years ago; and I’m still on the long editing process (my least favorite part of writing lol), but will eventually get it done. It just takes persistence.
I started in third grade, so when I was 8! I’m nineteen now, and it’s still my favorite thing to do. :)
I started writing my first book when I was 12. Now I'm 42, and I don't think I will ever stop.
As a kid. But never thought about doing it as a career. I was an arteest! So I went to art school. Didn’t start thinking about writing as a dream job until my late 20s. But I used to write little cartoon stories all the time. Theron the Hunter & Dante the Dragon was my first “epic” fantasy I wrote at 9 😆 Then I wrote a sci-fi at 16/17, got 72 pgs in and the computer ate it 😑 What’s even more crazy is that it was basically the same plot as the movie The Island with Ewan McGregor that came out like 8ish yrs later in 2005! That moment actually made me think I might be ok at storytelling, and I was so mad I’d lost it. Then I didn’t really write again (other than creative college papers) until I was 26/27 around 2010, right when Amazon & kindle ebooks were emerging. I wrote & pubbed my first fantasy novel in 2014, but did I keep writing? Nooooo. Cause y’know, youth, ignorance, & had to pay rent. And there were no Amazon pioneers & YouTube roadmaps like there are now. Now at 40, after a decade+ of learning and not giving up on writing, I am finally able to pursue it FT. Making money? Nope! Not yet. But that’s because I didn’t know what I didn’t know, didn’t have the opportunity to write FT, and always treated it like a hobby instead of a business/career until last year. I’m envious you can just watch YouTube or read countless books about writing and publishing now. So, you have no excuses! Lol, jk. Keep writing & learning! It’s a long game and takes years/decades of practice & learning, which never actually ends.
I started when I was about 9 or 10 technically...or at least I remember making up poems after an author visit at school. Then I tried writing a book when I was 11 or 12, but about half way through wasnt sure how to finish it. I started journaling about then which I heard helped with writing skills. Then we started to get more essays assigned in school so unless it was an assignment I didn't really write for fun until after college. Then one summer when I was 23 I decided that I was finally going to write a book like I always dreamed. That's when my writing really took off. I finally had picked up the tools I needed to overcome my perfectionism. That was four years ago. Now I'm 27 and getting ready to publish that book this fall!
7th grade. Wrote a short story about a machine that could clone a girl from her picture for a class. *Yeah...... I know...* Got an A on it, I think. I doubt I still have it, though. In High School I spent all of senior year writing a terrible DOOM-clone with two characters whose initials spelled "BIG GUN" murdering hundreds of aliens with laser weapons in good ol' corridor-shooter fashion. I'd started the sequel when the year ended and the spiral notebooks they were written in both vanished. Oh well. They were... bad. A few years later I started my current project, took around 1.5-2 years to "finish" it, and now, years later, I've realized just how much work it needs, so I'm doing that work daily.
I first started writing when I was probably 8, give or take a year. I didn't really have any plans of becoming a writer, but my idea (people with... elemental powers!) was so good I just had to write it. Or, well... like a chapter of it. Then when I was somewhere 10-12 I started to actually consider writing as a career/lifelong hobby when I got into reading Brandon Sanderson. When I was 14 I started writing my first actually thought out book, but I only wrote on and off, switching projects and never making real progress until this January (I'm currently 18), when I managed to actually maintain dedication and make significant progress for the first time ever. I just finished my first rough draft the other day. My advice: don't wait as long as I did lol. It pains me slightly to think how much more accomplished I could be as a writer if I'd put the work in consistently since I started. If there's one tip that ended up working for me, it's to focus on simply enjoying the process and appreciating your progress no matter how small and infrequent. That will make it way easier to actually maintain your motivation than setting goals in terms of time and word count. Good luck!
Gods, maybe 4th grade? I wrote a little 25 page short story about mythology. It was terrible, but rlly funny. I think I more seriously started writing at 14, when I began putting actual effort into full length stories
I started a book 11 years ago at age 39. Circumstances changed, so I left it and only started again with another last year. I've now written four and agonise daily about how I should have started 30 years ago or at least continued with that first one. It's never toonlate to dart, but it can feel like it from the other side.
In law school, I got a nerdy obsession with the modernists and postmodernists. I would read Joyce or Virginia Woolf or Pynchon or whoever, plus Kafka. I knew how badly I wanted to think like these people. I wanted to be able to show the world thoughts like theirs. But I was too busy, and too mentally unwell. It wasn’t until I stabilized my bipolar, years later, that I was able to focus on writing long-form and could draft a novel.
I was four when I “wrote” my first story. I folded myself a little book and took it to show Dad what I’d done - mostly scribbling, and my name in big crooked letters on the cover
30s. I’m also a musician. I did lots of songwriting since I was 19. Wasn’t until I deciding a concept album I wrote needed a novel with it that I sat down and started writing my first book.
I started as a child in elementary school and am now a bestselling writer in Germany. So: it is very good that you start early! Writing is fun 🥰
1st grade. I wrote a lovely story about a pumpkin that wore glasses.
I think I was like 15-16? I was mowing the lawn one summer day, and my parents have a huge lawn so it would take most of the afternoon to mow. I had forgotten to charge my iPod the night before (oh God I just aged myself there) so it died about an hour in to the 5 hour process. Going round and round on the mower I started to day dream to help pass the time and came up with a story in my head about the Antichrist being forced to become a superhero and fight for the good side. I kept that idea in my mental bank because it seemed unique. I hadn’t really ever written any story before but that night I looked up how to write a screenplay and got to work. It took about 2 weeks to finish, and it was… absolutely God awful. But I was hooked. And even though I know it’s highly unlikely any of my screenplays will ever be produced, I just like making em and having my friends read them sometimes.
48 (in terms of writing stories, that is) I seem to be an outlier.
I think I started writing when I was 11 or 12 then I didn’t write for years and started dabbling again in my late 20’s early 30’s because my girlfriend at the time was doing NaNoWriMo. I married her, I’ve still not finished a book, she has a publishing deal.
Hi, 13 year old here, i have always had a passion for writing.. i truly started writing when i was 8, writing a short story about something called a moonlight stone, and i may have to find that story to incorporate it into my current works
I started writing more intensely when I was about 9/10, though I think even before then I was writing short stories. I’ve always loved writing novels so I think I was 11/12 when I wrote my first novel. I’ve also kept everything I’ve ever written which I definitely recommend as you can look back and see how far you’ve come (and probably have a little cringe too while you’re it XD)
Although from what I remember of it it was indeed super cringe, I do feel some sadness that the unfinished story I began when I was 10 or 11 no longer exists. I had backed it up on floppy disc 😬
I started writing when I was 11 or 12. I'm now working on hopefully my first book
I was eleven. At the time I was feeling like I couldn't do anything. I wasn't the top of my class anymore in French, I sucked at sports, et cetera. Classmates said I was good at writing stories so I just latched onto that. Being autistic helped me hyper focus on it too. Looking back at what I wrote when I was that age: I want to burn it all. What was I thinking? XD
I have a memory of writing a book when I was 6, maybe 8. I'm not even sure how much of actual writing ended up inside it, but I remember being 100% sure it's proper writing. It was about a boy with some animal friends, making friends out of enemies. I was so embarrassed I hid it and never found it again. I've asked my family around 20 years later and they knew nothing, so it's been one of my best kept secrets. Later I picked up writing again when I was 14.
I was seven. Was given the opportunity to write a story and get it professionally bound (a classmate's mom was doing it for every student). Was hooked ever since.
Wow. I am incredibly late to the game. I started writing one year ago and I am in my 30's!
I started at 4 or 5, then had bursts of courage/enthusiasm on and off for years, where a book would come out of me, but it wouldn’t go any further, and I’d lose confidence again. Now, in my 40s I’m finally publishing whatever I like. Enjoy your writing and don’t lose confidence in yourself. Learn and grow and accept yourself in the moment too.
I was 11 when I "officially" started writing, but even before I would come up with stories, usually in the form of comics or just making up bed time stories together with my dad.
I started writing at around age 10. I was inspired by *Reading Rainbow* when one of the books highlighted was a book about cats that a child (6-8 years old, I forget the precise age) wrote. And I thought that I could write, too.
At 7 ,then offically at 12.
I'm going to assume you mean "writing seriously" I'll say 8th grade
I think I was 7. I wrote a story about a cheetah who stole the power of speed or something and everybody was jealous lol. Drew pictures and everything. I wrote stuff on and off since then. Been writing in earnest these past 8 months though.
I started writing as a young elementary-age child, and my teachers supported me. It was maybe 3rd of 4th grade when I first remember being singled out for it. As a 41 year old professional marketing writer, it was that early support that caused me to continue down this path. Without believing in my natural skill I would never have had tough enough skin to learn what I needed. My professors in college also picked me out for my skills, and that really made me confident! Undergrad through grad school my belief was constantly reassured without me asking for it. Of course I wrote some absolute garbage too, but I had the confidence in my ability to take criticism and use it, rather than be offended. And the confidence to submit the garbage for review. The compliments have continued even at work for years. I started, and was supported in my dreams, early. That made ALL the difference. It let me really believe I could do this, and helped me understand that first drafts sometimes need a lot of work.
12
I started in middle school but ofc life has kicked me alot so it's been challenging to get back to it but I manage.
I was like 12 and had read the Emily books by L.M.Montgomery, and basically wanted to be her. I wrote my first novel at 14, I think it was really well written for my age, but unpublishable for several reasons. Then I wrote role playing games that I played with friends. Worked full time for some years with something unrelated, then began to study creative writing to pursue writing more seriously. I am currently 35 years old and published one novel and 68 short stories so far.
Imagined stories before I could write. Learned how to write in school with 6 years. I've written stories ever since then
I was nine! It was poorly advised Harry Potter fanfic typed on the family computer. My mom printed it out and put it in a file folder for me and asked me to draw a cover for it. I obliged. ETA: I’m 33 now but my mom still has that folder.
I started writing actual prose fiction at the age of 8 on an old typewriter. I’m turning 18 in august. Almost a decade in the business.
i think in second grade was when i started writing creatively. they put me in a writing group that was some kind of after school competition (can’t remember much about it anymore) but that was when i really fell in love with using my imagination
I wrote my first “book” when I was about five. I went on to have my first piece of writing published aged seven… so I’d say then, but I started to take writing more seriously as a “future career path” when I reached my teens. But you’re never too young or too old to write!
I think I was in kindergarten when I wrote my first story. I was in 7th grade when I began my first novel (which I haven't finished because school, work, and inspiration for different stories have gotten in the way lol).
Off and on since I was probably 16.
Poems when I was middle school aged and stories I'm high-school.
I’m 15 currently! I’ve been writing for fun here and there ever since 5th grade, but i started writing my book in the last months of being 14 !
In 3rd grade, our teacher read us Harriet the Spy and I became obsessed with it (tl;dr a kid observes people and writes everything she sees in a notebook and hijinks ensue- they made a movie; it was okay) I wanted to “spy” on my neighborhood, too. Except my neighbors were so boring - all they did was invite friends over and give each other sugar packets and insulin needles. One of them must’ve been related to a cop because they stopped by all the time Anyway since my neighbors were so uninteresting to my dumb-child brain, I started making up things I wished I saw and those eventually evolved into stories
I’ve been writing stories since 1st grade. I AM going to finish my first novel this year despite my adhd procrastination 🤣
I've been writing since I was introduced to the concept of writing a book in Kindergarten. So age 4. Through high school and in my 20s, I posted a lot of stuff online. I was content with that for years. But I decided to publish in 2021 at age 37.
In 3rd grade
I was probably 13 and I got introduced to the idea of fanfictions. Before then I thought only published writers had the right to create stories. I wanted to be a mystery writer.
Started writing when I was nine. Was introduced to fanfiction at age thirteen and now I write plot to my own stories. I’ve almost started one, actually ^7^
I have been telling stories when I played are talked as long as a I remember, but the first time I put them on paper was when I was in sixth grade at the age of 10 (I was early because of lots of stuff) and i wrote for a contest because grandma found me writing a story about horses. I won honorific mention in a nationwide contest. I wanted to continue writing, but I was soon told to stop as "There is no future in this." I have recently picked it up at the age of 24. But I have always been writing small stories or poems in between those years. And, I have been planning my current story since 7th grade.
I started in 5th grade by writing cringy “plays” and by 7th grade rolled around I started writing fanfiction and in 9th grade I started writing non fanfiction stuff.
I was 20 (I’m 21 now). I was a freshman in college and I came in as a nursing major but then I realized in the middle of my first semester that I wouldn’t be happy doing that for the rest of my life. I wanted to do something that made be happy. I love to read, I love to write, so being a writer. But I am deciding between being an author or writing for animation.
3rd grade. I had visual processing disorder when I was younger so I only learned how to read and write by the end of 2nd grade. I started writing the moment I could and I loved it. I used to show my teachers the poetry I wrote or the comic books I drew.
8 years old. if I ever wrote down "a" story before that point, I only know that at 8, I was doing it regularly and taking it seriously. I had several stories, often in series, with fake publishing companies and illustrated covers and often illustrations inside, too. over the years I have written more or less over time (with my most productive streak being since 2011), but I would say 8 was the first time I was really prolific. I wrote *constantly*, and in between writing, all I did in my spare time was come up with ideas and premises for stories, and drawings of characters, and lists of characters and their family trees, and maps of their locations.
Probably about 11? But I’m only 26 now and writing my first actual book.
i started writing seriously in fifth grade, when i was around 10. but i’ve been writing ever since i could think of a good thing to write about. my first “book” was actually a bootleg percy jackson ripoff, but hey, we all start somewhere!
Honestly, as long as I can remember (I’m 25 now). It’s always been something I loved and something kept me calm and gave me an outlet from my normal world. Anything from Fanfics to original stories, or even just little passages. If I have any advice to give, it would be that don’t view writing like a job just as something you love to do. And no matter what even if you hate your work someone out there may love it. (Yes the advice part is a little unwarranted but I still wanted to share it😅)
My creative juices were a bit delayed as a kid, so that stifled my desire to write for a while. It wasn't until high school that I started seriously writing (notes for characters for a novel, an actual chapter, etc.), and it wasn't until college and I realized my original choice of major (chemistry) wasn't going to work for me that I gave it serious thought. So I chose English for my major with the goal of becoming a writer. I graduated from college 10 years ago, and my first novel went through more than one retool, which is part of why it took me so long to write it. And I'm still waiting for feedback on my rough draft (though I already got a headstart on the sequel and a standalone work).
I wanted to be an author as a kid. Lost that dream along the way, but I just rekindled my affection for writing last year.
Grade 4, I believe. I made cat comics inspired by my own cats at home.
I wrote my whole life, but I didn’t see get much traction (or call myself a writer) until I found speech-to-text input. This was around 2020, before the tools were as good as they are now. I would record my voice while moving around, dancing, pacing my house, or practicing yoga. When I tried to get back to the keyboard, I never had that same clarity and creativity. Leaning into voice input changed my life. I became a professional writer and made a career pivot because of it. Back then, you had to speak punctuation, and the transcription wasn't very accurate, but now it's super easy. By the way, I used speech input to create this comment because I'm practicing my voice input writing skills. It's not exactly how I would type it, but it's worth it to be a free-range writer.
I started when I was ten. 😃
Around 3 months ago
Honestly I don't remember not writing. Started with my own comic books. Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, because Saturday cartoons were another week away. Did the same for the Hulk TV show and the A-Team. Late elementary and into highschool I switched mostly to poetry though I'd still do the occasional comic book. Moved on to short stories and screenplays in my 20's. And now at 50 I'm trying to do a novels from my screenplays.
4th grade. Began with short stories. Did bad poetry as a teen. Back to short stories in my 20s. Novels in my 30s. Now I'm an old sad sack of fiction.
It was definitely elementary school - not exactly sure the age. I started by taking various characters from TV shows my family would watch and creating a new story/episode with them. I’ve written fiction and non-fiction. I love both for different reasons. If you enjoy it, keep going! It’s great you’re getting started young. There is a lot of opportunities. Focus on the content that makes you happy. Good luck!
I didn't start taking it seriously. (Meaning putting a lot of thought into getting better and practicing.) Till recently. Last ten years or so. I'm 34 now but have always wrote poetry. Start off in the emo days and continued through to now writing horror poetry, short stories and working on my novel.
I was 9. I'm 32 now.
I didn't start legibly writing until I was about 54 and then it took four years to put my first book together. Since then, in the past year and a half, I've published three more.
I was actually 11 when I physically wrote a novel. >\_> But I had been creating stories since I was about 6?
Four months ago. I'm cutting my teeth with fanfiction, but hope to write something original someday when I've improved more and feel more confident in my voice/style.
Started writing in second grade. I put together a little hand made journal with loose papers and wrote until I ran out of pages. I continued to write various stories and poems throughout the years, but my first actual project started around 6th grade, and took me through 7th and 8th grade to complete. The resulting novel was published my 9th grade year, so I was 15 at the time.
About age 10 is what I remember. Animal stories.
I always wrote a little bit as a kid, but I didn't start properly writing as a hobby until I was 29.
I’m 14 too! I’ve been writing since I was 8, and I’ve always known this is what I’m meant to do in my life since I started. Becoming a writer is my biggest dream ever and I’m determined to make it happen :3
Me too buddy. Hopefully we’ll see each other