When Did You Realise You Wanted to Be a Writer?

*Updated 26 March 2019

When did you realise you wanted to be a writer?

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl. Call it a hunch, or maybe my calling.

When I was in primary school, teachers commended me for my creativity and writing skills (not so much the grammar – some things don’t change!).

Unfortunately, I lost every ounce of creativity when I went to high school.

I still remember sitting across from a career counsellor in year 7 and being asked what I wanted to do with my life. Such a huge question to someone in year 7, a time when we should be carefree, enjoy our childhood, and explore everything. I was lucky though, as I knew what I wanted to do! I wanted to write!

With my head permanently in detective novels, I had an idealised version of what a lawyer actually did. I should have said I wanted to be a detective in the realm of Nancy Drew and others I obsessed over. But I digress…

Unluckily for me, Miss Smith, the school councillor who was also my PE teacher, bluntly stated I should consider another career. Childcare perhaps? I wish I could say I hadn’t listened to her and that I ‘stuck it to the man’ and became a lawyer. But I didn’t. I took her words on board and I let them weigh me down for years.

The power of words

I don’t think people realise the long-lasting impact words can have on a child, especially one whom is impressionable, naive and lacking confidence. I know the education system has come a long way, however I still feel that kids aren’t provided with the room they need to explore their dreams and talents.

From that moment on my creativity and ability to write only to return whenever I travelled to some exotic location as an adult.

It became a vicious circle.

On completing Uni, I worked in customer service but the changing nature of people came to bother me. It’s like everyone became rude overnight, and so I started to act rude back to them! I then fell into team management because why wouldn’t I, as someone who loved helping and mentoring people?

Ha I was so naive!

And then I plunged head first into project management, thinking it was the career for because I was good at it.

Deviating from your life plan

It’s funny how much your actual path in life deviated from your youthful ambitions. I’ve spent the last twenty years searching for a sign of what I was meant to do. I’d never found the answer though. That is, until I realised the answer was right in front of me all of the time.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.
George Eliot

I still have most of the stories I wrote and illustrated in primary school.

‘Kalgoorlie and the Sad, Giant Tomato‘, an illustrated short story, was about a school science experiment gone wrong.

Janine, the protagonist, accidentally creates a living, giant mutant tomato. His name is Vincent and he’s friendly and he talks.

(Vincent was a dog I had as a kid whom my Dad gave away – it broke my heart).

One day, Vincent runs away and hides in one of the mines in Kalgoorlie (I lived there when I was little). There are a few ‘citings’ by people, and hysteria spreads. Accusations are thrown around about ‘a big red blob’ attacking miners (witnesses refer to ‘it’ as being a Russian weapon – funny how a 10-year-old can pick up on what was going on in the news at the time). However, Vincent is just misunderstood (King Kong anybody?). The story ends after a climax of helicopters, guns, army barricades, and tears. Vincent ends up shrinking back to his normal size – whilst remaining alive – with Janine and her best friends taking ‘turns of keeping the Tomato for a week each, at their houses…probably still doing it to this very day.’ I got an A+. The spelling and grammar were atrocious.

‘Time Zone‘ was a 13-page story written in 1989 when I was 12. I wrote it entirely in running writing. I also illustrated it! This story involved time travel, had loads of dialogue between characters, a romantic sub-plot, mermaids, action and suspense. My teacher commented; ‘A very imaginative effort Janine. You have done well. More care with spelling would improve your effort. I’m impressed how you’ve maintained your storyline so well. Great descriptions.’

I also created a teen adventure series.

I wrote ‘The Teens – The Night They Saved Daylight’ on an old type-writer – so I’ll blame the poor spelling on the machine itself, and not on my laziness. It was an adventure story with a romantic subplot (I’d graduated to a love triangle), with the premise of a group of young teenagers saving the world from the ‘evil’ warlock, witch, and their ‘evil followers’, Gizmo and Gremlin.

There’s the collaborative efforts from primary school that I fought to keep. I didn’t play nice – tantrums and tears over who did the most work and who ‘deserved’ to keep it. I came out on top, of course.

And then there’s the Uni years where I will not acknowledge any of my poor attempts in the creative writing department (apart from the fact that I kept a ‘consistent’ writing journal).

I will never take another creative writing course as long as I live, as I found it stifling, and it succeeded in ensuring I didn’t write for years.

Reflecting on this, my lack of confidence and inability to accept criticism at the time was a contributing factor.

Why I took up blogging.

Blogging has been a tool for healing, a way to find myself and the reason I rediscovered my love for writing. It has been the way back to what I was born to do (but for one reason or another never did).

Blogging led me back to my calling, and I am incredibly thankful for that. It also opened up a world of opportunities and gave me a way to find and develop my ‘voice’.

Most importantly, blogging has helped me realise that I can help others. After all, that’s what life is about. If I can help one person, than it has all been worth it 🙂