Tuesday, December 25, 2012

My Early Writing Days

I was looking through some old books and binders at my house and found a binder of all the stories I wrote when I was a kid. Talk about some funny stuff! I had quite the imagination, and I was cracking up while reading my "books."

I thought I'd share some bits of my stories so you can laugh along with me and see where my writing roots began. I couldn't find any dates on the loose-leaf paper, but I think this first "book blurb" was written when I was seven or eight years old. That was about the same time this photo was taken. Me and my prized Cabbage Patch Doll!

Here's the book blurb for "Gatlinburg in the Scaries":

A family went on vacation and spent a few days there, but days grew to weeks and weeks grew to months. Indians had been watching them from down below.

As has happened with quite a few of my book ideas, this one never materialized. But it sounded like it could be a great thriller/suspense novel!

Here's another snippet from a book about three kids who spend a lot of time at their aunt and uncle's house. I think this was also written when I was around eight. This is from the chapter titled "The Thief":

The next day Michael put his library books down on the table and went straight to the living room. The first thing he saw was the TV screen all messed up and the dog laying on the carpet, and to top it all off a ski mask with a gun on top of it.

Did the robber shoot the TV antenna? LOL. And then he leaves the evidence of his ski mask and gun lying on the floor? Not a very bright thief, LOL. Oh, and to ease your worry, the dog isn't dead. Later in the story I mention bringing him home from the animal hospital :)

I have more snippets to post later, including some from a story about a stalker terrorizing a family. I sure was into writing thrillers when I was a kid!

5 comments:

  1. Those are awesome lol. It shows you had a lot of imagination even at an early age :)

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    1. Kelly, I thought of you when I saw the Gatlinburg one! This was my very early attempt at a Smoky Mountains story ;-)

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  2. Hey Jennifer,
    I've (finally) announced my winner for a free copy of Ocean Kills. You're the winner!! :) Can you email me on jadehart888 at gmail to give me your contact details and advise what ebook format you would prefer.
    Congrats and hope you had a great xmas :)

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  3. Hi Jennifer,

    My nieces pestered for weeks to get cabbage patch dolls, although I thought that they were just about the most ugly things in the toy shop!

    Like yourself, I had a very vivid imagination when it came to making up stories for school compositions, or English projects. Whilst I generally got some good grades, I also received some quite cutting comments from the teacher, usually relating to the subject matter I had chosen, the depth of detail in which I had described some particularly gory event and the wordiness of the piece in general!!

    Nothing has changed, I still write ten words when one will do and needless to say I never followed through with my early ambition to become either a teacher or a writer!

    Have a great New Year,

    Yvonne

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