Starting Young
Us authors start off pretty young. From the moment we learn how to string together sentences into paragraphs, we're writing stories, sometimes even producing our own 'paperback' books in school—folding up stacks of A4-sized paper and stapling down the fold (or, the spine) so it looks like a book.
I started writing stories since the moment I learned how to read and write English. It's not my 'first language'. I was born in Bangladesh but have lived in the UK since I was 8-months-old. However, because my family was always moving around in my early years, I only started primary school when I was 7-years-old, after we finally settled down in Bethnal Green, East London. It wasn't ideal, starting school so late and in the middle of the academic year, and I spent that whole year playing catch-up.
I had TV, though, so I could speak and understand English well enough (when I bothered to speak; I was incredibly shy!), but it was in school that I discovered my love for books and reading, where I learned the basics of grammar and expanded my vocabulary. I'd always make up stories in my head, and as soon as I learned how to write them down, I did little else. When I learned that the people who wrote books were called authors and it was possible to become one, that's what I wanted to do when I grew up.
Oh, I was never short of ideas, always writing something, whether it was songs, poetry or short stories. All my 'works of fiction' had a supernatural element, though—witches, vampires, fairies, and other make-believe creatures. These were the beings I loved reading about, so naturally, I'd spin stories around them, too. If I had Harry Potter back then, it would've been my favourite thing to read. And re-read (I try to re-read this series whenever I can now, too!).
In secondary school, we didn't get to write stories as much as we did in primary school, but whenever I got the chance to write creatively, there would always be—where possible—a magical, fantasy, supernatural element to them.
Unfortunately, secondary school was also the time when I, like many others around me, stopped reading for leisure (I loved it whenever we read anything for English class—from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Romeo & Juliet, to Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, and how can we forget The Changeover, and of course Bridge to Terabithia) and TV took over my life (oops!). Not to mention homework. Thankfully, I remained determined to write when I had the chance. Writing wasn't something I gave up on.
Astonishingly, when I came to writing my first "novel"—I have to write the word novel in speech marks because I was only 13/14 when I started this "novel" and it was complete and utter rubbish—it was a contemporary. Yes, a contemporary! No magic, witches, or vampires.
It took me a long while to finish the first draft ~ like I said, TV and homework had taken over my life—but I was proud to have accomplished that. I started planning a "sequel"—don't we all?—and even started writing the "prologue" for it. I could picture a whole series around these characters that I'd created and I seemed to have planted my feet firmly on the path to becoming a writer.
Continues in Part II.
Thank you for reading this post. My books are available at:
My new book, Heir to the Throne (the first book in a new epic royalty fantasy trilogy), is out now, as is the sequel. More details here.
