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When you were in highschool did you start getting into writing or did you realize in college?

When you were in highschool did you start getting into writing or did you realize in college?

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Abraham’s Answer

Writing, like any other craft, is not mainly about when you started to do it but rather, the love and passion you have for it. I may have discovered my writing skill in High school, another in college or even later, the timing does not really guarantee one becoming greater than the other.

If you are considering writing as a career path, I want you to answer the following questions honestly;
"Do you have the passion to write?"
"Are you willing to nurture this passion into a profession?"

If your answer to any of these questions is 'YES', then what the heck are you waiting for?

Get up, start at wherever or whatever level you are now, learn all you can about becoming a writer, get a mentor or a writing coach, and let the writer in you out.
That's all you need to do.

(UNCLE LOORIG)
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Tim’s Answer

Honestly, I didn't like writing at all growing up. We'll call it my broccoli. Why would anyone write and why would you eat broccoli? I went to college and they make you write everyday, but they don't push the broccoli on you. As college went on, I found a topic/major that interested me and the work become something fun to do, and it wasn't just an assignment. With all of that, I was writing daily and ended up going to grad school and wrote page after page for two years. Fifteen years later, I write for a living, and I enjoy broccoli. Translation: you're young. Enjoy the journey and the right path will present itself.
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Carey’s Answer

I actually started writing when I was eight! I wrote my first book about a turtle that was stuck in our neighborhood pond. I made the illustrations and everything. Now, almost two decades later, I'm still writing. I don't think it matters when you start, it just matters that you stick with it and improve your craft every day. It's never too late to start any hobby or passion!
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Brian’s Answer

My relationship with writing started in 9th grade, when we were assigned to write an autobiography and I did it primarily in poetry, some of it verse and some free-form. My teacher fairly gushed about my talent level. In retrospect, though, I think it was a bit of a trap: I had so many people telling me what a good writer I was that I never really stopped to honestly assess whether writing was something I loved and wanted to make the center point of my life. I ended up in journalism and especially enjoyed writing commentary, but I never wrote "that novel," and did not write any substantive poetry -- and am still criticizing myself for my "failings." So if you're in high school and don't feel internally compelled to write, I'd question whether it is THE thing for you.

That said, I now work in data reporting, and find that the communication and design skills I learned in journalism are highly valuable. So even if it is not your true love, it can be a big asset in other arenas.
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Brian P. D.’s Answer

I had written a few short stories in middle school because I lived across the street from a successful author and thought that seemed like a fun job. I continued to write as a hobby in high school, but didn't consider a career in anything involving writing until senior year in college when I took a "news writing" course. It combined my interests in telling stories and current events, since I always was fascinated by the different things going on around the world that I read about in newspapers and magazines. In the news writing course, it all came very naturally to me and seemed like an interesting way to make a living. So I asked the professor if she thought I could make a career of it and she encouraged me to find subjects to write about and begin submitting articles to various places, even if the only pay was my name on a story. My first published article was about a whale watching trip near Boston that I wrote for a travel magazine. About a year later I was hired as a staff writer for a pair of weekly newspapers in North Carolina. Since then I've had various jobs in journalism and teaching, which all gave me the opportunity to write every day. I have now worked in six U.S. states and four foreign countries, all thanks to writing and journalism. It's never easy, but writing as part of your daily working life is something I've always found incredibly rewarding.
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Donnie’s Answer

I started writing a journal when I was 9 years old. I won a Young Authors Award in 1987 for a book I wrote entitled "The Dumb Dinosaur" and I got to meet one of my favorite childhood authors, Judy Blume. When I was in my teens, I contributed several op-eds and articles to our local newspaper, The Orlando Sentinel. In college, I enrolled in Journalism and Writing courses. Sadly, I did not major in either as I did not feel that I could be aggressive enough to be a good journalist, so I chose to major in Communications.

I work in Technical Support now and I still use writing every day. Those close to me are telling me that I should still consider writing a novel or at least a short story as I have some good ideas in my head. In fact, answering your question has inspired me. I hope this info helps.
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