The beginning of time

The tale of how I got into writing is, like my personality, strange and complicated. Anything I had to write for school does not count towards my ambition because that was just school work that happened to be really fun.

I didn't always want to be a writer, even though I've enjoyed making stories since I knew what one was - though that doesn't mean I'm a good liar. I'm not. From the time I was five until I was fourteen, I've wanted to be: a teacher, an illustrator, a pop star, a graphic designer (not even sure I knew what that was), an archaeologist, a voice actress, a world leader, a comedienne, a TV presenter, a journalist, a fireman (yes, fireman. I didn't want to be bound by my gender!), a psychologist, a life coach, a motivational speaker - but not all at once!

So when did I want to become a writer? Let me take you back to the winter of 2008. I was just fourteen. My friend SJ and I were talking on MSN about our mutual adoration of the Pokémon franchise, when she mentioned that she had written a story with one of her friends based on the series. 98 pages later, I was seeing life in a completely different way.

But I didn't write anything just yet. Not until SJ introduced me to FanFiction.

Initially, I was only there for Pokémon stories that paired Jessie and James together as a couple. And SpongeBob stories that had SpongeBob and Sandy in a relationship - please remember, I was only fourteen and very young minded. SJ started her own multi-chapter story for the Pokémon world, and I became her editor (if only so I could read the chapters before anyone else).

I also dabbled in SpongeBob stories and Pokémon stories, but they were not dissimilar to a child with a crayon, scribbling on the wall their impression of van Gogh's 'Sunflowers'. However, it wasn't long before it was summer and I wasn't preoccupied with school. I had a long stretch of warm, sunny days and, too afraid to go outside and enjoy it (due to a combination of entomophobia and hay-fever) I spent most of my days in my bedroom.

I'm sure this is around the time I had my first laptop. With my 90 day Microsoft Word free trial, I knew what I had to do. I wrote my very first original, non-school work related story complete with chapters, character development and all that jazz. It was about 50,000 words when I decided it was finished.

The story was about a girl named Hannah who moves from London to a made up country town. There she befriends a boy named Ben and two girls, Keera and Hillary. The four of them begin appearing in the same dream, in which they have to help a little lost bunny-girl find her parents. In the end, Hannah is hit by a car and hasn't quite woken up from a coma.

I showed it to SJ, and she loved it. Encouraged by this, I started working on another story when school restarted, about a young woman whose dog hates her boyfriend so much that they break up. This I posted on FanFiction's lesser known little brother, FictionPress. Reviews were positive, and things sort of exploded from there. Ben and Keera from my first story reappeared in my magical fantasy mess about witches, vampires and angels (I talk about the confusion here). The most significant thing that came out of my first story, however, has got to be the main protagonist for my current story. She was only a minor character, a cousin of Hannah, but now she's been fleshed out and given a purpose.

Hopefully one day that purpose will be sold in a bookshop near you!

"Prepare for trouble! And make it double."
Yeah, I still love these guys with all my heart.