Just recently I copied all of my files off of my old desktop and put them on my MacBook Air. If you were wondering, most of these files consist of stories I wrote when I was younger (probably 10 – 14 years of age). Some of the stories are finished, some are halfway complete, and others are barely getting anywhere. Having these files on my laptop now, I can’t help but read them. As an artist, I am not only motivated by my everyday life, but I might get a spark of inspiration just by reading something I wrote a day, week or year ago.
I’m not going to lie, some of the stuff I wrote when I was in my tween years, wasn’t half bad. OF COURSE the grammar and really important parts (i.e. plot, character development, narrator) weren’t that great, but the ideas are golden. Most of the topics I wrote about, I barely understood myself. When I was thirteen, I had no idea what a real romantic relationship was like; I had no clue how being intimate with someone could strengthen or weaken a relationship. I didn’t understand how men thought. I had no idea what a woman went through when she fell in love. Besides that lack of experience, I somehow knew what couples went through. But then again, ever since I was really young, my parents were very open and honest about their past relationships. I know for sure that my parents’ personal stories influenced me to write love stories.
Now that I’ve technically majored in creative writing since my sophomore year of high school, I would love to tackle those ideas again. Thanks to the intense training I have received, I know how to “show” versus “tell,” and thanks to these eighteen years I’ve been living, I sort of have an idea of how people actually talk.
So in the next few weeks, expect some prose experts.
If you are a writer yourself, I recommend you read some of your old pieces. It may be embarrassing and painful (it definitely was for me), but you may be surprised by what you find. And on top of that, you may be inspired!
– Dahv