I think, perhaps, that I have always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with creative writing.
When I was in grade school there was a "Young Authors" creative writing program. One could write a story, and it would be turned over to high school students to be proofread and typed. The finished pages, along with a couple of blank pages, would be returned, and in a "workshop" supervised by volunteers the pages would be stitched together. The outer blank pages served as end papers, glued to cardboard stock that had been covered with the fabric of the author's choice, with the final product being a book. In the early days some students were fortunate to have their pieces selected to have a second copy made and placed in the library along with a cassette audio book.
My first foray into this was nothing special, a plagiaristic mash-up of Voltron and the Transformers when I was in second grade. It won no accolades, but I had written a book.
By third grade I had come up with more original material, inspired by my own imaginative play to write stories about aliens from other planets and some sort of rescue mission during an interplanetary war. It was as well received as my first attempt, but I found the amount of freedom allowed by creating my own characters to be very liberating.
In fourth grade I tried to expand on my aliens with little success. Scheduled creating writing time during class wasn't helpful to me, and I often sat there writing little if anything. There was no book for me that year.
The next year, however, I found the right formula, the inspiration coming from a creative writing prompt to create a superhero. I took no efforts to conceal identities, basing my title character on my own sister. However, my work was well-received, earning an award that year, and I was suddenly hooked.
It probably helped that I read -- a lot. Most of what I read then, and still do, was fantasy and science fiction. By the time I was in junior high, through the gifted and talented program, I set out to write a play. It was inspired by the fantasy novels that I read, and the characters obviously inspired by me and my friends. I never completed the play, but the characters could be worked into a new story.
Those characters are still with me, brimming with personalities and problems of their own, and the protagonists of a novel manuscript now topping 150,000 words. I don't know if I'll ever by truly satisfied with the novel, but those I have shared it with have enjoyed it and would like to see it published. I would too.
Mood: Thoughtful
Music: Elton John: "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding"
