Deciding how to hold the pen and what my hand-writing looked
like took me a long time. I never had dyslexia, dyspraxia or any learning
disability, I was just indecisive and paid too much attention to the way others
wrote. This wasn’t particularly helped by my other talent, either: I’m
ambidextrous. I love being ambidextrous. I remember switching between hands
when I was learning to write and copying other people’s writing styles. I found
an art for different writing forms and loved to experiment with shaping the
letters differently. This fascination with pen-man ship would partially form my
love for writing.
All through my childhood, I had a love for magic. The
thought of being able to control things with your mind or do things that others
couldn’t fascinated me. I don’t actually remember which I discovered first, The
Worst Witch or Harry Potter, but they shaped my childhood and filled my head
with all sorts of magic and characters. I loved reading and watching the
characters learn magic, cast spells, fly on broom sticks, stand up to bullies
and be surrounded by friends. The characters weren’t so in-depth in The Worst
Witch but Harry Potter saw character growth and back story with its own world
to get lost in.
My primary school was tiny, so lack of friends was a bit of
an issue when everybody knew each other so, with a bit of influence from a girl
at a neighbouring school commenting on their friend groups, I invented some
characters for myself and played out their shenanigans in my head. It wasn’t
all magical, at first. It started off as an escape mechanism. I still retreated
to my favourite stories, but having my own characters with sole control over
them was an outlet I valued. Little did I know that the primary characters from
this would grow up with me to become the main inspiration for my fantasy
novels.
My characters played out in my head at first, or I acted it
out with imaginary people (I used to want to be an actor!), and it developed
into writing down plans for what happened. Having pets and magic featured a lot
in what I planned in my notebooks. Eventually, my mum suggested I write the
stories of what I imagined and planned. I was never good at how to start them
and I never stuck to one story because I kept thinking up new ideas.
When I was eleven, I found Star Trek: Voyager and fell in
love with the show! The spaceships were different, the setting was a futuristic
utopia with space exploration and battles. Watching the Star Trek series
ignited my love for science fiction. They lived by good moral principles, had
abolished famine and currency, were in a united federation of planets which
brought a whole sense of community and there was plenty of story line and
fighting. Through Star Trek, I found Star Wars, Firefly and a general love for
space-dwelling science-fiction.
I finally settled my writing style and how to hold the pen
when I was in sixth form. I still play with calligraphy and fancy writing
styles but found my own style. I also found my love for creative writing in the
form of wanting to be an author rather than just wanting to put my ideas on a
notepad. Finding the Creative and Professional Writing course at University was
what I needed, especially after trying to think of what career I wanted (and a
lot of eighteen year olds have no idea), and I learned a lot from the lecturers
and other students.
Everything that I experience in my childhood, most of which
hasn’t made it to this blog entry, transformed me into a fantasy writer.
