Today’s Roadtrip Wednesday is supposed to take us back to our teenage years, explore our oh so brilliant verbiage in actual teen words. I always feel like the kid who walks into class and panics when they find out there is supposed to be a test today. And I didn’t even open a book last night. Yeah, not prepared at all.

See, I never wrote as a teen. I never had aspirations of being a best selling author. Heck, I hated schoolwork. I hated having to write anything down. I never even kept a diary. (Too incriminating, but that’s beside the point!)

Instead my high school years were spent skipping school (Almost didn’t graduate I missed so many days!), sneaking out the bathroom window at night (Not as easy as it sounds!), and drinking too many berry wine-coolers in gravel pits every weekend. (Man those were the days!) Oh and Mom, if you’re reading this-it’s not really true. I’m a writer, it’s called imagination. Just concentrate on that word and you won’t hyperventilate.

So in essence, I was living the characters I write now. Lets just call it research. For something I never thought I’d be doing. I will say though, that I was a voracious reader. I loved books even back then, and I think that’s part of the reason I am able to write effectively now.

I wrote down my first words about 2 ½ years ago. I had been wanting to write for the past few years, but got too overwhelmed every time I tried. The writing books all say to outline, plan, plot, don’t write a single word until you know exactly what’s going to happen. And research every detail. It freaked me out. I would try and freeze.

But on the way to work one day I heard something on the radio that made me think. I made up a story to go around the story I’d heard. When I got to work I just started typing. And every day at lunch I just wrote without thinking too much.

It worked! I wrote a novella in a few weeks! And I also discovered the beautiful world of pantstering. (ie, writing off the cuff and letting the characters tell the story.) And that’s how and when I started writing on a regular basis. And 2 ½ years later I have an agent and have written 4 more full length novels. (And several more novellas.)

So I guess my earlier writing wasn’t that bad, and we’ll just call high school the practice before the implementing. Hehe.

Did you know you wanted to be a writer when you were a teen? Did you attempt to write? Share!