Writing as Children

[Mary J. Dressel]

I've noticed that so many authors knew they would be writers from an early age. I always add to my bio that I started writing as a child, and the calling to do it was always there. As a child, I didn't know that others couldn't just sit down and put a story together. I thought it was something everyone could do. Do you remember writing as a child? Did it call to you at a young age?

[Lisa Holloway]

I do remember writing as a child--a genie in the desert, a mermaid, things like that--but even though I knew some people were writers, it never occurred to me that I would/could do that as a profession until I was in college many years later. It seemed like professor after professor and, later, my husband saw something good in my writing that I had always taken for granted that everyone could do. Then once I had my baby in my mid-thirties, it felt like a "now or never" thing . . . and I began to feel like it was something God wanted me to do.

[Charlotte McPherson]

I guess I really started writing when I had the opportunity to travel extensively in the Middle East, Central Asia and China during the 80s and 90s. Very early on in my journeys I began to keep a journal about my travels and observations and experiences. My mother always said to me that I should write a book about my adventures. So many funny things happen when you travel in foreign countries. Often I am invited to give talks in schools about writing as a columnist or published author or what it is like to own and run a bookstore. I love doing this! I didn't write at an early age but I love seeing children get excited about the idea of writing novels or non-fiction. I believe that books can change lives!