The task 1 - Second attempt

The task - Write 500-word introduction to your own imaginary collected poems or complete works. Imagine you have become a well know author after many struggles to write and get published.

The Task

To write 500 words as an accomplished and successful author

I wrote my first story while at school as a school directed homework project. I knew it was a great story and heavily influenced by the Kemlo books written by T.S. Elliot. For those unfamiliar with these books they were written in the years between 1950 and 1970 as children's Sci-Fi and set on a space station where Kemlo and his friends were born and growing up.

The day came to read my story to the class. I stood up sure I had the best story there full of excitement the story was about a person of our own age saving a space ship from collision with an asteroid. After about fifteen minutes I was unable to go on thanks to the laughter of my classmates. The teachers feedback was completely negative, he rubbished my work and told me Sci-Fi was not a suitable subject for serious writingg. This was a turning point in my life I had wanted to write someday and had gone into this particular venture full of enthusiasm. 

It was the only time in my writing career I received no constructive criticism other than don't write Sci-Fi. Now even today with over 15 million sales to my credit I still look back at that rejection as the very worst literary experience of my life, the catalyst to succeed one day. What nobody there knew was that 50 years later that story would re-emerge as a smash hit, turning into a trilogy. Selling more than a million copies in the first week of sales and spawning 4 block buster movies.

It wasn't that simple of course, it never is. I had put the idea behind me ,ignorant of the write and rewrite your story concept, the schools we want you to write had turned into a clear personal message don't even try. I grew up busy with Girls, Motorcycles, work and college. I moved to Australia about 30 years later and started to dream a lot. Waking one morning after a particularly vivid and lifelike dream. I had been thrown into an out-of-body experience in deep space looking down on a space ship in the center of a massive debris field. Asteroids boiling around it with the ship in danger of being crushed at any moment. 

I knew this was my old story demanding I write it, but oh how it had changed over the years as I went into the ship curious of what was happening I saw the story opening before me from a time in our planets distant past to a few years from now.

I wrote three pages and put them to one side, work and life in general was still in the way then, suffered a back injury, after recovering some month later my boss made me redundant in favour of a younger worker. This started a period in my life of constantly seeking employment, marked with occasional jobs all failing because of hard economic times and companies struggling. I managed to retrain so I could teach and thought as I held my new certificate life would be better now.

False hopes! 15 months and 2 training jobs later the writing was on the wall again I was qualified to teach automotive skills. Problem was the downturn had stopped companies taking on new trainees as there was a glut of skilled people like myself looking for work.

Six months later I was in Second Life and a Friend told me about the Nanorimo writing contest she was busy writing for, what's that I asked? There was no turning back, 5 months later I published the first five chapters of my book on the Writers Workshop Website to see what sort of reception it got. Expecting it to be rubbished I turned to reading the Cambridge Introduction to Creative writing, and set learning how to write properly. A week later I logged back into Writers workshop to find one very positive review by a fellow aspiring author

We started to compare each others writing and then I put up the first chapters of my Sci-Fi story,to discover my friend was not just an aspiring author but a literary agent, who wanted to be my agent. Just over a year later the story was submitted. I never looked back. I encourage all you who would write to do so and take no notice of those who tell you not to give up your day job.

Author's Note

This is my response to the Cambridge Book on creative writing, being in the first chapter of that I am sure when I review this on completion of the book it will have to be re-written.