What made you want to be a writer?

[Verbal Vegetable]

Alright, let's face it. Most of us here are probably avid writers, seeing as how this is a virtual script forum and all.

I kind of wanted to know, what inspired everyone to want to write? What was it that gave you the drive to create new places, bring to life new people and for all intense purposes the insanity to destroy it all? XD

It can be from a book that you read, or a movie that you saw, or even a song that you heard. Whatever it is, I am really interested in finding out what your first experiences with writing are, if you can remember.

[Jamison]

I would have to say that watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer when I was a kid, made me want to start writing. I just fell in love with that world and its characters. Then, I discovered fan fiction, and the rest is history. There were many influences after that, but it all started with Buffy.

I've always written short stories. I didn't actually start my first script until I was 16, I believe. Also, reading books like Harry Potter, then the transition from page to screen, really solidified it for me. Writing is definitely what I see myself doing in ten-twenty-thirty years.

[Aimee Nicole]

Mine started out with fanfiction as well. In all honesty playing Resident Evil and Parasite Eve as a kid got me into writing. I got a bunch of ideas swirling in my head and writing to get them out helped me a lot. Then from there, it grew and I've been writing ever since. Short stories, mostly, and I've written one story that was about 30 chapters. 30 shitty chapters, but that's besides the point. I didn't write my first script until I started the pilot episode of The Outcasts.

Like Chris, writing is definitely what I see myself doing for the rest of my life.

[innocentlamb]

I've been meaning to post in here, and it' actually something I've been thinking a lot about lately, so here goes. XD

I don't think there was any single or spectacular event that got me into writing. I like to think that I've always been a writer - even when I wasn't putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard to Microsoft Word XD) it was always in my head.

I remember playing with my dolls in my dollhouse when I was younger then, when I was done making up stories with them, running outside to tell my Mum about the world I had created.

My parents would write funny little stories about our family holidays and things like that, and I was always encouraged to write my own, too.

I remember by parents taking turns reading my brother and I Harry Potter, and my Dad's failed but incredibly hilarious attempts at pronouncing Hermione's name.

My parents were always reading, and I think that had a big influence on me, too. There's never a moment in which I'm not engaged in a book, whether it was just sitting unfinished on my bedside table, or alive in my mind.

In the first few years of Primary School, I'd collaborate on horse stories with my two best friends, and we'd take turns writing a chapter each, exchanging the little exercise book we were using every few nights.

I use to imagine continuations to my dreams or how they might have gone differently if I hadn't woken up.

I'd make up stories about TV characters and play in the backyard for hours riding on broomsticks-come-dragons and scooters-come-horses.

I had a huge collection of toys I'd pester my brother into playing with with me. There were the soft toy dogs and cats, Bionicles (his, not mine XD), Lego, Pokemon figurines. I was still playing with Cabbage Patch Dolls in year 7 because I loved the stories I could make with them.

I used to play Power Ranges and witches and all manner of other role-playing games with family friends, and, more recently, I distinctly remember playing Buffy the Vampire Slayer with my now-best friends before high school started each morning. We were each assigned two characters: I was Oz and Tara, and I'd look up the Full Moon Dates and wear sticky-tape patches I'd call "Werewolf Patches" on those days. Then I'd be too chicken to rip them off at the end, so someone would have to do it for me.

I think I was in year 8 when I was introduced to Gaia and fanfiction, and things kind of spiraled out of control since them. XD Now I find it difficult to fall asleep unless I'm exploring a particular scenario my characters are involved in, and whenever I'm stuck doing something boring or routine, I change it up by imagining how it would be different if it was one of them doing it.

I got a little carried away there, but some of my fondest and strongest memories have something to do with my imagination and the worlds, characters and relationships I created. I hope it wasn't too boring to read.

[kenwriter]

I'm kind of like Rachel, when I was little I play with my Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles and such, and make up adventures. When I start to get "slight" older, I start to write small stories, some about what I watch, some original; I just like making up stories, and well, it kind of snowball from there.

[David]

in fourth grade, my friends and i created superhero personas for ourselves. Our teacher had us do free writing on fridays. So i started writing. Then i decided to start writing other things. In the seventh grade, i found fanfiction. so i started writing fanfiction stories. I would love to have some of my work published some day, but I have some time before that day comes

[Antonio]

I used to write a lot in high school, that faded away when I joined the working world and learned how not having a life was being an adult. What made me gravitate towards screenwriting was reading a season eight Buffy season that a man named Informant had written, and it interested me. Then I found MZP and read Pathways that even more intrigued me. Now I just can't stop seeing ideas in my head that want me to put them in to a format built for television. I still love to write prose, but screenwriting is different and just as fun. Plus Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars are of my two favorite shows that made me want to get into it as well. The characters and stories were just fantastic.

[roseveil]

I've wanted to be a writer since my sister has. She was about nine when she really got into it, constantly writing small novels. Nothing too major, considering how young she was, but it was amazing how creative some of her storylines were at such a young age. Being around her creativity molded my personality dramatically, and eventually I just started writing. At first the things I wrote were small, but I got into full length novels and when I wrote my first script I felt like I belonged there. That's when I knew directing and script writing was something I wanted to pursue.

[Matthew James]

Much like Jamison, (seriously dude, if we were born in the same cities I'm pretty sure we would of been bestfriends growing up) it was mostly Buffy the Vampire Slayer that did it for me, all though I did spend most of second and third grade playing power rangers with two of my still best friends Jamie and Jonathan.

When I started watching Buffy & Angel I was quickly obsessed I began writing little stories where my friends from High School (Shannon, Emily and Justin) were part of Angel Investigations and we would occasionally joined by the Buffy cast, Xander even stopped by a few times until I listened to Joss Whedon talking about how Xander never appeared on Angel because Xander didn't like Angel I realized he was right and stopped having him appear. Lol.

I kind of grew up out of that and decided to make my own "show" in which we were from our own little town, it was still a Buffy spin-off and Angelus was even the villain during season two. All the character I mentioned above were the main characters. I started using "Script format" when I started reading the Buffy and Angel continuation on MZP and eventually joined VPN and well the rest is history

[Mike]

I always wanted to be a storyteller in someway or another. It was the era from 2008-2011 that really sparked my wanting to be a writer.