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Self-reflection is an important part of all things, not just writing. It’s important for all creative art, for people doing sports, or just people trying to make it through their day-to-day lives. In the time I’ve been writing seriously, I’ve found that looking back at what I’ve done in a specific time frame has helped me feel better about my work and where I’m going in the future.
Personally, I’ve been writing fiction since I was in elementary school and telling stories since I could talk. “It was a dark and stormy night.” It is a phrase my parents have never let me forget, seeing as it was the only way I would start a story when I was young. Now obviously I wasn’t taking writing or storytelling seriously back then, at that point in time, my dream was to either be an actress or an engineer, but I always had a love for stories.
The first real story I dedicated time to was something I wrote to share with my class in the fifth grade. It was a silly little horror story I wrote in my notebook during free-write time to share with my class at the end of each week. I worked on this story over the entirety of the school year and was always beaming when my friends said they liked it.
In truth, I think that’s where I first decided that I enjoyed telling stories in a more standard format. Of course, as an author, I’m not reading my book out loud to my readers, although I do find the idea amusing. I’ve always found myself getting attached to my characters, to these people, and to the worlds that I’ve created inside my own head. The idea of sharing them, of the people I care about learning about them, and even people I’ll never meet makes me happy.
It’s always been said that if you’re loved by a writer, you’ll never die, but I also think that’s true for the writers themselves. We as authors leave pieces of us behind in the pages we write, in our characters, and in the places that they visit. Sure some characters are worse than others, but our life experiences are the only reason we’re able to create them in the first place. We pour our heart and soul into these pages and the words that live on them and that’s a truth I’ll always be thankful for.
You’ll never hear me say that my first story was good, far from it but it led me on a path that I may not have gone down otherwise. I still have the notebook from fifth grade, every now and then I rediscover it and have a good laugh. In all honesty, I think that if we can’t laugh at our own history we’ll never truly enjoy our present. The story may be silly, and the imagining of a small girl but I truly appreciate the words and the journey they sent me on.
About the author
Milla Picket is a senior at Poudre High School, and this is her first year writing for the Poudre Press. In her free time, she is involved in the school's choir and theatre department. She is also a writer currently working on her first fantasy novel for publication.