My Origins Story

When I was little, I loved being read to. My parents read me all kinds of tales, from beginning readers to fairy tales to nursery rhymes. One day, when I was three or four, I decided I would write a story of my own! (And when I say "my own," I meant I decided to re-tell one of my favourite stories.) I took one of the little square pieces of paper from the pad by the phone, and laboriously wrote down what I remembered of the tale, titling the story "The Frog Prince."

When I was done, filled with satisfaction at the product of my hard work, I ran to my mom to proudly show her the first story I had ever written. You can imagine my mortification when she took the piece of paper and her smile turned into a frown of anger and surprise.

"Allison! Where did you learn that word?" she asked me.

I leaned forward, tears coming to my eyes. What had I done wrong?

"What wowd, Mommy?"

"That one!" She pointed at the title.

"It's 'The Fog Pince,' Mummy, you know... the stowy whewre the fog tuwrns into a pince!"

"Ohh. I see." And she smiled with relief, told me what a good job I had done, and proceeded to ask me what exactly the story said and wrote out a translation of it before we put it away.

I found this story in a box of old things a few years ago, and laughed at the horrible spelling. I would have had no idea what any of it said if my mom hadn't included her translation with it. The title read, "Te Fog Pis." She had thought I had learned a "bad word," and that's why she had been angry at first.

So there you have it, the origins of my writing story; misunderstood right from the start!


This post is part of the Origins Blogfest, hosted by DL (Crusing Altitude 2.0), Katie (Creepy Query Girl), Matthew (Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment), and Alex J. Cavanaugh. Click on the link to check out the others participating and read how their writing dreams got started!