How I became a writer

I do not know what really triggered it, but I think it was the world of books which inspired me to write. I had always been an avid reader since the age of three, and at six I read-an abridged version of-The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, at seven I read Jane Eyre, and began reading Harry Potter. Of course, I understood only a fraction of the words used in them, but that did not prevent me from reading them. I marvelled at the rich vocabulary, and the unique way the authors used to express their feelings and describe a scene. Thus, inspired from books, I began to write as well.

At first I wrote only stories, but the list grew rapidly. I was soon writing poetry, which began from simple, childish poems such as ‘I have a cat, It sits on a mat’, but grew to more thoughtful works of poetry. As I started school late-at the age of five- I had a lot of opportunity to write before that, and it was unrestricted, free writing. I had the freedom to let my ideas flow free, and nobody pointed out spelling errors and incorrect pronunciation. And I did not have to do silly picture compositions, instead, I wrote real stories, which schools did not even let children write before grade three. Gladly though, I attended school for only a brief period of time, and so my writing was not influenced much by school. To this day, my writing style remains simple, unstructured, and casual.

Although I had no real interest in writing non-fiction, I had a keen interest in animals, and I liked to write about them. At the age of nine, I wrote a booklet titled ‘Endangered and Extinct Animals’ to create awareness about animals in danger of extinction and how to save them. For this booklet I did a lot of research from books and the internet.

About a year later, when I was ten, I entered the world of blogging by creating my first blog, Zainab’s Writings. Since then I have been a passionate blogger; posting regularly and receiving feedback and constructive criticism from fellow bloggers which helped me improve greatly. However, my greatest goal as a blogger has always been to write solely for myself and not for comments and appreciation.

My journey to becoming a writer doesn’t end here. It goes on and on and on, for as I grow older, I improve day by day, and I hope to become a better writer-and a better person-someday.