‘Once upon a time, there was a chicken named Jenny. But she was no ordinary chicken. She was the odd one out. All the other chicken were brown with small beaks; she was covered in white spots and had a large beak. The other chicken made fun of her.
Oh God.
Re-reading old stories from when I was a child had never been my favourite thing to do. Yet I still kept them all, and occasionally I leaf through my big green folder in search of childhood inspiration.
I remember as a kid I always playing pretend; making up pretend worlds, pretend characters, pretend adventures.
I was either lost in a book or lost in my head.
Because of that, in Primary School, I was the ‘buffer’ kid; you know, the quiet one they put in between the loud ones to split them up.
They aren’t my favourite memories but I think that’s where it all began.
This one is called ‘A Bundle of Fur’: ‘It was Halloween and the moon was high in the sky…’
And it’s about kittens…?
I loved writing stories in class back then… well, I say short, I always had trouble sticking to the word limit. I suddenly found I had a lot to say with a pencil in my hand.
Writing those stories was the first time I really believed I was good at something and felt true, excitable passion. I became the good writer of the class which was pretty cool; it was like being the centre of attention but no one was really looking at me.
Other writers always put it so eloquently… I’m not sure how many artists would admit to finding their passion in a sticky blue seat in the middle of a snow storm.
But I remember sitting in my Primary 4 classroom in winter- hoping to get sent home earlier due to the weather- when our teacher handed back our marked short stories.
The feedback on mine read: ‘Great story, Rebecca, as always. Perhaps we’ll see a book from you in the future.’
And it was like a door opened.
That made complete sense.
My heart whispered yes and as simple as that I suddenly knew what I wanted to do.
When I got to High School I was told writing was not a ‘real job’ and was strongly advised to choose a more ‘substantial career.’
This conversation took place in a library, just so you know.
So I applied to study writing at Glasgow College, because… Well, why would I listen to a bunch of teachers?
It was there I fell in love with scriptwriting.
And one honors degree later, here we are.
Still writing.
gingerdrift 