My Writing Journey

My Writing Journey

Brace yourself for a long story because I am a writer and I also am a bit dramatic. Writing has been my passion for over a decade now, starting way back when I was a tiny human with nothing but a notebook and really poor grammar skills (oh dear Lord, the spelling). I started exploring writing around the age of nine or ten by scribbling a story in a notebook because my brother was hogging the Gamecube and we didn’t have internet, cable, or anyone within twenty miles of us. I was, to say the least, bored out of my mind and had no idea what I was doing. I hated reading, yet there I was, writing a story. I actually still have the story on my bookshelf, and I look at it when I need a solid laugh at how I couldn’t even spell “When” (“wen” was as close as I got). The story was only a few chapters and was obviously inspired by Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Here is a little snip-it from my first story, and brace yourselves for the worst spelling you’ve ever laid your eyes upon.

Fast forward about five or so years, I hadn’t written since the piece of art above. I was extremely addicted to TV shows (shout out to Smallville, What I Like About You, and Bewitched), and I still hated reading. Like, with a fiery passion. School books were the absolute worst. But around 2007, ten years ago, I purchased my first computer, which was a Toshiba I proudly named “Shiba” because my creativity astounds me (so thankful my parents never let me name the dogs because “Puppy” and “Dog” were my votes).

Now it’s time to embarrass myself further by stating how I started writing for real and not just scribbles in a notebook. It was 2008 and an extremely popular book series was being made into a film. That series was Twilight. Don’t judge me, I was in Middle School! I knew absolutely nothing about the series and didn’t even know there would be a film, but I was in the library one day and saw audiobooks of the series. The only thing I knew before renting the first book was that it was popular and apparently good, so I rented it out and popped one of the discs into my portable CD player (I know, I was cool).

I’m not going to lie and say I liked the series and read a ton of other books before writing my own. What really happened was an absolute obsession. I’m talking I was a Twihard, as in I not only finished listening to the entire series in a week, but also purchased the books and read them six more times. Six. I went to see the movie almost immediately after it came out, and I totally stalked the author for a solid year or so. It was insane. But what came out of that obsession was my discovery of actual writing.

I’m going to continue to humiliate myself by revealing the first thing I had written that I was truly obsessed with writing: Twlight Fanfiction. Anyone still reading this post? Still with me? Yes, the first actual story I had faithfully written was about the hit series. I was obsessed. And no, none of it was posted online because I had no internet and thank God I didn’t. I even had written myself into the story. Myself! Edward Cullen was the love of my life and we were going to end up together. So I wrote about us and I absolutely loved writing. Although it’s an embarrassing thing to admit, I don’t have any regrets. Twilight, writing, Edward Cullen, they all kind of brought me out of a really dark place in my life and made me see an entirely different world.

The Twilight phase lasted almost two years, and it still holds a special place in my heart, though I haven’t read it since then. After writing fanfiction, I came to the realization I could write other stories. I could make my own world. And so about half a dozen incomplete stories were written on my laptop, all on Wordpad because I knew nothing about writing. The spelling was horrendous, the grammar I can’t even speak about, and I didn’t know what a quotation mark was, but I loved it. I became so obsessed with it, it was practically the only thing I ever did. The stories are still somewhere on Shiba, who is currently collecting dust in my closet after she tragically began to die around 2012. I had never finished a book until 2010.

In 2010, Freshman year of High School, I was obsessed over a new series. It was a television series, though it was a book series long before that. The series was The Vampire Diaries, which shouldn’t shock anyone who just read how obsessed with Twilight I had once been. The TV series had come out in 2009, but I was late to the game. After I caught up, I had that same urge of needing more. I needed to know what would happen to Damon, who I still love to this day. Around this time I had an idea for a book series I later named Horrifying New Start, which was definitely inspired by TVD. It was the first book I wrote, and the first series I’ve ever created. I began writing the first book, but TVD was still heavy on my heart. So, now equipped with internet, I Googled the book series in hopes of finding it for free (I was broke AF). Instead of finding the book series, I found a website called Wattpad.

The discovery of Wattpad changed my life, and I don’t say that jokingly or am even exaggerating. Before finding the website, I had not once considered writing for people to actually see. I wrote for myself. My entire family wasn’t even aware I wrote anything. They just thought I played games all day on my laptop. I didn’t want anyone to know I was writing. But when I discovered Wattpad, I decided “What the heck” and created a profile that very day. The profile (thevelvetrose) still exists and still contains the first series I wrote, and they are cringe-worthy. I posted my book HNS on the website and really expected nothing. It was already a huge deal for my to post anything on there. But I did have people read it, and the amount of support on a rather cringe-worthily written story gave me so much joy, I believe I’ve cried a few times at the amazing comments. I wasn’t popular, I didn’t write a big hit, but people were reading, and that’s what mattered to me. People heard me. The photo below is from 2011, a year after I joined the website, and I was beaming at the numbers.

The numbers have since doubled in reads and tripled in votes. And within two or three years, I had written nearly eight books. Eight. I realized I loved writing humor and romance and mystery. I loved writing more than watching TV, and that is saying something. In 2011, I also became a Wattpad Ambassador and spent my nights helping newbies with the website and greeting and making friends with other writers. I even designed the Wattpad Ambassador t-shirt myself (proud moment because I still own it and people still wear it).

I was an Ambassador for two years until early 2013 when my Junior year of High School became too much. Because I realized most people were following my Wattpad account because I was an Ambassador, I decided to create another account to post writing on called kissmeyoufool in July of 2011. I wanted people to follow me strictly because of my writing, not my title, so I began writing new stuff on that account under another name. It was mostly romance, particularly teen romance. It got some notice, but not much, and I slowly lost interest in the novel. I juggled both accounts for a long time and came to realize I was ready to challenge my writing skills by writing something more mature. There’s only so many times you can write “darn” or “dang” or an not-too-mature kissing scene before your readers, and yourself, begin to roll eyes. I knew I loved vampires still, even though the vampire phase was dying, and decided I would write about them even if people didn’t read them.

In early 2012 I began the series The Possessive Creator. I wanted to write a mature series and the decision to make it vampire only made it more exciting to write. As much as I loved writing the series, hardly anyone read it. Like, no one. The only reason people started reading it was when I asked for a read-for-read in the club section of Wattpad. I’d read and give input of someone’s story if they did the same for mine. I finished The Possessive Creator in less than six months and started My Possessive Creator immediately after, which took me until 2014 to complete. In late 2013, smack in the middle of my first semester of college, I created The Deal Maker, which I decided to create as a sort of prequel/spin-off. I could make an entire post on both of those novels, but I’ll save that for later. Also in late 2013, I competed in NaNoWriMo and wrote a fourth book to my Horrifying New Start series which has yet to be completed. But I hit the 50,000 mark, so technically I won.

In early 2014, I finished The Deal Maker and decided to self-publish it. But after writing under another name for a long time, I decided to “reveal” who I actually was, Currie (thevelvetrose), in order for me to connect all of my social media and properly publish the novel under the name Currie. It may seem like an odd decision to do when it was my least-popular book and I had only just finished it. But I felt a deep connection to the book, and I was going through a dark time in early 2014, so I bit the bullet and published. It was exciting, stressful, and possibly the proudest moment of my life. I wrote and self-published a book in under a year, and people actually bought it. I didn’t make much off of it. It didn’t land me on any best seller list. But even if I didn’t make a dime off of it, I was and still am proud to say I bit the bullet and did it. Also that year I completed My Possessive Creator and began The Deal Breaker immediately after completing the first book. I was on a roll. Writing became as easy as breathing to me. I was just as excited to write a chapter as people were to read it. Each year I started a new book or completed one, all while juggling full loads at college and even a job. Writing was no longer a hobby to me, but rather a necessity.

In 2015 I finished The Deal Breaker and immediately began The Deal Taker, and I worked on The Creation off and on. In 2016 I finished The Deal Taker and started The Deal Changer, which I am almost finished with now in 2017. Each year was a new novel, a new achievement. As cheesy as it sounds, writing has become a part of me. Whenever I’m feeling down, I know writing is really the only thing that can help me. Sometimes writer’s block hits hard and my mood shifts. But I fight through it because I’m at my best when I write.

I wouldn’t be writing today if people weren’t so darn supportive. If someone hadn’t have commented on my first novel in 2010, I’d probably have an entirely different major right now or be someone else. I love my followers, and I write for them as much as myself. I love giving someone a reason to escape something stressful or rough, and I love escaping myself. Writing is my safety net of life.

If you’re still reading, I congratulate you! This post is mega-long, but it’s over ten years of life and it’s difficult to limit it. I plan to make more posts on writing, particularly posts to help others who are just starting. I’m always there to cheer someone on in something they are passionate about! ❤