30 Days of Writing - Day 4

4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters?


Ok, this one is a little more difficult for me.  I wrote my first story at the age of eight and it was a faerie tale version of "A Little Princess".  I guess, in a way, you'd call it fan fiction.  It makes me wonder how many of us started out writing stories for various fandoms - or because we think we can do better than the author in question.

I think, in terms of stories written that did not include someone else's characters, I'd have to say that it was the earliest incarnation of my present high fantasy WIP.  I'd been fascinated by the story of Lady Jane Grey and wondered what it would have been like if her story was different.  I was also fascinated by faerie tales and decided to write one of my own based loosely on the historical facts about the 9 day Queen of England.  Thus "Anne and Edward" was born.

Anne was the abused daughter of a scholar and his evil sorceress 2nd wife, and Edward was the spoiled brat of a prince who was now king of Vassa.  But Anne and Edward were also good friends from those days when her father used to bring her to Court and Edward had always wondered what happened to her.  Well, when her father died and her stepmother turned her and her younger twin sisters into slaves, Anne took her sisters and fled to the neighboring lands, where they became servants for much kinder people.  Eventually Edward, doing a tour of his kingdom, sees Anne again and rescues her from her life as a servant and together they put an end to the evil stepmother and the twins became the ladies of the lands.

Really cheesy, very much a Cinderella story, and nothing I'd ever recommend anyone read.  But it was the first time I seriously put anything down on paper that meant something to me.  The characters have changed, the entire world has changed, and the little faerie tale I'd created has now been relegated to a place in my massive story notebook where other stories that I've abandoned now reside.