Papers

I remember starting in second grade, our teachers let us use our free time to "read write or draw". I loved all three activities a lot. But, if I had to choose, I'd usually choose to write. I'd get these notebooks at the student store for 25cents and sometimes these great markers that were like 50 cents. And then, whenever I had a chance, I'd write these little stories. I only have a few of the notebooks, since they were prone to fall apart once the glue wore off. It's funny to see the themes I chose for my free stories. Mostly detective stories and things about the teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... at least in second grade. Detective stories happened all the way through fifth grade. (I had always planned to be a detective until seventh grade when I found out you had to be pretty physically fit, and then I gave up on the idea).

In Fifth grade, we'd go up to the computer lab and use the "new" Apples to type up our stories and print them out on dot matrix. Ahhh, beautiful. What I wouldn't give to hear that sound. I believe Strongbad refers to it as "pre-ow" Anyway, I digress. So, in fifth grade we typed up stories. I wrote really long stories back then. The two that are left behind are pretty darn involved for a fifth grader's brain. I have one that was 5 pages when I typed it, which was amazing compared to everyone else's who were mostly one or two pages. I remember my teacher saying, "This isn't a story! It's a novel!" It's a stupid story, really, about some kids who discover a whole bunch of nuclear weapons in their neighbor's basement. Headed to Iraq for Sadaam Hussein... lame, I know. I guess I had a lot to learn about terrorists. But the plot was pretty cohesive.
My mom gave me a portfolio with a lot of writing in it from those years. I remembered writing some of it, but a lot of it I'd completely forgotten about. I know I have a lot of free writing from sixth grade that I did during class, but I can't find most of my writing assignments. There was one from ffith grade, though, a midevil tale (oh, I forgot to mention that after the detective stories stopped, I started writing more about kids finding bombs and knights and castles. Much better). It was 14 pages hand-written with illustrations. Lots of details. I think I might actually post that one if I get enough requests, because it's hilarious.
Anyway, reading all of that old crap and remembering how imaginitive I used to be made me wish that I had more time to devote to making up stories. I don't do it as much anymore. Sure, I can spell better now, and I have much better technique but sometimes I almost wish for those days back when the idea tank was overflowing.
Then again, maybe if I started writing detective stories again, the ideas would start to flow again. Maybe I will... but probably not.