I haven't really written much when I was younger, truth be told. We did the odd story at school and all, but I was never really inspired to write a story outside of boring old recounts or something. My primary schools never really did much creative-writing wise.
The sole exception was when I was in year four, probably because I had one of the most awesome teachers ever. And he also had the awesome idea of making one of our projects the task of us writing a story and doing the illustrations, followed up by him binding them, laminating the covers and what-not, so we actually made a published book. Only we didn't make any money from them or anything and they were hardly literary works or anything, but that was most definitely fun. I did a comedy (surprise!), about school. 'Twas fun.
I also recall one time when he gave us some lollies (to be precise, something called 'red frogs' which are so delicious), and told us to describe the taste and what-not while we were eating them. So for a while there, I was interested in writing... but I did most of it at school, never did any fan-fiction, and this faded away in year five when I changed schools and creative writing again disappeared.
Darn lack of creative writing - we never seemed to do much of it at school bar year four, and not much into the general rules of it (such as 'show don't tell'). The next time we did a school module on creative writing was when I was in year ten, and the next year when I had first heard the term 'show don't tell' at school. >_<
Anyways, the was one other writing task I recall, which definitely started it off. Year 7, we were for some reason or another asked to do a short script with stage directions and so forth for homework. Naturally, I did a comedy - a short (one-page long) scene involving two characters lacking in the brain cells department talking to each other and than a third arrival, who had the misfortune of having his house on fire.
The piece never got marked by the teacher - well, none of ours did. >_< But we showed each other our ones, and mine got a few laughs out of my friends.
The following year, in Geography we had a set of tasks to choose from and do, one allowing for a script for an awareness campaign (about as I remember a site on the world heritage list). I decided to do another script for it, which got some positive responses from the teacher and friends again. Then I did another for a group task, which we acted out and went well. (Although if I remember the part that got the most laughs involved a character venting their frustration on the character I was playing as >_<).
My friends like it, and they encouraged me to do more. And, on a whim, without anything better to do, I did. I made a full episode based on the first piece I did, then another, and yet another. This went on for a bit, and I found writing out my comedy scripts quite fun to do, as well as entertaining readers with them.
(As a side-note - the series had been called 'Bob and Bill' - based on the two main characters who had those names. Later on when I discovered this thing called forums, I randomly decided to use that as my username and pen-name, also probably as a minor tribute and reminder to the first things I actually wrote actively).
Around then I discovered... fanfiction. (A minor pause for dramatic music to play here). The very first piece was actually Star Wars-related, although only a one-shot, and from friends via an e-mail - I didn't actually follow the franchise. Not too long afterwards I discovered Pokemon fan-fiction on a neat website called trsrockin.com. I had went there originally to find something game-related (the 'fake' Pokemon Diamond - i.e. the 'telefang' games), found the site to be useful and checked the other sections it had. I enjoyed the works there, but never did anything. (Yes, I'm aware it's taking me a darn long while just to get to when I started writing fan fiction).
A while later I discovered sppf, after hearing that Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were being made, and that some info was on the site. That led to me eventually discovering the forums here (as well as what forums were), then joining, and... not doing much on them at the time. Around then I was running out of ideas and strive for my comedy scripts.
After a while though, I encountered through a very pretty banner in someone's sig, a fanfic. It was PDL's 'Tale of a Kirlia: Sabrina's Story' or something like that. It was a good read and all, but I still hadn't started a fanfic of my own - instead, I tried another, more fleshed-out comedy-script styled series. This went better but lasted less time, and I only ever did two episodes.
Anyways; my writing of my fanfic started purely on a spontaneous thought of mine. ('Finally he'll talk about how he started' I hear you say). I had been lent a copy of Pokemon Colosseum by a friend who happened to have two. (He has no idea where he got the second one from). Having played many Pokemon games before I eagerly tried it, and generally liked it (especially for the rather random inclusion of Miror B in it).
But the story itself had some plotholes and generally unexplained parts which I disliked, even if I had liked the story. This I told my friend, around the time I was losing interest in my comedy scripts, which were seemingly too simple.
So one time I was sitting in front of the computer, wondering what would I write now - I wanted to do something amusing, but not as a script. Then suddenly I thought: 'why not do a fanfic based on Colosseum, only with more comedy and filling in the plotholes - heck, maybe even a parody of sorts?'. And just like that - I started typing, and the fic 'The Retelling of Pokemon Colosseum' was born.
I remembered reading a few fics on sppf, and considered submitting it there. I ended up doing just so. Although my writing was light, and filled with mistakes, and I hadn't had much of a clue on description (which I was aware of), it did seem to entertain the few readers who responded (particularly thanks to Jonah who was my first reader) and make them laugh, which was my sole aim - not to write a story of publishable quality but just something that was a comedy, fun for me to write, and more challenging than a plain old script. I did want a bit more in terms of readers early on, as all novice writers do. I only got one review for my prologue, but was extremely glad for it.
But then it kinda grew on me, and slowly I went back and made some slight edits, improved the writing standards gradually, etc, although still keeping it rather light, I daresay, mainly wanting to entertain myself in writing it, and others in getting them to read it. Soon I made myself a banner in Paint. Then dropped that for a banner made by someone who could make banners and had better programs than Paint to do so.
Then I read some other fics as well, and gradually the fanfic section became my regular pit-stop on the internet. But I not only read fics, but reviews too, feeling I might learn some more on writing. And I've felt I've learnt a lot on writing since then. I then made some reviews of my own, remembering how glad I had felt seeing my first review, and knowing some people didn't get many either or any at all to begin with. As that went with time, my reviews, IMO, got better as I learnt more, and I enjoyed reviewing as well.
Every so often in my spare time I wrote a bit of my own work as well. Things were getting far longer, and generally until now I've just kept at it slowly but surely. I didn't ever think it'd take me so many chapters to get to where I am currently (which is a while from the end), but I was determined to see this fic out until the end, and am still now. Just not as quickly as I had first thought.
My fanfic also suddenly (almost overnight it seemed) got more attention, and far more than I had ever thought it would gather as well. Although considering I started it in the spur of the moment, never intended it to become more than a light parody that entertained and amused but was of a 'meh' quality (now I consider it 'ok' but nothing more)... it's no surprise that I'm surprised looking at the view count, although I'm of the opinion there is plenty a better fic out there deserving of more attention of mine. But it made people laugh, which is still my main aim. I've always liked making people laugh at my works, and I guess people also like doing that too. Which works out for me. -_-
Did one other fan-fic (a one-shot), which also started rather spontaneously. It was also the first thing I ever wrote that wasn't a comedy, which you might have guessed is the genre I love writing most. In-between that and the judging of it at a contest here I entered it in (simply because it fitted the genre of the contest and all) and my fanfic, I continued learning about writing here (and eventually other places too), and making reviews, trying to help others with their fics. Now I even beta other people's fics thanks to that, and also have been able to apply what I've learnt about writing to pieces at school when I finally did creative writing at school, and actually did some pieces of writing I'd say would be possibly easily if I hadn't discovered sppf. So I'm quite glad things have turned out the way they have.
And now after a year more that of that, I'm doing a fun writing project with other people, have several ideas of my own, and am still enjoying writing my own fic in my spare time which gets plenty a look and some helpful reviews too (cheers to all my readers + and reviewers too btw). Very glad I decided to do my fic when I had. Quite a few things happened that wouldn't have because of it.
And so ends the tale of bobandbill the comedy fan-fic writer. And be glad this post wasn't any longer, which it quite easily could have been. :P
(Added note - I finally finished said fic early 2012. :V)
