The writings of nine-year old me (featuring my first fairy tale!)

Three snippets of my nine-year-old handwritten stories and poetry against a parchment background.

Whenever someone asks me when I started writing, I always answer, truthfully, that I have been writing poetry and stories since I was a child. I also usually say that my stories were almost entirely based on things I'd recently read. But now, thanks to my mum resisting her usual urge to recycle anything that stays still long enough, I have proof!

The below masterpieces were written around 2005 so I was about nine years old. 

Exhibit A: One of my favourite books was War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, so naturally I wrote a rhyming poem about the book and it seems I was immensely grateful to Sir Michael for choosing the conveniently rhyming names, Joey and Zoey (even though I spelled Zoey wrong throughout). But I am pleased to see that nine-year-old me already knew to cite my sources!

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Photo of lined paper. In the top right corner I've written '(Based on the Michael Morpurgo story of War Horse.} The first two lines of poetry are half visible showing the words 'called Joey' and 'called Zoe'.

Exhibit B: Another book I loved was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, so I wrote a story called... The Chocolate Garden. And I cast not only my cousin Tom as the main character, but also MYSELF.

Handwriting on lined paper. Title: The chocolate Garden. The story starts: There once were two children called Beth and Tom they lived next door to eachother and this is how

Exhibit C: Perhaps my favourite of the bunch is what I believe might just be my first ever fairy tale. It is called 'The Wild Wood' and, my goodness,  'wild' is the right word! 

Handwritten story on lined paper titled The Wild Wood. Click the image to view typed transcript.

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Typed transcript of The Wild Wood. Click the image to open full transcript as word document.

The bear caught me off guard, I won't lie! The Wild Wood goes on for another page and a bit so, if anyone is desperate to know what happens to James (another of my cousins' names I used for a character) then let me. know...!

I wanted to share these because one, they're funny! And two, because if nine-year-old me had been told the she would later be published by the very people who publish Michael Morpurgo, I would probably have spontaneously combusted on the spot from excitement. So, for any aspiring writers out there, know that you have to start somewhere, even if that place is rhyming 'Joey' with misspelled 'Zoey', or throwing 'IT'S A BEAR' into a story when you're not sure what else to do!