What is your earliest writing memory? by Lynda Alsford

I have been thinking recently about when I starting taking an interest in writing. One of my earliest memories of writing are from my school days. I had an excellent teacher at primary school called Mrs Hecks. She taught me most of my basic knowledge.  She was a lady who loved children and loved passing on her knowledge to us. She had a preference for fountain pens and I used one regularly at school until I moved on to secondary school. I stayed in touch with her regularly until she died a few years ago in her 90s. As an aside, do you have a favourite teacher? What was it that made them special?

I can remember Mrs Hecks asking us to write a story about how thunder happens. I have no clue where the idea for my story came from but I wrote  a story about God moving his furniture about heaven with big bangs. I can remember really enjoying writing it. My imagination had been sparked. I could see God busy with his removals in my head and really wanted to share what I could see. However, I didn't know how to emphasise the loudness of the bangs with good descriptive prose. I was only about 7 or 8 years old and all I could think to do was write the word bang in great big letters on the page to emphasise how loud each bang was. Each story was then read out to the class. I can remember now how these over large letters made Mrs Hecks giggle as she explained to the class what I had done. 

As I got older I discovered Enid Blyton. I collected and read all 21 famous give books. I loved them. I can remember hiding under the bed clothes reading with a torch so mum wouldn't know I was reading when I should be asleep. When I was about 12 years old I wrote an adventure book, trying to be like Enid Blyton. I can't remember much of the story except it took place in a wood with children going on an adventure. I remember trying to draw the illustrations too. 

What is your earliest writing memory? Who inspired you in your early writing?



Lynda Alsford is a sea loving, cat loving GP administrator and writes in her spare time. She has written two books, He Never Let Go describes her journey through a major crisis of faith whilst working as an evangelist at a lively Church in Chiswick, West London. Being Known describes how God set her free from food addiction. Both books are available in paperback and on kindle on  Amazon.co.uk  and  Amazon.com. She writes a newsletter called Seeking the Healer, in which she shares the spiritual insights she has gained on her journey. When she finally starts her blog, it will also be called Seeking the Healer and you can find out more about both at  www.lyndaalsford.com.