I think I always wrote what could be called stories. I remember writing in middle school and high school. I think I would classify them as scenes, now. What really started me was when I worked in a school system as a teacher of 4th and 5th grade students who were learning disabled. The previous teacher had games to stimulate thinking skills in the students, but my thoughts about learning were different. I took away the games (it wasn't as easy as it sounds) and encouraged them to read, and write, and discuss. But, where should I start. Since they had been working on games, and weren't developing reading and language skills, we had to begin at the beginning. Giving 4th and 5th graders a kindergarten book was an insult to them I thought, so I solved the problem by creating stories for them. I knew I had to include vocabulary for 1st, 2nd and third grade, and I did that. The students seemed to love the stories and wanted to read everyday. They discussed the stories, wrote about them, and each night I found myself making the activities, I also had to create, tougher and tougher for them. One day I came into class and a group of them was sitting around the reading table in a discussion. I entered, put my things down on my desk, and sat at the table to listen. They were discussing the story we'd read the day before and trying to deduce what will happen on the present day. I heard one student say to another, "Why would you think that? That character hasn't done anything like that so far." I coudn't believe what I heard. Later, during the actual class, the students told me that my stories sounded like real stories that you buy in a bookstore. Thus, the beginning of my writing career.