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This One Sentence Made Me a Writer

And it all started with a green sheet of paper.

The First Step into Writing

I was 13 years old when my new Portuguese teacher (I’m Portuguese, so it was our core subject in school), who was giving an extra subject about the language itself, had an idea.

We should write a story and, based on the quality of that story, she would give us coloured sheets: green, yellow, orange and red.

The motivation was to get to green as soon as possible, taking feedback and incorporating it into our writing.

The first story had quite a title for such a younger audience: “What if I was a pen”.

I remember writing about changing the world, about, as a pen, being the changing force of a sick and dying world, full of hatred and death.

Quite cheesy, I know.

But I got the green sheet!

The feeling was amazing. For the first time, I was getting recognition for my writing (apart from a couple of stories in primary school).

This was a serious recognition, and I desired to have it published in the school paper.

At that time, I found a blog from a girl near my city who would publish stories and poems from regular people. I published there as well.