I was told that imagination, art, and fiction writing was a waste of time by my dad when I was single digit aged. I was always in trouble with him for making up rhymes off the cuff when I was at home. He thought of it as being a liar so the punishment got pretty bad while he was alive, but that just made me dig in my heels and get a lot more determined in my life choice to prove him wrong. He died when I was twelve so I almost lost my life goal focus. However, in high school I got a really awesome English teacher who decided to have all my teachers snag my notebooks of hand written poetry and stories since I hated my math classes so much I could not stand them and began writing stories in such classes. ROFL. Next thing I knew, said English teacher had entered several of my poems in various contests, and I won several of them. I got to go to college for free, so picked print media. Because of the awards I had won, I had enough skill to work my way into an editor position at a micro press. All of that was pre-stroke of course.
I started writing yaoi fan fiction several years back because my younger son had a melt down because of having the hots for a fellow male classmate. Doesn't hurt that my pals still working in the publishing industry tell me that writing gay-rotica is the fastest way to get published again. I have numerous original and fan fiction stories. Some are completed, and even posted here. The fan fictions need a new edit/overhaul since they are still a tad raw to my sensibilities. Anyway, my fan fiction dip was helpful to my younger son who graduated high school without committing suicide over his crushes which is all I really care about in the long run.