‘I am a writer, and writers write’: Shannon shares her creative passion for words

Dedicated writer Shannon Alger has been writing stories since she can remember, even sharing them with her school friends at lunchtime regularly. Now after successfully completing her Creative Writing degree, Shannon both volunteers for the homeless charity Alabare within their Marketing and Fundraising team and acts as a Young Ambassador for Prince’s Trust, alongside hunting for a career within Marketing. However, being a novelist is, and will always be her true calling. Below you will find an autobiography about Shannon’s writing practice as well as a link to her short story, written for and presented at a Prince’s Trust event.

‘The Dance of Pen on Paper and the Ink Left Behind’

I was a bit of an unusual child. The sort of child that saw a pile of books and thought they would make a very good fort. I was right – up until my cat wanted to come in, too.

I suppose I decided early on in my life that words were made for collecting, and books could easily be lived in, and that was all there was to it. I gathered my collection of friends by those that would tell stories with me as we sat around at lunchtimes, indulging my need to put pen to paper. They goaded me on with their enthusiasm. What happens next? What did they say after that? Who really did it? I was so caught up in these worlds we had created that I had to carry scraps of paper and pens with me everywhere, tightly packed in my blazer pockets. Pens, apparently, don’t enjoy being crammed together in small spaces. Ink explosions happened often.

None of that mattered, though. I was – I am – a writer. Writers write.

School ended, university ended; I tucked my Creative Writing degree under my belt and I kept writing. That’s the important thing. Read a book – become ensnared by a particularly tasty line that rolls around inside, transforming into something new. Watch a film, and imagine how that scene could have ended differently, if only it was some other character pulling the strings. A snippet of song, a fleeting conversation, a colour; all of it is there to tantalise the senses, to inspire. In school, it was the enthusiasm of my friends that pushed me own, and now it’s the world, giving me chances to explore. Letting me find the dragon in the hedgerow. If I nurture that dragon just right, I think together we will fly.

I am a writer, and writers write.

Download Shannon’s story: Prince’s Trust Speech- Shannon Alger

If you would like to read more of Shannon’s pieces, please visit her blog: https://inkleftbehind.wordpress.com/

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