BY CLAIRE BENTLEY
Not just once. I stopped writing multiple times during my nearly forty years of life. So much for not making the same mistake twice.
I followed a similar trajectory to many other writers, in that I wrote stories from the moment I learned the alphabet. I wrote a new novel every week in my English lessons. I stapled the pages together into little books and forced my long-suffering relatives to read them.
Reading and writing were my refuge. If anyone asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer alternated between author and veterinarian. For comparison: when my oldest son was the same age, he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to be a train track or a beard. So, it’s safe to say writing was in my blood from the start – along with autism, zero spatial awareness and sugar-dependency.
I saw the first Lord of the Rings film in the cinema at age fifteen, and was captivated by the story, the world, and the characters. When I found out it was based on a book, my ambition to become a speculative fiction author was solidified. I took out my glittery gel pens and started crafting fantasy stories the next day.
I grew older. The people around me said being an author wasn’t a ‘realistic’ career choice. So, I fulfilled another writing cliché and went to university to study psychology.
This was the first time I fell off the writing wagon. Between studying, and working part-time, and learning exactly how hazardous a shared bathroom can become if no one cleans it for weeks, my writing projects were relegated to the bottom desk drawer in my mouldy student bedroom.
A couple of years later – after I’d finished my degree – my stories came flooding back. I didn’t know how much I’d missed writing until I was back at my desk, dreaming up worlds and characters and scenarios.
Then I started a new graduate job. At first, I worked on my stories in between long days at the office. However, the job got even busier just as other aspects of my personal life began to fall apart. I had to move back in with my parents, and my story notes stayed packed in my moving boxes for months afterwards. This time, I fell off the wagon and hit every pothole as I bounced down the road.
The writing slump lasted years.
I got married. I had my first son.
He was only days old when I cradled him in my arms and thought to myself: why am I not an author yet?
Suddenly, during one of the busiest and most exhausting times of my life, I remembered who I was.
From that point on, I wrote in whatever spare time I had. I devoured writing craft books, podcasts and videos. I made outlines with a purple pen in my right hand and a small child on my left arm.
This time, I didn’t stop. Even when the pandemic hit. Even when I had my second son during the pandemic – which I do not recommend. Even if I was only able to steal twenty bleary-eyed minutes after they (finally) went to sleep.
At this point in my life – when the toddler years are finally disappearing in the rear-view mirror – I have never been more weary, more nervous and more joyful.
Maybe my worst writing mistake was not in ‘stopping writing’, but in believing that I could ever stop writing.
About the Author
Claire Bentley is an autistic freelance fiction editor and aspiring speculative fiction author. She lives in Yorkshire (England) with her husband and two clever and sassy sons. She’s trying to persuade her husband to add a couple of cats to their ensemble – no success (yet) on that front.
Claire loves all things book-related, and can’t believe her previous existence as a healthcare researcher managed to keep her away from writing for so long. She spends every moment possible getting lost in other people’s stories, and in crafting her own words and stories.
Sometimes she has to spend time doing other things, such as: reminding her kids that, yes, they do have to clean their teeth; or wondering how a room can look like a crime scene mere moments after she cleaned it; or cooking meals that her children will decide they don’t like, simply because it’s Tuesday.
However, she always finds her way back to stories, even if it’s the middle of the night and she’s running purely on caffeine and sugar. She enjoys the collision between fantasy and real life, and her writing is shaped by motherhood, feminism and neurodivergent life.
Find Claire at https://www.clairebentley.co.uk/
Socials: @cbentleywriter on Threads, Bluesky and Instagram
Claire was the winner of the June 2025 My Writing Journey Competition.
