Sounds familiar. I wanted to write my own stories from about the same age. I started with one of those John Bull printing kits where you placed little rubber letters into a rack (moveable type!) and then inked them and pushed them down on a clean sheet of paper. Then I was given a toy typewriter – you turned a wheel to the next letter, then pressed a big lever which stamped the letter onto the page. It was a very slow way to write a story ! Finally I was given a real , second hand typewriter for my 12 th birthday, and sat down to write my first novel. A science fiction tale about the planet Atlantia. I still have it.