In a recent interview in the Columbia Tribune, the Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy talked about how he began composing:

I started composing instantly when I started learning music at nine. My father was a writer of radio plays, so it seemed natural for me to go into my room and write down my ideas! I used to write these massive 'symphonies' (as I called them) for recorder, tin whistle and flute, which were the instruments that I played, graduating to piano later. Often I would record extended improvisations with a hand-held tape recorder and then transcribe them in modified form into notation afterwards. I found the whole thing fascinating.

Read the rest here.