My English Essay...Read It Only If You Care...Otherwise Is Might Get Awfully Boring
Caroline Wilson
Period 5 Niedbala
February 7, 2007
Myself, The Writer
Ever since I can remember, my sister Ashley has been a writer. She wrote stories for years, and of course being the younger sister, I wanted to be just like her. I would make little books out of crudely cut and stapled paper, like the one called The Bottle Cap Collection. However, one day in first grade I decided that I would write a ‘real’ book. So one day in first grade, I sat down and wrote a story. It was called The Big Nose. It was about a bird who lived in a forest where the other animals made fun of him for having a large nose. Basically, it was an early attempt at a story with a message based on acceptance. Perhaps I felt, even at an early age, that every story had to have a meaning. It was a nice coincidence that Pine Grove School had a publishing center where they typed, bound, and let you illustrate your own books. Through elementary school I wrote and published about ten books in all, and I saved every one of them. I wrote everything from mysteries to narratives. I never had any trouble coming up with plots ideas or new characters because I had so much around that inspired me: other stories or movies I had seen, or real-life situations I had experienced. The books I wrote back then are like treasures to me, because they are so much fun to read now and remember writing.
I continued to stay a storywriter as I grew up. In Thompson Brook School, I started, but never finished Gold Rush, a book about a family living in America during the mid-1800’s. I was very interested in historical fiction at this time, and books like the Little House series played a large impact in my choice of subject matter. I used to wish that I was born in the “olden days”, and writing about it made it somewhat better. Around the same time I also started another book called Willow of the Unicorns. This story was about a fantasy world that four orphaned children found out in a forest where they lived. I gained a tendency to base some of my characters off of pictures I had seen in books. For instance, Willow, the ‘guider of the unicorns’, was a female inspired by something I had seen in a fantasy book. A picture of a lady in a green dress with blonde wavy hair, barefoot and walking under a waterfall inspired me to create Willow. It seemed that pictures just sparked a scene, a character, a story, or perhaps all three in my mind. Thinking of characters was and is always my favorite part of creating a story because you can put yourself and others into a character without anyone necessarily knowing. You can create a wretched figure based off of someone else without them knowing or honor someone you love or admire and create a character based on them. Or instead you can simply create an entirely new face that you think the story either needs or that you wish you had in your own life. Creating a character, is, in my opinion, the next best thing to actually knowing them as a person.
Me In the Middle was another story I wrote in Thompson Brook. It was much different than anything I had written before because it wasn’t an old-fashioned or mystical piece. Instead, it was a school story related to my own life. It was about Emily Jasper, a girl in sixth grade who wasn’t part of the “popular” crowd but was invited to join “Kim’s Cool Club”. She ended up having to choose between her less popular best friend Jamie, or the “cool girls”. I’m happy to say that I actually finished the book this time, being my first that I fully completed. I was even feeling so confident that partway through seventh grade I sent manuscripts off to eighteen publishers that I found in a writer’s manuel. I just knew that I would become a published author because I had worked so hard on my book. However, every single package of the eighteen that was returned was a disappointing letter or simple a rejected manuscript. While in middle school I had definitely not been aware of or understand the tough writer’s world out there. I decided that I would never ever give up though, because once I had decided that I wanted to be a “real” writer, I would do it. It’s hard for me to give up a goal when I set my mind to it, and this case was no different. Perhaps in the future when I finish something “better” and “more worthy of being published”, I will need to go about it in a different way. But I still haven’t given up, because I am determined to share my stories I love so much with the world.
In middle school I wrote another school story called Iris. It was about a girl named Bridgett who found a diary named Iris that she could write in, and have it write back to her. Bridgett was sent to a boarding school in London where she met several friends and had adventures with. I wrote this story for about two years, and never finished it because I wanted to move onto other things. I guess that I just got bored with the same characters, even though I did love them. I wanted to play around with different scenarios and people. This showed me that it takes a long time to finish a book, and you can only do it if you find time and are determined to do so. Iris is one of those things I could still go back to, spruce up, and finish if I had time or wanted to badly enough. I probably will in the future, mostly because I feel like I am friends with all of the characters. I really started to learn how to develop characters and how to make them more life-like when I wrote Iris. A good example is Carmen, the Scottish girl Bridgett became best friends with. I actually saw a picture in my ninth grade French textbook of a girl with short, curly dark hair, a plaid skirt, a red shirt, and a scarf and decided she was the perfect image for the character I was creating at that time.
Last year I finished my second book, called Whatever Happened? It is part of a series of four books that are my latest creation. I think I might have actually written the whole thing in a year, because the plot was relatively simple. The story is about a girl named Clara who is based on myself. Clara experiences cliques in middle school, quite like my character Emily in Me In The Middle. Her parents agree to let her go live in Seaglass Valley, a town near the ocean, with her cousin Isabelle and her Aunt Charlotte. Clara instantly becomes good friends with all of Isabelle’s friends. Like I am with the characters of Iris, I feel that I am friends with each of the characters. It is a very weird feeling for one to experience, knowing that he or she created the people. I’m writing several books, each one focusing on a different character and with a different season. I am currently working on the winter story, Whatever Changed?, about Isabelle. Sometimes when I get stuck it is hard for me to keep in mind that I should probably finish Isabelle’s story before I move onto Lily’s or Jessie’s, the other two girls in the series. From this I learned that I am definitely someone who likes starting out fresh with a new story because I feel the power of making absolutely anything at all happen.
I definitely enjoy creative writing more than any other type of writing. I love working on my stories most of all, though I also love both songwriting and poetry. But I have fun writing stories because of the aspect of creating new characters. I hardly ever have a problem coming up with names or personalities because there are so many personal experiences involving people that I was to put into my writing. I also love creating new scenarios. I often have so many new ideas for a chapter come at me all at once that I have to simply outline every main idea before I can begin. I don’t want to forget everything! Thinking of new scenarios is somewhat easy for me, and if I ever do get stuck, I just think about it for a few days. Then I sit down again and can write another chapter or two. It seems like it should be harder for me to write something I like, but for some reason it isn’t. I usually manage to write something I at least consider decent, and then I edit it. Of course, in the future I will have to edit it even more.
I never think of writing my stories as work, and sometimes can’t understand why people do not enjoy creative writing. It allows you to escape from the real world, if only for a few minutes. You can also express yourself and get everything you’ve been going through out onto the page. The empty page is sometimes my best friend because it will soak up everything I pour out from my heart.
I wouldn’t ever be able to consider myself simply a writer, because I have such a wide range of interests, and could never pinpoint only one and stick with it for the rest of my life. It’s not that I don’t love writing, it’s just that I’ve never been extraordinary at it, only ever called something like ‘very good’ or even ‘great’ but never outstanding. No one’s really ever referred to me as a writer, so maybe that’s why I have trouble as totally seeing myself as one. Perhaps I also feel that a writer is supposed to act or look or speak a certain way and have an artist’s temperament. Since I don’t believe that I fit the physical criteria for a writer, I almost feel like I am not really one. I can’t help that but I can and I still write nonetheless because I enjoy it, love letting off steam with it, and can share my thoughts to the world through a few scratches on paper.
I’m definitely thinking ahead, but even though I’m not simply a ‘writer’, I would still love to become a published author. I know it will take a lot of effort, drafts, and thinking. But I wouldn’t do it for the fame or fortune. I would want my dream to be completed because I would then know that other people could experience the joy that I had spending time with Clara, Isabelle, Lily, and Jessie.
Period 5 Niedbala
February 7, 2007
Myself, The Writer
Ever since I can remember, my sister Ashley has been a writer. She wrote stories for years, and of course being the younger sister, I wanted to be just like her. I would make little books out of crudely cut and stapled paper, like the one called The Bottle Cap Collection. However, one day in first grade I decided that I would write a ‘real’ book. So one day in first grade, I sat down and wrote a story. It was called The Big Nose. It was about a bird who lived in a forest where the other animals made fun of him for having a large nose. Basically, it was an early attempt at a story with a message based on acceptance. Perhaps I felt, even at an early age, that every story had to have a meaning. It was a nice coincidence that Pine Grove School had a publishing center where they typed, bound, and let you illustrate your own books. Through elementary school I wrote and published about ten books in all, and I saved every one of them. I wrote everything from mysteries to narratives. I never had any trouble coming up with plots ideas or new characters because I had so much around that inspired me: other stories or movies I had seen, or real-life situations I had experienced. The books I wrote back then are like treasures to me, because they are so much fun to read now and remember writing.
I continued to stay a storywriter as I grew up. In Thompson Brook School, I started, but never finished Gold Rush, a book about a family living in America during the mid-1800’s. I was very interested in historical fiction at this time, and books like the Little House series played a large impact in my choice of subject matter. I used to wish that I was born in the “olden days”, and writing about it made it somewhat better. Around the same time I also started another book called Willow of the Unicorns. This story was about a fantasy world that four orphaned children found out in a forest where they lived. I gained a tendency to base some of my characters off of pictures I had seen in books. For instance, Willow, the ‘guider of the unicorns’, was a female inspired by something I had seen in a fantasy book. A picture of a lady in a green dress with blonde wavy hair, barefoot and walking under a waterfall inspired me to create Willow. It seemed that pictures just sparked a scene, a character, a story, or perhaps all three in my mind. Thinking of characters was and is always my favorite part of creating a story because you can put yourself and others into a character without anyone necessarily knowing. You can create a wretched figure based off of someone else without them knowing or honor someone you love or admire and create a character based on them. Or instead you can simply create an entirely new face that you think the story either needs or that you wish you had in your own life. Creating a character, is, in my opinion, the next best thing to actually knowing them as a person.
Me In the Middle was another story I wrote in Thompson Brook. It was much different than anything I had written before because it wasn’t an old-fashioned or mystical piece. Instead, it was a school story related to my own life. It was about Emily Jasper, a girl in sixth grade who wasn’t part of the “popular” crowd but was invited to join “Kim’s Cool Club”. She ended up having to choose between her less popular best friend Jamie, or the “cool girls”. I’m happy to say that I actually finished the book this time, being my first that I fully completed. I was even feeling so confident that partway through seventh grade I sent manuscripts off to eighteen publishers that I found in a writer’s manuel. I just knew that I would become a published author because I had worked so hard on my book. However, every single package of the eighteen that was returned was a disappointing letter or simple a rejected manuscript. While in middle school I had definitely not been aware of or understand the tough writer’s world out there. I decided that I would never ever give up though, because once I had decided that I wanted to be a “real” writer, I would do it. It’s hard for me to give up a goal when I set my mind to it, and this case was no different. Perhaps in the future when I finish something “better” and “more worthy of being published”, I will need to go about it in a different way. But I still haven’t given up, because I am determined to share my stories I love so much with the world.
In middle school I wrote another school story called Iris. It was about a girl named Bridgett who found a diary named Iris that she could write in, and have it write back to her. Bridgett was sent to a boarding school in London where she met several friends and had adventures with. I wrote this story for about two years, and never finished it because I wanted to move onto other things. I guess that I just got bored with the same characters, even though I did love them. I wanted to play around with different scenarios and people. This showed me that it takes a long time to finish a book, and you can only do it if you find time and are determined to do so. Iris is one of those things I could still go back to, spruce up, and finish if I had time or wanted to badly enough. I probably will in the future, mostly because I feel like I am friends with all of the characters. I really started to learn how to develop characters and how to make them more life-like when I wrote Iris. A good example is Carmen, the Scottish girl Bridgett became best friends with. I actually saw a picture in my ninth grade French textbook of a girl with short, curly dark hair, a plaid skirt, a red shirt, and a scarf and decided she was the perfect image for the character I was creating at that time.
Last year I finished my second book, called Whatever Happened? It is part of a series of four books that are my latest creation. I think I might have actually written the whole thing in a year, because the plot was relatively simple. The story is about a girl named Clara who is based on myself. Clara experiences cliques in middle school, quite like my character Emily in Me In The Middle. Her parents agree to let her go live in Seaglass Valley, a town near the ocean, with her cousin Isabelle and her Aunt Charlotte. Clara instantly becomes good friends with all of Isabelle’s friends. Like I am with the characters of Iris, I feel that I am friends with each of the characters. It is a very weird feeling for one to experience, knowing that he or she created the people. I’m writing several books, each one focusing on a different character and with a different season. I am currently working on the winter story, Whatever Changed?, about Isabelle. Sometimes when I get stuck it is hard for me to keep in mind that I should probably finish Isabelle’s story before I move onto Lily’s or Jessie’s, the other two girls in the series. From this I learned that I am definitely someone who likes starting out fresh with a new story because I feel the power of making absolutely anything at all happen.
I definitely enjoy creative writing more than any other type of writing. I love working on my stories most of all, though I also love both songwriting and poetry. But I have fun writing stories because of the aspect of creating new characters. I hardly ever have a problem coming up with names or personalities because there are so many personal experiences involving people that I was to put into my writing. I also love creating new scenarios. I often have so many new ideas for a chapter come at me all at once that I have to simply outline every main idea before I can begin. I don’t want to forget everything! Thinking of new scenarios is somewhat easy for me, and if I ever do get stuck, I just think about it for a few days. Then I sit down again and can write another chapter or two. It seems like it should be harder for me to write something I like, but for some reason it isn’t. I usually manage to write something I at least consider decent, and then I edit it. Of course, in the future I will have to edit it even more.
I never think of writing my stories as work, and sometimes can’t understand why people do not enjoy creative writing. It allows you to escape from the real world, if only for a few minutes. You can also express yourself and get everything you’ve been going through out onto the page. The empty page is sometimes my best friend because it will soak up everything I pour out from my heart.
I wouldn’t ever be able to consider myself simply a writer, because I have such a wide range of interests, and could never pinpoint only one and stick with it for the rest of my life. It’s not that I don’t love writing, it’s just that I’ve never been extraordinary at it, only ever called something like ‘very good’ or even ‘great’ but never outstanding. No one’s really ever referred to me as a writer, so maybe that’s why I have trouble as totally seeing myself as one. Perhaps I also feel that a writer is supposed to act or look or speak a certain way and have an artist’s temperament. Since I don’t believe that I fit the physical criteria for a writer, I almost feel like I am not really one. I can’t help that but I can and I still write nonetheless because I enjoy it, love letting off steam with it, and can share my thoughts to the world through a few scratches on paper.
I’m definitely thinking ahead, but even though I’m not simply a ‘writer’, I would still love to become a published author. I know it will take a lot of effort, drafts, and thinking. But I wouldn’t do it for the fame or fortune. I would want my dream to be completed because I would then know that other people could experience the joy that I had spending time with Clara, Isabelle, Lily, and Jessie.