The
year? 2014. The place? North Kitsap High School. The subject? My future. We all have a point in your
lives in which we discover that we either like or dislike something. Whether
that be a fruit, activity, TV show, types of books or anything really, we’ve
all been there. This was a critical point in my life which would decide whether
or not I would still continue to enjoy writing, or English classes as it were, at
all anymore.
To
this point in my life writing and English in general didn’t catch my interest
too much. It has always been about writing literary essays and analyses which
wasn’t enjoyable to me at all. I found it a bore, having to sit there and read
the text again and again until your eyes strained to even focus on the words.
It was the only thing that I could remember doing in my English classes all of
high school and middle school. However this day was different, today was the
day I discovered the type of writing that kept my interest in English.
The
class received a new writing assignment. You could hear the shuffling of the
stack of papers being moved around the room and the students shifting in their
seats anxiously waiting to see what they has to do next. Sighs could be heard
circling the room as each student got the assignment and read it. Admittedly, I
was one of them. As soon I heard the other students sighing I did too. However
halfway through my sigh I actually finished reading the assignment and realized
I was excited about it.
The
topic was to write a story of a character who is taken from the 1980’s and
transported into our current day and age. How one got this character to the
future was up to the students. I didn’t want to use the overworked stories of
aliens and teleportation machines. Let’s face it, there’s enough of those out
there. As the teacher explained to the
class what was expected my mind was off brainstorming my new story that the
teacher would hopefully thoroughly enjoy.
Once
the teacher told us to get to work I immediately began to scramble to write
down all my thoughts, almost faster than I knew I could write. My mind raced
with potential and excitement. I had a spider web of ideas by the time the bell
rang, ranging from possible character names to potentially half of the plot.
Thankfully I was able to get away from the girl who had an overwhelming amount
of perfume on next to me, which at times make me lose concentration. I
gleefully went about the rest of my day excited for what my imagination had in
store for me later on that night.
By
the time I arrived home I had a mountain of homework on my plate. Whereas I
should’ve had all my concentration on the current homework I was trying to
complete. My mind had it out to be thinking about that story I wanted to write.
Once
I finished all my other homework I began what I really wanted to do. I poured
myself a nice cold glass of root beer, which was oh so delectable, grabbed my
sheet of ideas and finally began the one writing assignment that had caught my
attention in many years. I began typing down the main character. His name was
Roderick Ledford. A respectable man, in his 30’s, cleanly shaven, well dressed,
mannered, except when angered, and dedicated to his job as a photographer for a
magazine company. I then began to ponder where Roderick lived and worked. I
initially figured I would end up using some small city but in the end he worked
and lived in New York City. I kept writing and writing and by the end of the
day I had a good block of text that included a majority of my thoughts and so I
decided to call it a night. I ate my dinner of pork chops and mashed potatoes,
watched two episodes of House M.D. and went to bed.
The
next school day I went about it as usual. For a majority of the day I wasn’t
bothered by the thought of my story too much since I had down what I wanted for
the most part. However there was one thing I needed to figure out about my
story which is a crucial piece. I needed to figure out how Roderick was to get
from the past to the current day. All of the day and night before and even into
the current day I wasn’t able to figure out a feasible way to have him transported
besides the exhausted ways aforementioned.
Then
it hit me. It hit me like a truck, funnily enough that’s how he was to be
transported from the past to the present. He was to be sent on a job to get
pictures for a new magazine edition and had to travel cross country. On his
journey he had to refill for gas and he goes into the gas station to pay for
his gas but the power goes out the doors lock and he passes out only to wake
years later with his truck all rusted and decrepit. I went home and quickly added
it to the story and it began to blossom from there.
Over
the next week I constantly developed, bettered and added to my story. In total
the creative story ended up being over five thousand words in length and had an
interesting plot. I know this because I had many people read it for me a give
me feedback and it was all positive.
This
narrative doesn’t end here though. The next week I printed out two copies of my
paper and walked to class with a skip in my step and excitement in my heart. In
my hands I had the one piece of writing that I couldn’t stop thinking about and
constantly improving over the last week. It was the first piece of writing I
was very proud of in my entire middle school and high school career. I walked
into class placed my masterpiece down on top of the others and then sat.
Later
in the class my English teacher called me to her desk.
“Chris…this
story was supposed to be around 500 words” she said.
“Yes,
I know, but this was the first piece of writing that spoke to me and I didn’t
want to stop writing” I replied with a grin on my face.
“Okay,
well… can you make me a shorter edition so I can still grade it? If I find it
interesting enough I’ll read the full version and if I deem it worthy I might
add some extra credit to it.”
“Yes
I can do that.”
“You’re
one of my star students and you’ve improved leaps and bounds since the start of
the year and if anything you deserve it.”
“Thank
you very much, I appreciate that.”
I
went home and created a shorter version but tried to not sacrifice any plot
development or detail. I brought it in the next day, presented it and received
a perfect score and later extra credit for my good work. I managed to find the
type of writing that was interesting to me. I now knew that I could have fun
with writing and that it all wasn’t a bore after all. It ultimately led to my
success for the rest of my English classes and has given me a new lease on
writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment