Essay 1

Dear Class,

If you were to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, you would encounter quite a bit of silence. I might frown, stare blankly out in space, squint up at the ceiling, or quite possibly do all three in an attempt to drag a simple answer out of a complex web of dreams, memories, and distractions. After a while, I would mumble something about dual majoring in computers and business and hope you would go away or change the subject. The thing is that I’ve had dreams of becoming an author since the eighth grade. From then on I’ve been writing short stories and evolving my concept of plot, character design, and setting.

For my first story, my mother suggested that I write about our dog and how the squirrels outside drive her crazy. However, I had been reading So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane at the time and couldn’t help but add something more than ordinary to it. In the end, the story was about a girl who learned of magic from a squirrel in her backyard. I later added seven other children, each inspired by my brother and six cousins, and a hallowed out redwood tree in the forest near their grandmother’s house. I also played with the idea of giving them different powers and associating colors, stones, and symbols according to order of birth.

A year later, I wrote yet another story, but in screenplay format. This time it was about five year old twin boys with psychic powers. One could move light objects with his mind, while the other could see a short way into the future and past. In that particular scene they were playing a game of tag around a table while a mysterious metal orb watched them from the shadows. This, of course, would take place long after that first story and the boys are probably the decedents of one of the children.

A journal from my sophomore year contains a paragraph about a mother and her nightmares concerning her husband’s death. Of course this wasn’t “ordinary” either as it was set aboard a space ship. Also depicted was a concerned teenage daughter who it seems had been through a lot because of her father’s death and her mother’s despair. This was a part of an idea to change the locale of the eight children on a universal scale and have them spread out across it. Later I wrote a paragraph about a tyrannical emperor and his wife who later divorced him and ran off with one of her twin sons.

The last school-related story I wrote was about a little girl who stole an apple from the castle kitchens during an attempt to run away. Noticing that the cook had found out, she stopped and explained that she was taking it to someone, although now that I think about it she didn’t have the time to stop and if she did, she wouldn’t have stolen it so hastily. Anyway, this little story was originally set the 1650’s near the end of the Golden Age of Pirates. Thus, the concept was that the little girl, born to the rich Blake family, was running away to live the more adventurous life of a pirate.

It was not until I started writing this that I realized all these scattered chapters could be combined into one or more novels. I’d have to add chapters between the ones I’ve already written and revise it a little so that it would make sense, but I believe I am capable of doing such a task. I also created a prophetic poem and have a few written descriptions of some of my more vivid dreams, so I wonder if I could incorporate those as well. However, I doubt they will mesh well as they’re a bit more fanciful that what I planned on putting on paper. My problem was that I was spending so much time on the prewriting process that I couldn’t focus properly on actually writing the story. Because of that, however, I now have a good understanding of how I want my story to progress.

I believe that a good book is written by an author with many diverse experiences under his or her belt. You won’t get a good fight scene without knowledge of how to swing a sword and a rudimentary knowledge of the physics behind each swing. Even in a fantasy setting you need to know what rules you’re breaking so that you can break them consistently and logically. This is also pertains to history and mythology as many books are about a past, present, or future version of Earth. Even books not set on Earth are based off of an author’s perspective on our history.

To gain this knowledge I don’t need a language, history, or writing degree; it might help, but it’s unneeded. This is because I can study the history of a place or person, learn a new language, and refresh my understanding of various mythologies on the internet alone. Of course, some things are better learned by experience such as human movements, emotions, habits, and psychological pressures under various situations. Most of this can be done by watching people or changing your mindset to do as someone other than yourself would do.

At any rate, making a good book takes lots of effort, planning, and research that with my busy schedule might take years to complete. It will take more than one draft and countless revisions before I will be completely happy with it. Even when I feel I’m happy with it, I have to meet the standards of publishers, editors, and other proofreaders before I will allow it to go public. Even then it might not sell very well and would definitely be very hard to live off of. However, I write not for the money, but for the joy of writing and knowing that others enjoyed it as well. Hence the reason why I chose business and computers majors over a literary major.

Sincerely,

Heather Kushion