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Mason Stacey
26 August 2024
English Composition 1301
Professor Rebecca Aidala
A Writer’s Building Blocks
I’ve been invested in writing from a very young age. By three years old, my mom had
taught me to read, and by the time I got to kindergarten, I was able to sight read most
basic words. In second grade, I competed in the Creative Writing event for UIL, and I
continued in the event until I grew too old to compete. I kept writing, however, sitting in
the loft of our shed at home with a notebook and a pencil, drafting many pieces that
never came to fruition. I had many composition books left over from school that I used
to house my hours of work. I never finished a book, however, until the fifth grade.
Black Jack and Orange George was an idea born out of the Creative Writing
competitions of my early elementary days. Jack was a juvenile gemstone hunter who
lived inside of Mount Rushmore with his best friend, George. The book that I wrote in
fifth grade was the tale of Jack and George visiting Pearl Harbor in search of a
gemstone called the Green Diamond. Looking back now, the book was honestly
extremely stupid and very poorly written, but it was still the first one I finished.
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I didn’t write much over the next few years. What I did write was mostly essays,
which I hated and still hate with a burning passion. I have never enjoyed writing
informatively, but that was about all I had the opportunity to do. It didn’t help that the
books we had to write about were mostly boring and much worse, or at least less
enjoyable, than the books that I’ve always liked to read. In eighth grade, I started
reading things like The Lord of the Rings, which I quickly found to be much better than
the Harry Potter books I had enjoyed so much in years before, and my friend Damien
introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons. I think that was what really fired up my love
for writing again. I became addicted to drawing maps and creating new worlds, as well
as building characters. Of course, when I learned that our school offered a creative
writing class, I instantly signed up.
Freshman year was a great year for writing. I started creating a map, and the rest
came from there. Damien was also in the class. He and I worked day and night on our
stories and shared them with each other, building our worlds and helping each other
with ideas. My teacher for that class, Mrs. Anderson, was very helpful in developing my
ideas. By the end of the year, I had gotten a good start on my book, the same one I’m
still working on today. But all good things come to an end.
I returned for sophomore year excited to go back to creative writing class. I pulled
my schedule off of my locker and looked at my classes. Creative writing wasn’t there. I
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soon learned that there hadn’t been enough interest in the course to continue with it, so
it had been terminated. I was distraught. Creative writing had been my favorite class,
and now I no longer had access to it, or so I thought. That was when my friend Jake
came to me with an idea.
He suggested that we talk to Mrs. Anderson about getting a creative writing club
going, and of course I was enthusiastic. When I brought the idea to Mrs. Anderson, she
had the same reaction. Unfortunately, we had less and less meetings as the year went
on due to scheduling conflicts, but there have always been a select few of us that have
been committed to the group. Damien was sadly not interested in the club, but he’s still
working on his book as well.
The club is still going, albeit more slowly. It’s been a little while since we’ve had a
meeting. We got off to a rocky start, and we’ve had some loss of interest over the past
year, but I’m excited for the future and believe that this club has positively impacted my
writing abilities, as have all of the things I’ve participated in for the betterment of my
writing.
