By now I’m in my sophomore year of high school and decided not to run cross country that year – I just didn’t feel like running, so I didn’t. Well suddenly my life freed up a little to the point it needed some kind of filling. I began writing more and discovered Teen Ink (written by teens) which reminded me to strive for meaningful writing.

My junior year saw me serving at the local public library. That proved beneficial for three reasons. First, books became more present in my life. Second, I began to realize I could fall in love with literature without feeling shame or embarrassment about it And third, one day a librarian in charge of the teen services announced a writing camp put on by the National Book Foundation (which sadly no longer exists). For just a few minutes I wished I could have gone to the writing camp but knew I couldn’t – it’d cost money. Then I found out that camp was free as long as they accepted my application.

Well, I just had to attend, so I filled out the application with the hope (but low expectation) that I’d actually get accepted. But they did accept my application, and I began receiving letters and books to help me prepare for camp.

Summer couldn’t arrive soon enough. I’d begun some new stories as a result of the application process and I used the upcoming camp as reason to write. I discovered by pure accident that I love to write comedy in my writing (even though that’s more for personal entertainment and not my “serious” writing). And after forever, camp arrived.

I learned some important lessons at writing camp, most of them dealing with my writing style and me as a writer. I realized I could write whenever I felt like it and not be ashamed (up to this point I had kept my writing pretty quiet and secretive, if you remember). More importantly, I learned that I write with a passive voice and lots of adverbs (notice my “more importantly”) – pretty much the death nail for an author if left unchanged. Man, I’m soooo glad Ann Angel pointed that out to me because it’s helped me transform my writing ever since. Not saying the writing has improved tons, just that it’s usually not passive anymore (can’t always say the same of the adverbs, but at least I’m aware of them now).

By the time my senior year of high school began, I felt confident in my writing. I knew I could write well and I knew my areas of weakness. Papers for school flowed like writing for fun, and I even took a creative writing class just because it would give me an excuse to write whatever I felt like writing. In general, the entire process of writing had become a fun task regardless of the writing’s purpose.

In the next portion of my history, I’ll talk about entering college, discovering NaNoWriMo and a two-year hiatus from writing. Until then, oh well!