Hallmark Reflection

When I was eight or nine years old, I decided I wanted to be a writer. By this age, I had already gone through the phases of wanting to be an artist, a cook, an astronaut and was extremely satisfied with my new choice of profession. After all, I loved to read so why not write? Reading was my true love: during second grade, I conquered all of Harry Potter over the course of two months. My mom’s rule was that I had to read the book before watching the movie, so I read and read. I would compete in, and win, all the school reading competitions as well as the summer library competitions. Writing, I decided, was the next natural step.

When I was younger, the amount of obligations upon me fewer and less likely to affect life in the long term, it was far easier to pursue my passion for fiction. School consumed less time, and the classes were introductions to various principles rather than in depth study. The books contained within the library of my elementary school weren’t great works of literature either. They were simple stories, with simple characters and events, but I loved them anyways. These simple things made sense, a comfort blanket that I simply had to reach into a basket on a shelf to find. When library time rolled around every week, I always managed to find three or four new ones to take home, and then read them all within a day or two. I had never been a particularly athletic child; I had the time and the will to devour as many stories as I possibly could.

At an age of seventy, Lilian Jackson Braun pursued writing and evolved as an exceptional novelist. Lilian Braun was born in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts; she was the eldest out of her three siblings. In the late 1920s, Lilian and her family moved to Detroit, where Lilian grew up. At an age of three, Lilian was taught to write. This spiked her interest and she continued to write. As a consequence, Lilian was selling her poems about baseball at age fifth- teen. Braun’s family encouraged Lilian to be imaginative and to think for herself. From the encouragement of her family, Lilian had an interest for writing and storytelling. She was especially interested in Sherlock Holmes mysteries. In other words, Lilian enjoyed reading and writing fiction stories. Overall, Lilian’s family was an important role in guiding her to pursue writing.

It may be cliché, but books have always held a spot close to my heart. When I was three I had a book called Bitsy Witch that went wherever I did. When I was seven, my mom read a chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone every night. In middle school, I worked my way through the entire children’s section at my local library. In high school, I took every English class offered, and when I entered college I to compromise with my family that I would also pursue a pre-professional program. My time outside of class was spent on my pre-professional degree until, my senior year in college. I took two classes that focused on children’s and young adult texts. Before those classes, I hadn’t realized that specializing in Children’s literature was

In the beginning, the librarians acted as the mentors to my hero. They scanned Easy Children’s Fiction, introducing me to new friends, new stories, new universes. I braved first grade with Junie B. Jones, memorized Silverstein poems, and climbed tree houses with Jack and Annie. The months went by, the years went by, and eventually,

J.K. Rowling once said, “Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power to that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared” (“J. K. Rowling Quotes."). I want to be a writer. A writer is a person who is a fountain of imagination and innovation. A writer is a creator of worlds, a spinner of new realities and master of creativity. When I was younger, I would often spend hours sitting up in trees, my feet dangling and swinging lightly to an unknown rhythm; I would listen as the outside world seemingly stood still. My younger sister would always be a few branches away, and she would plead for stories. I spun worlds of monsters and heroes, worlds full of love and magic and insanity. I would become immersed in my stories as my listeners, and started jotting down concepts that would come to me during a dull day. Once, I had a journal full of oddball ideas and intrepid adventures. I adore my gift, and it’s inspired me to become a professional writer so I can give my ideas a new life, and become real.

Hi, I'm Rachel. I've been writing since I was seven years old, and mainly focus on short stories on numerous topics. The reason why I've joined this class was to sharpen, and home my current writing skills, and to be able to grasp a more intuitive inspiration for my ideas.

Writing lets me tell people things without directly telling them, it’s a whole new way of communication. Stories with great meaning, with great suspense and dramatic moments, that’s the kind of books I will write, the kind I hope people will enjoy and connect to. This paper will explain my plans for the future, and what I need to focus on in order to become a successful author.

There was a point in my life where the thought of having to read something sent me into a panic and there was nothing I despised more. I was six and could only utter a few things in English, my first tongue being Portuguese; my peers would tell me I spoke “funny” and I soon resented anything to do reading or writing, especially out loud. Tired of being teased, I pushed myself to learn the language and to go beyond what a six year old was expected to know. From that moment on, I rekindled my love for literature and dominated the rest of my class in the subject, earning various trophies. Thus, the courses, Fiction Workshop: Writing Short Stories and Heroes, Lovers, Villains, Fools: Archetypes and Modern Culture, appeal to me the most because I feel that they provide me with the best opportunity to further develop my skills as a writer.

From an early age, I was gifted with a strong imagination. A daydreamer by nature, I ‘played pretend’ industriously throughout my childhood. I wrote my first story when I was eight years old, or perhaps a little older. The quality was, of course, horrendous: flat plots and flatter characters reigned tyrant over my writing and my prose was purple in the extreme. Luckily, I was unaware of this at the time and continued to write voraciously. No great improvement was made until I was in the fifth grade and even then the plot of my six-page story was a plagiarism of Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle. Sixth grade saw me retire from writing: the transfer to middle school and a worsening problem with bullies had sapped me of my motivation. This period did not last long. I was back in business by the next year and,

Susie always dreamed of becoming a successful write. She endeavored to achieve the point in her career where she is now. Susie is full of proud; she published her 5th

A few times a week, my brother and I would go to the library to be read stories and to check out books to hold us over until our next visit. I cannot tell you all the books I read or stories I listened to. I more clearly remember the Potions class taught by Professor Dumbledore, of Harry Potter Series fame, than the words I read. But I remember I felt walking through the Library doors. Those days are the reason I have piles of books across my room, and more hiding in storage. Those days are the reason I find escape in page numbers, and for that, I’m forever grateful.

One of my earliest memories as a child was of my father’s imposing dark-oak bookcase, stocked full of tomes far bigger than my young mind could comprehend. The case loomed over the living room of my childhood home, so many more of my memories have that tower of knowledge and dust as an intimidating backdrop. However, the bookcase always felt much safer when my father was around. With him, it turned into a place of exploration, with me asking my father what “this and that book are,” “what are they about,” “are they good.” So from a young age I built a connection between literature and my father. He was the one I went to time and time again as my reading skills developed, impatiently blurting out to him what happens in my short picture books

Because I closely follow Hallmark actors, writers, producers, directors, etc., I do my best to apprise myself of the "new kids in town." When I disocoverd that Ella Fairlie wrote the book upon which The Christmas List was based, I knew I had to contact her at once for an interview. Previously, I was not even aware of her existence, but Ella had been observing my interviews, and she agreed immediately to answer a few questions about how she got started as a writer and the "fairytale" story of her first book becoming an instant Hallmark classic. (Yes, that is my opinion, but the feedback from this film is that this was the funniest of the "Countdown to Christmas" movies so far in 2016. And who couldn 't love Alica Witt and Gabriel Hogan?)

Though it’s true we grew up in communities that had different views on education towards reading and writing, there were still a connection through it all. As we discussed our personal narratives, we discovered we all had an interest in stories and storytelling. There were many similarities and differences among our ideas. Once such similarity was that we all used reading and writing to expand our own capabilities. We also realized that reading has an impact on how we tell our stories. We are able to create a vivid image that is influenced by imagination that is drawn upon by reading books.