Personal narrative: Transformation story

I was going into the 7th grade. I was alone in my room when I thought I should write a book. I had never accomplished such a task and I thought it would be easy. I was not as dutifully committed to writing as I originally thought I was. I thought I was prepared to be a writer when in actuality, I wasn’t even remotely close. Then I told myself I was going to write a book. So I told my mom and she suggested I homeschool. She got me into a writing club that was on Wednesdays for about two hours. It really brought my creativity out. Meanwhile my mom got a how to write a novel book step by step book for me. It suggested exercises like why I wanted to write a book, my experience as a writer, and challenges to figure out what I most wanted to write about. By this point I had a good idea about what I wanted to write about. I was engrossed in the Arthurian legends and I wanted to make a remake trilogy of the legend with my own little twists. At first I tried to stick with the legends, which I was not very adequate on. But that wasn’t me and I wanted to make Merlin young and had all these ideas to make it better. I didn’t know it then but I completely went my route, like it had the original stories but most were modernized. My mom thought this was a wonderful idea, considering she has always helped me fulfill my dreams. She told she couldn’t do it for me and that only I could do that but she would be my stepping-stones, helping me along the way. I felt very ready to finally get myself out there and try it. I mean like if starting it was easy then wouldn’t the entire book be? Nope. I was dead wrong.

First, I really got to know my character. I had challenges like getting to know the character, but I didn’t want to; I just wanted to delve into the story, but I’m so glad I took the time to get to know my character. It literally saved me later. I “interviewed” my character and really got to know him and when I didn’t know the answer it would usually pop into my dreams. Most ideas that I have for writing come from my dreams. Then I was finally about to start writing. I felt better after I could finally write my scenes that I had in my head for so long. I mean there was a challenge to write three, free writes on how to start and a few scenes to try, but I was finally ready to put it all down on my notebook paper.

I had a hard time. I got frustrated all the time. Sometimes I felt like my story was worthless. That I wasn’t going to make it. Like my story wasn’t good enough as the books I read. This reflected a lot in the first draft of my book. I got stuck a lot. I was very emotional feeling the story as I was writing it because most was my experiences and how I felt. I got depressed every time I got writers block and once I was stuck for six months I didn’t want to write. I wanted to quit; it was too hard. I was beginning to dislike writing greatly. But it was only my thinking I hated and where the story was going. I loved moving my hand across the paper and see page after page making my story come to life. Then my mom gave me a push and showed me an article in which other writers like me went through this struggle. This empowered me to go on, to finish the book. Sometimes I didn’t want to write but everyday I conditioned myself to at least five pages a day and had my mom check my progress. I don’t know what I would have done without my mom there for emotional support.

I powered on and finished the book. It took me over a year, but I had finally done it! A book! I had finally finished writing a book, my very first. I was excited. This changed me greatly. Writing a book made me stronger emotionally as a person. I am able to think logically and critically. I know what writing really means to me. This experience taught me not only to be quick on my feet and that I wasn’t alone. It also taught me to never give up, and see what rewards I got. If you never give up you will persevere and be the person you were meant to be.