Writers as Readers

When I read the two genres that interest the most are fantasy/adventure and young adult fiction. I think I’m drawn to fantasy and adventure books because they take you to this whole new world and you get to create it in your mind. It’s an escape from the real world to me. I love how the imaginations of people can run wild and how the words on the page are impossible in reality but in the book they are normal, they are sane, and they are an escape. I like young adult fiction because it’s very easy to find a book that is relatable in some way. Those books remind me that I am just a teenager and I need to calm down and remember I have my entire life ahead of me and to stop growing up too quickly. I like how they can be simple yet intriguing and how you develop a relationship with the characters, and you want to know what happens next.

One of my memories connected with reading would not be a great memory but, I learned a lot when I was reading It’s Kind of a Funny Story. A lot was going on in my life when I was reading it, and it was recommended to me by someone that is no longer a part of my life and how our friendship ended was similar to events in the book. It taught me a lot about how I was feeling and I remember reading it and thinking to myself that Craig from the book and I could be friends in real life because we have many similarities. I remember being taught by that book that everything is going to end up okay and that I need to breath, and I did, and everything was okay.

The first book I remember reading that had significance to me was Winnie has Wings. That book is relatively sad considering it’s about a young boy and how he and  his younger sister get hit by a truck and he survives but his sister does not. The story is hopeful and amazing. My fourth grade teacher read it to the class and I loved it. It was the first book that taught me that I liked to read. It taught me that there are new worlds in each book that is written. After we read it as a class, I took it home and read it again to myself and many times after that. That was the book that sparked my love for reading and I will never forget it.

When I am writing, I always imagine a teacher reading what I write to a class. I think that maybe I imagine that because I want to know the reactions of each student and the questions the teacher would ask them about what they have read. Sure, I’m making up all of the ways that the readers I made up think about my writing, but it helps me think.  

I would love to write a book, I have started a few books but they never end up finished. I love writing and would love to share it in a book but to that I would need more time and motivation, which I don’t have a lot of. I’m hoping that when I’m finished with school and live a little more and see the world for myself that I can find more time to write a book. It would either be fantasy/adventure or young adult fiction. I’d like to make readers fall in love with the story and characters and make their hearts race in suspense and make them laugh. I like those qualities in a book and want to write one like that.