A few years back, I participated at an event with Justine Larbalestier, Cassie Clare, Scott Westerfeld, David Levithan, Alaya Dawn Johnson, and Libba Bray where we all shared some of our most laugh-worthy juvenilia. Today, I have the pleasure (::snerk::) of sharing some more:
(click to embiggen)
Though the piece is not dated, I have good reason to believe I wrote it in fourth grade. I don’t know if I finished it, though I have a vague recollection that it was about the synchronized skating exploits of a group of quadruplets. At the time, I’m pretty sure “Holly” is supposed to be the hero of the piece, though now, looking back at it, I think “Mary” draws a better heart and “Patty” is totally the one I want to go out drinking with. (She thinks outside the box!) Whereas “Holly” seems a bit like a joyless conformist to me.
And no, it has not escaped me that I included a “spelling contest” in a story where I can’t even spell my own name correctly. But hey, clearly I’d just learned how to use the tab function on my mother’s typewriter.
Yes, I said typewriter. I can’t remember the last time I even SAW a typewriter.
Sadly, the rest of the story is long ago lost in the mists of time. However, looking at this now is very curious. I guess I was always drawn to unusual textual elements like drawings and lists. I’ve recently been made aware that some readers don’t like this sort of thing in their book — they want straight ahead, untricky narrative, not to be interrupted with lists, letters, text messages, footnotes, drawings, or other items that remind them they are reading.
To each their own, I suppose. Me, I love that stuff, which is why I’ve put it in 62% of my novels.
But no more drawings, because I cannot draw to save my life, as evinced by Holly’s supposedly “superior” efforts show.
I’ve gotten better at writing in the last 22 years. I have not, however, gotten better at drawing.
June 20th, 2011 at 9:36 am
I wish I still had my notes/writing/drawings from kid-dom… but alas everything was lost in the big move of ‘99.
I use to love the old typewriters! Especially with the white-out strips =D *memories*
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June 20th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
How awesome.
And I really want to go drinking with Patty. She spells yellow the same way I do. 
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