This week at the carnival we are all posting our writing from high school. And I have to admit, it was fun reading over some of the things I somehow saved all these years. The truth is I wasn’t a big writer. I wasn’t even a big reader. I kept diaries but always stopped after a few pages because I always wrote the same thing, day after day. What really surprised me in reading over the few writings I have from high school is the fact that I wrote a little Sci-Fi. I guess it should be no surprise because it was the same year that Ray Bradbury rocked my world with The Martian Chronicles. And, since I’m working on the edits of a Sci-Fi novel I’m releasing early next year, it is extra fun to find this little story. This was written way back in 1978 when I was 15. What was big in 1978? A little movie called Star Wars. Yes, there is a rebel base in my story:) What’s really funny is that I had to asterisk the sentences that I knew were fragments. Is there a bigger sin than a fragment in high school English? Oddly, my NaNoWriMo novel has an evil English teacher as one of the characters and I’m enjoying him immensely:) I have peppered the essay with exclamation marks and also wrote in the second person which is another no-no. I was such a rebel:)
Dreams Come True by Laura
“Hurry kids, you’ll be late for the interplanetary shuttle!”
Those kids! They’ll miss the shuttle and then they’ll have to go on the air tube missle run to Alpha! And you know that “those” people ride it!
“‘What’ you say? You don’t know what “those” people are? I bet you’re an Equarian, huh? We must have gotten caught on the same air wave in the Atmospheric Continuum.
“Where do I live?”
I live on the Lunic Trimodule planet of Dorian. Named after the woman who founded it. It has all the required life-support equipment….
There’s much more, but I’ll spare you! I’ll skip to the end:
Who am I? I am 4972 of the Moon Base Luna. I have black hair and come complete with the full compliment of computer packs. While on the  Moon Base, we could make any changes in our physical and mental being as we required to fulfill our job sufficiently at our stations. Since my station is Dorian mostly made up of water, I made the change from feet to flippers, and I have a built -in carbon dioxide module that lets me stay underwater longer….
you get the idea. And here is how it ends:
“Harry, Harry! Get up, you’ll miss the bus.”
“Mom, I just had the wildest dream…”
Or, was it?
Yes, the male POV surprised me only because my new story TRANSFER STUDENT is written in alternating POVS between Ashley and Rhoe, a boy-geek alien from the planet Retha. Maybe Harry has been sitting in my head for a while and is really Rhoe in disguise?
Now check out the other carnis’ high school blast from the past:
Oh, back in high school… >.<
No, I am in high school. Every single thing I've written in the past three years counts. So, all of my books, a ton of poetry, some journalism articles, and school essays.
P.S: I've finally started Winnemucca and I'm really enjoying it. c:
McKenzie! Keep it all:) It’s PURE GOLD. And, when your famous you can release it as an anthology of all your early works! How I wish I had saved more stuff, even though…as you can see, a lot of my writing was probably not worth saving. But it is good for few laughs:)
So glad you are enjoying Winnemucca. Thanks for giving it a read 🙂
Live long, and prosper! hee-hee L
Well, you can’t go wrong with influences like Bradbury and Star Wars! I love your 2nd person, exclamation-ridden blast from the past. What was the overall synopsis of your story then?
Glad you’re enjoying NaNo!
Dani, Thanks for swinging by today. I don’t really remember my whole Sci-Fi period, but it was in the air back then. What high school kid in the late 70s didn’t write some Sci-Fi? Hee-hee. As you can see, Ray and George have NOTHING to worry about 🙂 Overall synopsis: apocalyptic Earth has been destroyed by our over-consumerism and humans had to flee the planet and colonize space surviving where they can, how they can. Earth has become a rebel base for those who didn’t want to flee and the inhabitants have mutated into dangerous beings–“those” people. Thanks for asking! Isn’t this fun? *waves*
Oh Star Wars. I Posit that Star Wars could not have come to be with out there first being Star Trek. Can’t wait to hear about this evil english teacher 🙂 Back to NaNo.
Heather, I’m so excited you are doing NaNo!!! It’s a lot of fun, but so super hard sometimes. Yesterday was a tough day. I had a hard time coming up with anything new, so I went back and edited what I wrote before—big NO NO in NaNo world 🙂 How’s it going for you? Yes. Gene Roddenberry was a total trail blazer and George took the myth to a whole new level. I learned so much about story from Ray Bradbury. Here’s the making that evil English teacher even more evil than he was yesterday!!! Good luck on NaNoWriMo:) Here’s today’s advice from Chris Baty: “Borrow mercilessly” Pick up a novel you love and copy it’s style if you get stumped today.
Ha! Great tip. i don’t remember where I heard this one but it’s a fav “Good artists borrow but great artists steal” *yoink*
🙂 Right? I mean it’s an interesting exercise and can really help get to the core of voice. Imitating is bad, but getting the flavor for how an artist uses words to make an impact on a reader is fascinating. I swear I could do nothing else as a writer but study other authors! Of course, I wouldn’t get much written huh?
Pingback: YA Indie Carnival – ON THE RISE: The popularity of YA Fantasy « TG Ayer's Blog