Blog Guest: Baby Girl Writer
I came home last night from Oldest Son's band concert and Baby Girl had written THREE chapters of a book called Runaway Orphans. It has action. It has mystery. It has details. It has pathos. It has a villain. It has a great, spunky heroine. And my first thought was . . . MY KID IS DOOMED, and I'll tell you why. But first . . . some exceprts.
Chapter 1
The Orphanage
I sat on the orphanage front steps wondering where my parents could be and why I was in this terrible place I call home.
And really, no child should be in an orphange. So our young heroine decides to run away and search for her parents. But first, she must go the evil Head Mistress's office to find her own case file. That's in chapter 2, which begins . . .
Chapter 2
The Head Mistress’ Office
I sneaked down the hallway and slipped into the office. The door read “Head Mistress.” On my tiptoes I walked to her gray, scratched filing cabinet holding my breath.
Well . . . then our young heroine decides to bring her best friend. We also learn they don't feed them too well at the orphanage. Here's an excerpt from chapter 3.
“What’s for lunch?” Bethany asked.
“What’s always for lunch?!”
“Aw! Why do we have to have mashed beans with spinach for every meal?”
“That’s because we live in a rat hole.”
“It’s not that bad, it just needs some minor adjustments,” said Bethany.
“Minor adjustments! I found moth holes in my blanket!”
“Ew . . . and why did you need me anyway?”
I wanted to tell her my plan, but evil witch Head Mistress came by us. She stared at our faces, probably wondering why a beautiful girl like Bethany would be hanging around a freckle-face freak like me.
“Hm. You girls seem very…”
Don’t say it! Don’t say it! I chanted in my head.
“Different.”
All right . . . now here's why she is doomed. After I had read the entire book so far, Baby Girl looked at me and said, "I've been wanting to write this for so long. I had this first line in my head for a really long time and I just needed to get it out."
Doomed, I tell you.
So my question today . . . as Baby Girl pops in and out . . . is does this sound like all of you? That you have these stories BURSTING to get out? Is that how you knew this was what you were meant to do? It's a writer thing, isn't it?
Discuss.
36 comments:
First, that's terrific.
And yes, she's doomed. She sounds just like me. And like my son. Ian is now aiming at being a high school band director, but... he writes almost every day. So I'm guessing that writing thing's going to express itself somehow.
Doomed, doomed, doomed, I tell ya.
Or she'll become wildly successful and support her Mom and siblings in a way they can easily become accustomed to.
Mark:
I think I'm doomed! But Its good thing to be doomed. I'm just following my mothers footsteps!
Mark:
Is Ian the one who was working on a werewolf story (??). I remember you posting something on your blog he wrote . . . and I also distinctly remember it was very good.
E
Good job, Baby Girl!
Just steer clear of that mean old Mr. Parrish and you'll do just fine.
I think she has a fabulous role model in you, that's what I think. You have what she sees as a great thing -- family and work that you love. And to boot, she has stories in her head. Like her mama.
Doomed in only the very best way.
Wow, I love it, Baby Girl! You are totally doomed! When I was your age, I never wrote stories down, but I would imagine them until two in the morning, every single night. Those stories I made up in my childhood still fuel my stories today!
Good luck! You are already amazing!
PS: This is funny: I just scribbled something eerily similar. Well, not really at all, but it seems it. Just a girl wakes alone in a big, dark mansion (which she'll learn is sort of an awful sort of orphanage), with blood on her hands and no memories. I don't know what happens next, though. Yet. :-)
Plot twist...Did you know they used to have Orphan Trains? Depending on the time frame of your story the Orphan Trains began about 1850 and ran until 1929. The children were shipped out west and adopted out. Some were loved and some were made indentured servants.
I'm actually reading "We rode the Orphan Trains," at the moment which is why I know about them. Research for my own story that has nothing whatsoever to do with orphans. I just need that all important bogey man threat.
Opps and race makes a difference. Jewish and black children were not shipped out West. They were kept in institutions.
Jude:
LOL!!!!
E
The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree! Fifty years ago I used to write stories like that, but they weren't as good.
My prayer for her: May she be as blessed in her writing as a lot of us have been.
I always leave my comments before I read the comments so I am commenting on what you wrote. Now a comment on the comments--
One time I had a couple in my congregation who came to St. Louis on an orphan train. They were very old and disabled by that time, and it was obvious their lives had become distorted by the experience.
There is an excellent play about the orphan trains. A local high school here did it a while back. The orphan trains are like a lot of things--the old mental hospitals, the fight for women's suffrage, etc. They should never be forgotten. A quick Google can tell you a lot about the orphan trains.
Yes, Ian was writing iWolf.
BG--that's okay. There are worse things in life than to want to be a writer.
Way to go Baby Girl!
Erica, I like Amy's take on it - she's doomed in a good way. :) I used to write stories when I was younger but for the life of me, I can't remember how I got my ideas. I wrote a lot of teen romance *blush* so I'm sure I was just twisting whatever was going on in my life. I never came up with ideas like this!
That's TERRIFIC! Kudos to baby girl!
And yup, that's how my debut novel was born, with a single line in my head that lead to another, and then another . . .
She's a writer all right!
A couple of months ago I caught my twelve-year-old daughter not doing her homework, as she should have been. Instead she was online. I thought, oh shit, here we go. I demanded to know what life-sucking site was keeping her from her responsibilities.
It was a creative writing site. She had joined a group of kids her age who were collaborating on a fantasy novel.
I needed a moment to recover. Finally I said, "Fit the homework in your schedule somehow." Then I left the room.
Oh, nothing like being doomed in the most wonderful way possable.
Best of wishes Baby Girl. :)
Yes, sometimes a line or a scene will simply drive me nuts, pounding at the back of my brain like an enraged parasite until I absolutly have to write something down...reguardless if it has to do with the book I'm working on now. But it sure is a lovely feeling when you have about ten casts of characters always chattering away in your head, you're never lonely that's for sure.
Wow. Baby girl is good. Great dialogue. And the writing is nice and tight.
And yes, poor dear is doomed. But she has this wonderful mommy as a shining example of how to make it work - mostly. And she can tweak what mommy does and make it work better. Yes? One hopes anyway.
Did you see the 9 yr old boy who wrote the book about how to talk to girls? And did you see that it was optioned as a movie?
Go, Baby Girl, Go!
Worth by Alexandria LaFaye - historical fiction about the orphan trains. First I'd ever heard of them.
Yay, Baby Girl!!! That's awesome! And don't tell her she's doomed. Not one of us would give up our writing, even when it's hard and doesn't pay a dime.
She's blessed. She's already found a talent she loves - and by the portions you've posted, her future readers will be thrilled as well.
Great job, Baby Girl!
You may be doomed, but at least you are doomed in a household that welcomes creativity and will never be told to 'grow up and go to teachers college' =)
Nice job, B.G. I love orphan stories. And if doomed is equivalent to following your dreams, then let the doom have its way with you.
Great opening line. Amazing hook right in that first sentence.
Yikes! She's a writer. Things go round and round in my head. If I don't get them down on paper (or puter) I go a little stir crazy. Doomed.
Thank you all for the generous comments! Sorry I couldn't answer to everyone I had school. I told my mother to write comments but she forgot!So thanks again!
Hi Gang:
I know it's not doomed. Blessed, maybe. But also, to me, there's a sense of . . . it's inevitable. It's fate, it's . . . my favorite saying when I go and speak to kids.
BEING A WRITER ISN'T SOMETHIHNG YOU BECOME. IT'S SOMETHING YOU ARE.
E
B.G., you rock! I love the description of the "gray, scratched filing cabinet". I also agree that your dialogue is wonderful. I think you'll be a fabulous writer!
Welcome to the doomed ones, baby girl!
My dad writes, and it's very cool to have a parent that writes too. It's like someone in your immediate family who really "gets" it.
Robin:
Thank you! I didnt know what to put for that part so I just wrote scrathed because it was an old filing cabinet.
Zoe:
I too think its cool to have a parent who writes. I know its wierd but you catch their cold of creativity. Its in my genes I guess!
Oh, yeah, Baby Girl, we mean doomed kind of like how I'm a chocoholic, and I am therefore doomed to eat chocolate every day.
It is such a hardship, let me tell you. ;-)
PS: I liked the minor adjustments bit best. I totally cracked up out loud at the moth holes in the blanket line!
spy:
Thats my favorite line too. It actually happened to my friend at camp. She loves camp and one year she found moth holes in her blanket. So I thought of her and decided to put it in the book. Oh and I'm starting my 4th chapter just to let you know. Its about the plan on how to get out. They have to steal train tickets from the head Mistress and steal a car from her assistant.
Baby Girl, that's amazing! Love your plan to get them out of the orphanage. Being doomed can be fun!
OK . . . Gang . . .
I had no idea until she posted her comment that the moth holes she retained from a friend's experience in camp. THAT is so much a writer, I can't believe it.
E
Stephen:
I love your response to your daughter. That's how I am.
E
Baby Girl, great stuff! And may those story ideas always keep bursting to get out!
My grandson is penning a story now, and I tell ya it makes me smile!
LaDonna:
I am so happy your grandson is writing a story too. My mother is an ispiration to me.
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