Tag: Fiction

On Writing Beginnings

window-flower-plant-notebook-diary-notepad-pen-reflection-light-dayAs a writer, a new year can mean finally writing that idea that has been swirling around in your head for a while or taking a closer look at the conventions you put into your pieces. Since January is the first month of the year, why not start working at the beginning on beginnings?

The beginning of a story or a poem needs to hook the reader- but not like the hooks taught in elementary school English class. How you start a piece conveys everything about where the piece will or can go. In my work, I strive to make my openings memorable, and looking at what other writers have started with can be the most helpful thing. In Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen the prologue opens with the image of three people standing under a greasy awning. This image sets the tone for the lifestyle and events that are to come for the main character. It is probably one of the most common ways I and other writers start but it’s a strikingly simple mix of images. But some stories call for a more drastic opening. Albert Camus opens his novel the Stranger with the simple sentence “Maman died today.” This immediately grabs the readers’ attention. Who doesn’t want to suck a reader in with only three words? Sometimes the beginning of a piece of writing makes you stop and process a new outlook. My favorite poet, Jack Gilbert, starts his poem Falling and Flying with the line “Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.” It makes you look at the age old story of Icarus in a new light and before shipping you off into his insightful poem.

With 2015 just beginning, why not stop and think about the beginning and maybe even put a more interesting spin to it.

-Chrissy Thelemann, Submissions Editor 

Ushering in 2015

While we have been taking a break from Blogging over the Holiday season, the Elan staff would like to share a few of our New Year’s Resolutions with everyone. A new year brings with it new opportunities, new goals, and new writing to create and explore. What are some resolutions that you’ve made?

My New Year’s Resolution this year is to win the Batten Award Scholarship and not pay a single cent for college!                                                                                                                            -Mariah Abshire, Editor-in-Chief

I don’t know if this is weird, but this is my very first New Year’s Resolution, which is fitting because 2015 will be a start of something completely new for me: college. In the year 2015, I want to 1) figure out my future, 2) hold off Senioritis for as long as I can, and 3) be ready for anything!                                                                                                                                             -Shamiya Anderson, Creative Non-fiction Editor

I want to maintain relationships with people from school after I graduate and continue to write poetry.                                                                                                                                             -Taylor Austell, Layout and Design Editor

I want to continue to write after I graduate, and I want to devote more time to studying (math especially)!                                                                                                                                    -Sarah Buckman, Editor-in-Chief 

I have never been the person that made New Year’s Resolutions but I have decided to try something new this year. In this upcoming year I have decided to be happy, find my Zen. I want to keep a positive outlook on life despite anything bad that may happen in this upcoming year.                                                                                                                                         -Anna Dominguez, Junior Poetry Editor

My New Year’s Resolution this year is to write some bomb fiction next semester and meet Blake Griffin!                                                                                                                                            -Madison George, Social Media Editor 

This coming year, I hope to expand my writing into more personal endeavors. I’ve been slacking, in terms of writing outside of school, and I think it’s starting to take a toll on my overall enthusiasm for writing. I’m going to work on taking it back next year, and start to immerse myself in some writing that is really close to what I want to see coming from myself.                                                                                                                                                        -Ruvi Gonzalez, Junior Fiction Editor

I’ve never really stuck to my New Year’s Resolution but since this is my last year at home, why not stick to it? This year I’m going to get a job.                                                                        -Grace Green, Poetry Editor

It shouldn’t take a set date to make changes for the better. A New Year is a new opportunity, but so is a new day; acting on a decision to change should happen at any moment, not just at the turn of the year. Ironically, my resolution is to keep that in mind.  -Jordan Jacob, Junior Editor-in-Chief

In the upcoming year of 2015 I hope to come to some sort of resolution in terms of what I want to do as a career in life. I will be a senior by next Autumn, and I really want to have a good grasp as to what I want to do later in life.                                                                                -Briana Lopez, Junior Social Media Editor 

I don’t normally do New Year’s Resolutions because they typically get forgotten. Plus, why wait until a New Year to make a new you? But I think I’ll play along this time. Next year, I’ll be funnier and more responsible. There it is. I think it’s ambiguous enough to follow.    -Rey Mullennix, Fiction Editor 

Resolutions are embarrassing. My resolution when I was seven would probably have been to stop picking my nose. My resolution when I was nine would be to stop sleeping with a night light. My resolution this year is to stop eating so many Reese’s. I eat them for breakfast sometimes, I eat them when I get home from school… It’s a problem. Maybe I could start eating some cantaloupe or kiwi or something. Anything healthier would be an improvement.                                                                                                                                           -Kat Roland, Art Editor

I resolve to read more poetry books, care less about the Kardashians, and most importantly, to feel how I feel and do what I want instead of letting other people’s expectations be in charge of my actions and thoughts.                                                                   -Savannah Thanscheidt, Web Editor 

This year I want to have more spontaneous moments. Being a senior and having less than a year before I run off toward another adventure I want to not worry about stuff and have more genuine moments of fun.                                                                                                            -Chrissy Thelemann, Submissions Editor 

I do not have a resolution for 2015. I don’t think people should focus on changing because a new year is coming up and everyone is buying into the “New Year, New You” perspective, but people should instead focus on change because they are striving for personal growth. I think making plans are good for yourself on a yearly basis, but for myself personally, I’m still trying to make good on the ones I promised years ago.                                                          -Stephanie Thompson, Marketing Editor

A World Within My Own

Kat BP pic 2All people do their entire life is try to figure out who they are as a person.  Many people die trying. As for myself, I can’t say I know the essence of my entirety. My mind and soul and body are on wheels spinning in different directions, sometimes on different continents, it seems… But what I do know is that I understood myself less before I poured into the pages of the Harry Potter series. I’ve found my fingers flipping J.K. Rowling’s pages, becoming lost in the labyrinths of her plots, carried away in the compassion flowing from her characters.

As I’m reading this series, all these people see the body of the book, its spine, or the cover between my hands wherever I am. I heard things like: “I read that series in elementary school…” I couldn’t help but feel a flush of red overpower my cheeks and almost feel ashamed for being a seventeen year old reading this series. I kept reading and it was soon that I decided reading this series was the best thing that ever happened to me.  Anyone I’ve met that shares an interest and love for this series has felt instantly like family to me. These books hold so much invention and creativity, from creatures such a as hippogriphs and phoenixes, to things like death eaters and giant serpents, to settings of moving staircases and talking portraits…The plethora of uniqueness drips from page to page.

Perhaps the love I feel for the Harry Potter books is mostly due to its characters. Like Ginny, I am often shy and quiet around crushes. Every now and then I am the clumsy and unlucky Neville. Sometimes I am the ambitious and overachiever Hermione. I am the animal enthusiast, Hagrid. I am the embarrassed, red cheeked Ron as my parents discuss bills, or my sibling’s triumphs surpass my own. I am the average person who found out they are indeed brave and special and worth something.

Someone smart once said “you must love yourself before you can love others”. In a way, finding who I am is a step closer to being able to accept and love myself. I may not live in the world beyond the bricks of 9 and ¾. I may not fly Firebolts and speak to elves like Dobby, but that’s the magic of fiction. I can coexist as myself, in this world, or I can apparite into another world.

And to J.K. Rowling, you’ve made a world in which I love the characters, and in return, have found ways to appreciate myself. And so for all the days and nights flipping pages, I give my most real and honest thank you.

-Kathleen Roland, Art Editor