Howdy, young writers! So, as promised, I’m sharing one of my very own original stories. *dies of fearful anticipation for you all to read it* I thought it would be cool to share a piece of my own writing and use it as a means by which to learn from and to just share what my writing process was like when I wrote this piece. Does that mean that I think it’s a perfect work of art and therefore, I’m going to go on and on about how amazing my writing is and how you should mimic everything I do? Heck no. 😛 My writing (and this story especially) is NOT amazing. I do hope it’s a cute story, however, and that you enjoy it. I also hope, for myself as well as all of you, that we can learn what to do, and what NOT to do when writing a story based on reading this one. I always find that going back over old writing is a great way to see how far you’ve come over the years, how you can improve, and what old ideas you can rewrite so they become new and exciting.

All that being said, here’s some things to keep in mind…

• I wrote this story in 10th grade for an English short story assignment, which means that my writing has gotten A LOT better over the past 2 1/2 years…at least I think so. 😛
• Some of the story elements I was working with at the time included: characterization, description, plot development, dialogue, and writing in first-person point-of-view. In fact, I still remember the morning I spent having breakfast at the Double D Diner and drafting character profile sheets for the 3 characters in this story. #goodtimes I still have those sheets today, along with a brief scene-by-scene outline. Let me just say having both of those things was extremely helpful when it came time to actually start writing the story.
• I went through many drafts with this story, primarily because of one particular scene. (I’ll let you know which scene that was once I’ve posted all the chapters.)
• I have slightly edited this story already (along with the help of KD17, thanks gurrrrrrrrrl) and may or may not be done with this story. I’ve been experimenting with idea of doing some more, holiday-inspired sequels, as well as expanding this one.
• The theme of this story was based around friendship, loyalty, and the importance of acting a little “childish” sometimes. 😉

Without further adieu, here’s, “The Halloween Special”! (Super original title, I know.)

The Halloween Special

by: Young Writer

Chapter 1:

Today was like any other ordinary day. I got up, washed my face, brushed my teeth, combed my mass of curly hair, slipped into my jeans, and headed downstairs. As I started into the bright and airy kitchen, my little sister slammed into me, almost spilling her orange juice all over my favorite green top.

“Lily! Watch where you’re going!” I exclaimed exasperatedly. Lily is nine years old and has a knack for creating chaos wherever she goes. Today was no exception.

“Sorry,” she giggled lightheartedly, “But I was just showing mommy my Halloween costume. Look!” She starts prancing wildly around the room with a bagel in one hand and her orange juice in the other, “Don’t I look beautiful?” Lily beamed as she sashayed around the kitchen in a her purple tutu and matching fairy wings. She set down her bagel to grab her sparkly wand, and then proceeded to bop me on the head with it all while shouting, “I’m a fairy princess!”

Oh, it’s Halloween, I suddenly realized, rubbing the now sore spot on my head. It’s Halloween…Oh man, I need more time! I thought to myself as I slowly began to panic. Normally, I love Halloween; the costumes, candy, spooky house decorations, and of course trick-or-treating.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve gone trick-or-treating with my two best friends: Gwendolyn Spencer and Nadia Jones. In fact, that’s how we met. My family and I had just moved into the neighborhood, and Gwen’s mom invited us to go trick-or-treating with them and Nadia’s family, since we didn’t know our way around the neighborhood very well; we’ve been best friends ever since. We’ve never missed one year of trick-or-treating, even that one year when it was below freezing and Nadia had a really bad cold. But, this year…well things were different. Right before school started, I had my fifteenth birthday. Besides getting a little taller, I began to feel as though things I used to do with best friends, like trick-or-treating, were childish. I mean, we were practically adults now, so we should start acting like it. Right?

So, as my first mature and adult-like decision, I silently vowed to hang up my candy sack and enjoy a scary movie instead. Of course, I had always planned to tell Nadia and Gwen about my decision…I just sort of put it off until the last minute because I was afraid that they would be mad at me. Now, my timing couldn’t be worse. It was the day of  Halloween, and I had yet to face them. I had to tell them…

“I’m not going trick-or-treating this year.”

“What do you mean you’re not going trick-or-treating this year?” Gwen asked me, astonished. At least she wasn’t stunned into complete silence, like Nadia. I had ended up confronting them in the hallway of our school, right before class started. Somehow, I had “sensed” them turning the corner into the hallway before I actually laid eyes on them. This “super-sense” happened a lot…especially around Halloween. It always came in real handy when my friends and I would try to figure out which houses had the biggest candy bars.

“I…I…I mean…” I started to stammered. My sight dropped to the floor of the hallway and my cheeks started to turn pink. Oh no! Don’t you chicken out! I warned myself. I was starting to lose my courage, but I had to stand strong. I couldn’t go trick or treating with them. It was beneath me now, a thing of the past. Besides, who needs trick-or-treating, anyway? It’s for kids. After a brief, mental pep talk I clenched my jaw and tilted my head up to face my friends. “You heard me; I’m NOT going trick-or-treating this year.”

Gwen, much taller and more menacing than me when she didn’t get what she wanted, marched closer. She glared right into my face as she loomed over me, and I thought I was going to turn into a puddle right on the spot. I swear, that girl could scare off even a wizard, if they were real. Then, her dark eyes lit up with amusement; she started to chuckle, which quickly grew into a full-out laugh.

“That’s-that’s…” she tried to choke out between her roars of laughter, “That’s a good one, Cass! You really had us going. Right, Nadie?”

I glanced at Nadia, who hesitantly looked at Gwen for reassurance that I was kidding. She too began to laugh, though it was more of a nervous giggle.

I stared bewildered at my two friends as I tried to convince them of my sincerity. “Seriously guys, I’m not going this year. Look, I know we have had a habit of going together in the past but…”

At that, Gwen’s brow started to furrow. She cut me off,  “We have NEVER missed a year as long as we can remember! Right, Nadia?”

She glanced at Nadia, who has always been more of a shrinking violet. Sometimes, Gwen and I forgot she was even there whenever we got into our ‘heated debates’. It was like she turned completely invisible. At that moment, she had drooped her curly, red hair over her eyes as if it would prevent us from forcing her to pick a side. Gwen glared at her intensely, and finally she spoke up.

“Um…yes…that’s correct,” she whispered. She was the most soft-spoken person I had ever met, but she also had the kindest heart, so naturally, Gwen and I were lucky to have her. I sighed, starting to get annoyed at my friend’s persistence.

“Yes, I know we have gone every year since we were little, but times have changed. I’m fifteen now and going trick or treating now is just, well…”

“Go ahead. Spit it out!” Gwen demanded.

“Well, it would just seem…CHILDISH!” I yelled. Both Gwen and Nadia winced at those words, and it was evident on their faces that I had hurt them. However, unlike Nadia, who seem more wounded by my words, Gwen just grew more furious and saucily scowled at me. She crossed her arms.

“So what are you saying, Cassie? That going trick or treating with your friends is stupid and too ‘immature’ for you?!” Gwen challenged.

“YES! THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I AM SAYING!” I bellowed. One look at Gwen and Nadia’s shocked faces and I knew I’d messed up. I had made it seem as though spending time with my friends was ‘uncool’ They weren’t; trick-or-treating was. I took a moment to breathe and gathered myself as any mature adult would have done in my predicament, “Look, that’s not what I meant. I love spending time with you guys, but I just feel that now that we are older we should end our old traditions…like trick or treating.”

Gwen and Nadia were silent as they took in my words, and just when I thought that they had finally come to accept my decision, Nadia came toward me.

“But Cass,” she muttered sadly, “you always come with us. It won’t be the same without you…please, just come with us, for our sake. We need you.” Her bright blue eyes pleaded with mine. Darn her innocent little face. She reminded me a lot of my little sister. I groaned. I knew that at that point, I couldn’t say no, not to Nadia. She never asked anyone for anything. She always thought of others first, especially when it came to me and Gwen. I had to do this, for her, even if it was childish. I stared at her large, puppy-dog eyes as I reluctantly changed my mind.

“Fine,” I relented as Nadia’s face lit up with a smile. Gwen, still peeved at my outburst, turned away. “I’ll go trick or treating with you guys.” At that, she turned, a slow smile spreading across her olive-skinned face. “But don’t expect me to enjoy it!” I spat back at her smug expression. Completely frustrated, I grabbed my history book, shut my locker, and slumped off to class. This was going to be humiliating.

To be continued…

We’re winding down to the last two Ways I get Myself to Write. You may be asking: what’s the 10th method? Well, as the title of this article already spells out in all caps, one of the ways I get myself to write is by reading. I know that may sound counterproductive to some of you. If I’m trying to get myself to write, then why am I stopping to read? Well, immersing myself in a good story not only helps my mind recuperate and relax, I find myself learning a lot about technique, characterization, character development, rising action, conflict, and theme as I read. I’m not saying that you should start reading a book and copy down everything, word-for-word from that book, change a few names and pass it off as your own; that would be plagiarizing.

No, I’m saying that you should take your reading seriously. Don’t just think about how much you love the characters or the story, ask yourself: why? What about the way the author describes the characters or reveals parts of their personality effectively contributes to the story. How does the author create suspense? How does the author evoke emotion from you? Is it through the dialogue? What specifically about the dialogue? Enjoy reading the story, but try to pinpoint how the technical aspect of the book effects the story in its ability to engage you. One way you can keep track of your observations is by jotting them down in a notebook. Don’t go all note crazy and stop after each page to write down ten thousand notes (I may or may not have done that at one time…). Maybe stop every couple of chapters or halfway through the book and think about what stuck out to you. Writing, “The part with the dragon was cray”; again, ask yourself why? “The author focused a lot on describing the fight with the dragon as well as what the dragon looked like, which gave me a clear word picture and kept me interested in the rising action.” Or, shorthand it to something like, Dragon scene = descriptive details formed word picture; kept me focused.

I recently got Reading Journal: for Book Lovers by Potter Style that not only has space to write notes, but includes room to write the name of the book I’m reading, the author, the genre, the things I want to learn more about after reading the book, and my star rating. It’s a great way to keep all your thoughts in one place. My only wish is that there was more room for notes. 😛 But there are other great features in the journal like start and finish dates, a recommended list of book titles, room to record your favorite authors, and so much more. (This journal and two others I HIGHLY recommend are in our online store.) In fact, I use my notes from my reading journal as the basis for my book reviews. And the book reviews are basically things that I’ve learned and want to incorporate into my writing or at least try. Therefore, the knowledge gained from reading gives me motivation to write. BAM! Full circle. 😉

So, go ahead; take a load off, shut down your computer, and get to reading. In the words of one of my favorite Christian Romance writers, Irene Hannon, “Read exhaustively in the genres that interest you.”

Oh, writing prompts. How I love thee. Now, writing prompts are helpful for many reasons, the obvious one being: THEY MOTIVATE YOU AND ME TO WRITE! They are a tonic against writer’s block *gagging noise* and a fun way to exercise your imagination. What’s great about prompts is that they give you enough direction to actually have something to write about while also giving you the freedom to take what you’ve been given and go a million different routes.

Some other advantages are that writing prompts can help inspire a scene for a preexisting story, help you finish a scene you might be stuck on, or help you come up with a brand new story idea. This has certainly been the case for me as well as KelseyDragon17. In fact, we often do prompts together when we hang out and then swap what we’ve written when we are done. Other times, if I feel like writing but don’t want to work on anything specific or just want to create something, I’ll pick a random prompt and time myself for let’s say, fifteen minutes. That’s a great way to warm-up your brain and/or keep it in shape so that you’re still writing something on a day to day basis.

Do I write everyday? Heck, no. I wish. 😛 But, I’m trying. And in case you want to give prompt writing a try as well, I’ve included five specific kinds of prompts you can use to gain inspiration. (They also happen to be my favorites, but that’s not as important.)

• PINTEREST PROMPTS – If you simply go on Pinterest and type in “writing prompts” you will get a whole lot of pins with a lot of different prompts on them. Some have one sentence scene descriptions that give you various situations to go off of, while others give you a snippet of dialogue. Still others give you a character or setting description to use. I love these. I love these so much I have a whole board dedicated to writing prompts on my account. In addition to the word-poster prompts you might see, if you search “writing inspiration pictures” you can find a lot of really interesting pictures to use as prompts. Again, I have a board dedicated to these bad boys. A little disclaimer: KD17 and I had this discussion, and apparently, a prompt is not a Pinterest prompt unless it was inspired by a picture or prompt from there. What I mean is, you can’t write a scene and then find a picture the next day and say that that scene is a Pinterest prompt. I know, I tried.
• PROMPT GENERATORS – There are a TON of random generators online that you can use for writing inspo. I’ve found plot, dialogue, backstory, setting, character description, character profile, and even character costume generators just by searching “writing prompt generator” on Google. I always laugh when I use these; they can be so random but that helps sometimes. And for on the go, search for the same thing on your smartphone’s app store. They have just as many for mobile devices as they do online.
• PROMPT BOOKS – Oh geez. Now, I’m getting hyped. Writing prompt books are the bomb.com. They just are. Especially the 642 Things to Write About book by 826 Valencia. They have a whole line of prompt books to either write or draw something and they come in regular and travel size. They also have a “Young Writer’s” edition, which HELLO WE ARE ALL YOUNG WRITERS so I thought that was pretty lit. What’s nice about the YW edition is that the prompts are totally kid-friendly and I’d even say slightly more whimsical. The layout varies from page to page, so some prompts have more space for writing than others while others have blank space for drawing if you wanted to. I’d suggest if a prompt really inspires you, keep a notebook handy in case you need more room. The other book I have is “Complete the Story” by Piccadilly. I actually just got this one for my birthday. 😉 The book gives you a prompt that literally cuts off and it’s up to you to finish it. I personally like to change the POVs and names of the characters if they are included in a prompt, but that’s just me.

• FOUND OBJECTS – When I’m out, I sometimes get inspiration by looking at things (especially when shopping). I see pictures, pieces of jewelry, books, even something as random as a candlestick and I automatically have a scene idea swirling around in my head. Going to thrift stores like Goodwill or garage sales are great ways to find inspo because everything has a history, a significance and though you may not know the real story, you can make up one, and thus, create a story. Paper documents (old or new) like postcards can be sources of inspiration too. Ask yourself: What’s happening in the photo on the postcard? Who is the person writing the postcard? Who is the person receiving the postcard? Where are they? The questions are endless.
• FRIENDS & FAMILY – You heard me! Ask your friends/family for something to write about. It can be anything. Have them read a piece of your work and ask them what else should happen in that scene. Tell them to shout the first word or phrase that comes to their mind and use that. Or, simply use the interactions you have with them as dialogue in your story. Nothing makes dialogue more believable than using things that people actually said. Of course, you might want to tell them that you are using your conversation with them as inspiration before you type it up. 😛

And there you have it. Five types of prompts that will hopefully motivate you to write. Let us know which kinds you try out and how they work for you! (Btw: both prompt books mentioned can be found on our Amazon Store site.)

This is a very simple method I like to use when I’m on the go. I’m one of those writers who is constantly hearing her characters talking to each other. I live for dialogue, I hear it everywhere I go. Sometimes, a random phrase will pop into my head that inspires an entire scene. For me, out of all the pieces that make up a story, dialogue pieces are the easiest to place. More often that not, I get inspiration for dialogue when I’m out running errands, visiting a new place (like I am this week! #vacay), or hanging with friends. In those situations I like to be able to just write out the dialogue without having to worry about being descriptive, using dialogue tags, or talking about the physical actions of my characters. I’d started jotting down some dialogue in my notebook a couple weeks ago while waiting for my mom as she ran an errand but became slightly confused when going back to read over what I had written. It’s hard to distinguish between which of my characters is talking, especially when another character comes into the scene halfway through. For this reason, I assigned a colored pen (but you can use pencils, markers, crayons, etc.) to each of my characters so that every time they spoke, their dialogue was in a specific color. This actually helped me out a lot. It’s not a very ground-breaking or super motivational method, just something quick and fun to make writing easier (and therefore more frequent) for you as you go about your summer. 😉

Here’s a tiny snippet of the scene I was talking about above between two of my main characters: Rowena (“Ro” for short) and Demetry (but here at YWD, we like to call him “Demy” 😛 )…

This entry is technically for August, but I haven’t written anything for July so I’m doing a “wombo-combo” sort of thing instead. 😛 Let’s see…what did I do? Ummm…sporadically wrote down bits of dialogue, wrote some articles, went to a magical, super cute bookstore while on vacation and purchased 38 books… No joke, I was hyperventilating when I got to the Christian fiction section. 😛 I started reading a new book on human temperaments that has inspired me to work on further developing my characters (more on that later), got major INSPO for one of my CCR sequels, wrote down some scene ideas, actually wrote about 1,000 words worth of book material, and got to spend a whole week at the beach Bible Journaling which was a much needed blessing. 🙂 Oh! Had my first “Writing Lock-In” with KelseyDragon17 (thoughts on that in later article), typed up some scenes from a few notebooks, started a few scenes, worked on my story outline, and put all my excerpts for my FF series into one document. That was cray, and surprisingly, that whole series isn’t even as long as my one CCR story is by itself. #whateven

–YW