Friday, January 9, 2009

If IHad a Wish

Friends, I am about to humiliate myself solely for your amusement.

The back story: When I was very little, I liked to write--well, I still like to write, obviously, but you know what I mean. I wrote stories and poems and product ideas and the rules for games in a succession of random notebooks.

Nearly all of it is utterly atrocious.

Imagine an overweight, unsocialized, extremely precocious, verbally abused, really well-behaved four-eyed girl with an infinite amount of free time on her hands because she was enrolled in no after-school activities (my mother still talks about the ONE Girl Scouts meeting we went to--she was forced to socialize with other mothers (gasp!) while I was forced to clean up after snack time and play a series of intricate games whose rules I was not taught. We did not return) except for Weight Watchers when I was in the sixth grade. My sixth grade teacher also went there, and sometimes I'd see her at weigh-ins.

Now imagine what that child would write:
["If I had a wish," thought Jason as he stared out of the view-screen in his bedroom, "I would be captain of a starship just like Daddy. I would be brave and strong and lead my crew into battles with the enemy. I'd travel the universe and be rich and famous."

Jason Robert Daniels was a small pale 12-year-old with long, softly curling blonde hair and big green eyes. His father, Michael Daniels, was a tall, rough-looking man who captained the U.S.S Empire. He was perfect for an exploratory vessel such as the Empire. The Empire was also one of the first ships to allow the families of crewmembers to live on board. This was hard on both Jason and Michael, since Jason had lived with an ancient-looking aunt for the last 10 years and until last week, had seen his father a total of 14 times. But now that was all to change. Jason and his dad were together, and hopes could run wild.

"Jace," said Michael as he interrupted his son's daydreams, "If you want a tour of the war deck you had better come now." ]

It goes on from there with a LOOOOOOT of description, some father-figure idealizing (Did I mention that I don't actually happen to know my own father? Hmmm...), etc., until...

[Suddenly, the lighting of the rooms turned red and sirens wailed loudly. Jason, now cowering unnoticed in his corner, watched the proceedings too panicked to move. The crew ran hurriedly but orderly to their stations.]

And you don't even want to know where it goes from there. One hint: there is a very wordy, quite melodramatic funeral scene about four pages later.

If you're good to me, maybe sometime I'll show you the story I wrote in which the main character (who is totally me), is a professional racing-diver and finds some caves underneath her house which turns out to be a handy clubhouse for her dozens of super-smart pets.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

i don't have the words to express how completely and totally awesome this is.

it is totally awesome.

(word verification for this comment: dingless - sorry i always get a kick out of those stupid things)

Anonymous said...

Kirsten's right: it is awesome! And you know what? It take lots of guts to share one's writing. I don't have guts; I never share my writing (sometimes I'll let dh edit before I send the ms off to the publisher, but oft times, I just send it off...it's easier for me to show it to some faceless stranger far away than it is to show it to my friends).

cake said...

i'm speechless.

i can remember, and count on one hand, the stories i actually wrote down as a kid. they were nothing as elaborate as what you were up to.

extremely precocious indeed.

and yes, very gutsy of you to share it. thank you.

(my word verification is "guide")

julie said...

You guys are very sweet! And I wonder if any of you are geeky enough to know what the most popular sci-fi TV show was around the late 80s, when I wrote this?

Star Trek, the Next Generation.

The ship on Star Trek? The USS Enterprise.

Families were allowed on board.

As was a precocious young teen boy.

An in an emergency, the lights on the ship turned?

Red.

Anonymous said...

I LOVED STTNG, but I can't connect the dots - so thanks for explaining that! ;)

julie said...

Yeah, now when I throw Star Trek references into every single sentence I write, it's much more subtle, I assure you.