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| Welcome to my Experiences page!
So, basically this is just gonna be me laying out a quick little
overview of where I started, why I started writing, and why I've
continued to write over the years since I started way back in the day. I'm kidding about way back in the day, just so you know. Technically, it was about seven years ago that I really started getting into writing fiction and creating vivid stories. When I first started, it was because I was reading so much fantastic stories and I wanted to be like these people, I wanted to grab the attention of people and pull them into these amazing worlds away from reality. To take them away from whatever was going on in their lives and let them relish in whatever they were interested in and become invested in the people in the stories. So I began emulating my favorite authors, whom I will put in a table below, along with my favorite novels by them and their genres and links so that you yourself can look into them and find out if they're something you'd like to read. I digress, so I started emulating and trying to write. And it was hard, I'm not gonna lie. It's hard to find the right words that flow together and paint a picture for people on paper. It's not like a video game or a movie or tv show where it's shown right there in front of you. You as the author have to describe to your audience what you want them to see and what you want them to feel. But you can't give too much, or else it's making your reader work harder than they need to. There's a delicate balance you have to take to be able to capture rapt attention of the people picking up and reading your story, which is something that I myself have learned over the years. When I first started, I felt like I needed to describe every detail about every character and every environment and every little thing around them. Going back now and reading my work from when I was twelve and thirteen, I cringe. It's monotonous and boring and sure it'd work if I was doing script writing or stage direction or something but in story form, it's terrible. But back then that's what I felt I needed to do and it was the beginning of the blossoming of a yougn artist. I began to look at novels as not just entertainment, but also textbooks to study the craft. I analyzed the way they described things, the way authors left the reader with things to imagine, I looked at the sentence structure, word choice, everything. I still do to this day and comparing the work I've been putting out lately to the crap I was putting out back then is like night and day. Now, being nineteen and a sophomore in college and finally figuring out what I want to do with my life, it's even more jarring to hear the things that my writing professors criqitque and give praise on. It's always interesting coming up with new ideas and typing them out late at night in a random burst of creativity, only to go back the next day and look at it and be like what was I thinking last night? The differences between my high school and college experiences with writing have also helped round me into the writer I am now. In high school, most of the time you're forced into a box of five paragraph essays on some stupid novel you're forced to read and do worksheets on and analyze for a deeper meaning, even if there is none there. You still have to BS it and hope that you're on the right track. Rarely are you given the freedom to let your creativity flow and create your own stories. Teachers in high school beat this repetitious, boring and annoying form of writing that when you get into college is promptly thrown out the window on fire. In college, you're given that freedom. All the doors are open to you. You wanna write research papers all day, everyday, there's multiple classes for that. You wanna be a poet, there's classes for that. Wanna become one of the next great novelists, yep there's a class for that. Short stories, research papers in MLA and APA, poetry in all sorts of forms, novels that take months upon months upon years to create. There's a professor or two or three waiting to help you navigate the waters and that are well versed in the art of whatever you're looking to write about and help you get to the level that is needed to succeed in this world of scribe. But you gotta be ready for criticism. Which is something that I had to get used to. Growing up, I was terrified to show anyone my work. I thought it sucked, that no one would enjoy it and that they'd call me out as a fraud or something. Enter a little website called Fanfiction. It's a beautiful place where you can create stories based upon your favorite tv, comic, book, movie, anything characters and worlds and put them out there on the web for other fans of the worlds to read. They can review, follow, favorite, and private message you. You're completely anoymous, coming up with your own username to hide behind and let your craft and wildest dreams come out. So that's what I did. I've had about four accounts on the website, my latest one being my most successful and the one I am most proud of to this date. Going back to the tough skin part, I grew it fast once I got into college. It took awhile, there were nights where I'd want to cry and burn the pages of comments on my work, thinking that I had it right and that that was my vision. Then it hit me, after beginning the longest and latest story up on my page and getting some hate on that. It's not hate, it's people attempting to help you and give you their perspective and what they see that you can't. Of course you're gonna get the peopel that hate just to hate but that's everywhere now. The challenge is weeding out the crappy hate for hate and finding the gems of honest constructive criticism. It's about going back and reading over those comments and looking over your story and taking them into account as you revise and edit it countless times. And trust me, when you hit that mark and you get these praises of how talented and how well written and spoken and flowing your story is, how realistic or natural the dialogue sounds or whatever your professor or your peers or readers think of you, it's almost indescribable. The smile that grows on your face, maybe the blush that tinges your cheeks, or the blossom of happiness that flows through your veins. Once you get that first bout of praise, it's an addiction. It makes you work harder. Makes you fight harder to become an even better writer, to outdo yourself and the expectations that others have for you. This year has been the most difficult, being in a higher level writing class that is extremely demanding and taxing and draining. But it's also been the most beneficial. I can see an improvement in my work, just comparing snippets of my writing from my freshmen winter semester to now, it's leaps and bounds ahead nad different and it's because of the criticism, because of the praise and because of the pride and fight I put into my work. And I know when I look back next year, two years from now, ten years from now, I'll see the same jarring changes and hopefully feel the pride I do now with how far I've come. So My Experience in a nutshell? It's a rollercoaster, but a rollercoaster worth riding if you're truly in it and want to become a writer. For me, that's one of my biggest dreams. To work on a video game as beautifully crafted as Mass Effect or The Withcer or Life is Strange and be able to say, "Yeah, that's my work, that's my writing, that's mine." |
| Novel Title | Author | Genre |
| Thirteen Reasons Why | Jay Asher | Tragedy, Mystery |
| Maximum Ride Series | James Patterson | Action, Adventure |
| Gone Series | Michael Grant | Mystery, Science Fiction |
| Fight Club | Chuck Palahniuk | Satire, Thriller |
| A Song of Fire and Ice Series | George R.R. Martin | Fantasy, Epic |
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| Email: mjthornley2015@gmail.com | Fanfiction: tonight-she-lays-here |