Maxine MagicFox: A History
Note from Akira: To preserve the essence of Max's excellent writing style, no changes have been made. (Must...resist...adding...unnecessary...commas! >.<!) Also, Maxine asks a lot of questions and answers them herself; just know that these questions were of her own devising. This is not an interview! Enjoy!
It's an honor to be asked to write these two articles as a guest writer. I hope I don't bore you! So an article about myself?
I started writing back in the third grade when we were asked to do a short story project. We were to write a short story, illustrate it, and even make a cover for it out of cardboard and our own chosen fabric. I enjoyed the project so much that I decided to continue with writing.
For me, writing has always been something special, and not something that I felt I had a choice over. I'm a writer, nothing more than that. Sitting at home watching Saturday morning cartoons, my pencil was always in hand as I wrote out fan fictions and attempted to come up with my own characters. It goes deeper than simply wanting to be. I can take a look at a blank piece of paper and the only thing I want to do with it is fill it up with my own sloppy script telling about this or this character that I just made up on the spot or try to continue whatever story that I was currently working on. After having talked with so many other would-be writers, I can't say that I've ever gone through some of the self-conscious stages that they've had to contend with. Some of them, obviously writers, are so afraid about what others will think that they never move their pen at all. Even so afraid that they are unknowingly copying another's work. In all the years of my reading and writing, I can safely say, yes I probably am, in one form or another, copying something someone else has already done, even without me ever having read it, but it's my story, it's in my voice, and it's with my own characters. Therefore, I'm not really copying at all.
My favorite genre is fantasy. The full-fledged stuff, not like Harry Potter, but a whole different world. And don't start asking me for maps or how I create locations and such. I don't. To me, that's always too restricting. My worlds are very loose and usually uncharted. If my characters stumble across some ruins of an old castle, that's all they are. You will not find a history of the "Battle of Sir Elgamore" for example. Nor will my characters probably ever return to those ruins ever again.
I also enjoy the 12-16+ age group. I love writing about little heroes with no special talents at all except the fact that they really want to achieve some goal. And it isn't a goal that's usually achieved easily (I'm so mean to my characters). Writing about little twelve year olds, I can include a sense of innocence and naiveté that isn't easily achieved in older age groups. The prospect of writing a whole page of nothing but bickering between two young children over the tiniest thing and ending with the final result of their being caught in a trap, is simply too fun to pass up. Nor do I think it would work for a sixteen year old to go chasing after a tiny kitten into some deep dark woods and they look up to discover that they are now lost. Someone writing about older groups becomes nothing more to me than an endless repetition of "and then and then and then" full of too much seriousness or angst.
Not to say that I haven't written them. As a writer, I don't really want to restrict myself to any single subject. I have written everything from romances to war stories, to even my second favorite, thought provokers. Yes, I've even dabbled in poetry. You too, should not feel restricted by anything. Just because you write a story reminiscent of Tolkien, don't be afraid to attempt a story about a little lost puppy dog, or a wounded soldier wandering stumbling into the home of an enemy. Writing is all about having fun.
Have I won any awards? Not really. Not that I wanted to. I write for my own enjoyment, though yes, I do hope to get published. The only awards I have ever won for my writing was back in seventh of eighth grade when I won first place in both prose and poetry in the Young Georgia Author's contest. Any other writings I've had to do? I've had to interview a playwright, I also worked for my middle school newspaper, and I took a class in Journalism.
The books I am most in love with and hopefully you will be hearing about me soon (if I ever get it done), my chronicle of books entitled The Little Questors. This is going to be the title of the first book and will carry on as the title of the whole group of books. Nothing more than a series of adventures (or mis-adventures) had by a group of children. The books aren't even going to be a series nor will they always follow the same group of children. It's a lot of fun writing them, even with the knowledge and hope that someone will read them. To me, you simply cannot allow that to pressure your work. Even after all these years and my goals changing, I still write only what I want and what is most fun.
Thanks for reading this, you can wake up now. I would also like to thank Akira once more for this wonderful honor. [Note from Akira: No, thank you, Max! <(^__^)>] Thank you all so much and I hope you all achieve your own dreams of writing and never give up!