Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Theme of My Life

Last night I started a new writing class. Well, I’m a kind of slow learner and I actually took the exact same class a year and a half ago. But a new term started yesturday, so lets pretend like I’m gonna learn something new.

The teacher left us last night with a question. What is the point of your story? Once the plot and characters and everything else is stripped away, what is your book actually about? I thought about this question last night and the second I came up with an answer, it hit me. My last book was about the exact same thing. Every book I’ve ever started has been about the exact same thing. Ever curnal of an idea that I haven’t even begun to write is about the exact same thing. The plots and characters can be totally different, but my writing is always my writing. And I only seem to have one point.

So here it is. Being a misfit is okay. Simple right? Basically, I think that all people, but teenagers especially, are really good at casting themselves in fake identities. Pier pressure and societal norms and familial obligations and a million other things constantly tell us who we are supposed to be. But people are all different and you might not be that perfect person that everyone is supposed to strive toward. And that is okay.

If you have a million friends, who don’t know you because you keep yourself locked deep inside, life can be really lonely. Happiness might not lie at the center of the in crowd or in the flashist office in town. Accepting the reality of your own identity and learning to love that person is the key to growing up. And if you’re really lucky you may even find one or two other misfits who dig the real you.

That’s it. That is what all books by Katherine Elliott Scott are about. The false identities my characters take on are all different. And the people they are inside are even more divers. But the struggle is the same. Life is life. And being a misfit is still okay.


Joke of the Day
What did the hydrogen atom say to the heleum atom?
I got my ion you.

3 comments:

Jonathon Arntson said...

A writing class, cool! Good for you. I am interested to see what kinds of posts this class leads you to give us.

Katie Salidas said...

Writing classes are a wonderful too. I would love to take a few.

On the subjects of misfits. I like that as a themes and I think there are lots of people out there, more than just teenagers, who can connect with it.

=)

Tana said...

I'm jealous you get to do this, how wonderful! Funny joke. AS a science nerd I can appreciate it.