Wordbound Wednesday, February 1

What is something you're embarrassed to admit you're written?

Okay, so in my defense, I've since rewritten the story, but I had no idea that it was as bad as it was until I looked at it again over ten years later.

So when I was 15, my imagination was running wild. I loved Lord of the Rings, had a knack for fanfiction, and was writing unfinished stories based on dreams that I had been having. I was also in an English class that was more advanced than the two AP classes I would be taking in the next two years. There was a lot of analysis and writing in that class. Finally, we got an assignment that I was happy to write. Creative Writing! I was so excited to come up with a great original idea and then write it down! Unfortunately there was a drawback. I had to complete diagrams, follow rules, and use these assigned $10 words throughout my story. I had to highlight them as well. I'm thinking, are you kidding me?! This was my time to shine! I want to write this my way! But whatever, I made it work and set to work writing a story about a prophecy telling of a girl who could control the four elements in order to return something called the Diamond Staff that was presented by God, helped by a dragon, a sorceress, and an elf. Being the good Catholic girl that I was and on my way to being confirmed, it was HEAVILY influenced by religion. But I did well, got my A, and moved on.

Flash forward to last September when I decided to do my personal occupation presentation on NaNoWriMo and my love of writing. I decided that, in a spur of the moment insanity, that I would take the story I had written so long ago and rewrite it. So I found my portfolio with all of my English assignments in it and took a look at the story.

Oh. Dear. God. In, Heaven.

It's bad. Super bad. The ULTIMATE bad. How did I write this and get an A?!?!?! Naturally, I got to work and the rewrite was so much better. Took out the religion aspect and did what I wanted to do. I have to say it's much better than the original. But ugh, it's so embarrassing! Here's some extra special lines.

"Her hair was pure blonde and her skin was of fresh milk. She was a sight indeed." *gag* Someone recently watched The Addams Family Values.

"But it can't be me, I'm just an orphan street rat." And you can call me Aladdin...make it stop please.

"The Lord will provide Nichalia," said Christana. "You may have forgotten, but wizards have also been known to be blessed by God, and I have been known to give a few prophecies myself." Yes, just slam that Catholic influence in there why don't you?

Oh and there's that time the "pure soul", whatever that is, transformed into an angel and killed the antagonist for them, and then showed up at the end "shining more brightly than ever". Good God, I want to throw up.

"It was the best of times, it was the best of times." I'm now dead from embarrassment and writing this from my grave.

There's no way I'm rewriting the entire transcript for here, since my fingers might dissolve into shame, but I reiterate, HOW DID I GET AN A ON THIS?!?! I still can't believe that I put this out there and thought that it was good. I'm thankful now that I'm older, wiser, and know how to at least write decently. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go hide this story from the world forever.

P.S. If anyone was wondering, I did really well on the rewrite and my presentation, and got a lot of compliments from my classmates. Plus gained an amazingly talented friend from my class who has given me more writing music. Score!