Aspiring... writer?

Once upon a time there was little Elika who read lots of books.  She wanted to be a writer.  And then she decided, when she was in fifth grade, that fiction was a hard business to break into, and she wanted to be a journalist.  Seriously, eleven year old me used to daydream about going undercover as an investigative reporter and writing stories that would expose the problems of the world.

And somewhere in there I moved to Alaska, and started daydreaming about other things.*  But I never stopped reading.  Four years ago I was talking to this real live book editor, and I could keep up with him.  He was like, there's this book and this book and this book.  And you know what?  I had read them all.

Last night I read this book called Anna and the French Kiss.  And it was adorable.  There was Europe, and crepes, and sweaters, and hot fictional English boys, and kissing.  And when I finish a book I love, I usually like to read the author's blog.  I'm like Colin Singleton, except real.  And a girl.  And I looked up Stephanie Perkins, and I was kind of amazed by her.  She's like Nerfighteria and Meg Cabot had a baby with blue streaky hair and brilliant novel ideas.**

And this post kind of has a point, and that point is I want to be a writer.  I want to be a writer.  I've always kind of wanted that, far down in a small spot in my heart.  You know the spot, it's right next to my love of Jim Sturgess and dark chocolate?  That part of me has always wanted to write.  And I know that's not even really a concrete goal, because I am a writer right now.  Writing blog posts and news articles.  But it's something.

And I'm 18 years old, and I'm one semester into college, and I'm fairly aimless.  But I'm also not aimless, because I have vague, general, large ideas about stuff.  And I work hard, and I kind of go after what I want, when I know I want it.  Eleven year old Elika wanted to be a reporter, and eighteen year old Elika is working for the Sun Star, and seventeen year old Elika was editor-in-chief of Igaramkin and kind of singlehandedly got that newspaper working again after three years of no newspaper.  And last semester I wrote a thirty-page screenplay, and my best friend said she liked it.  I also got an A+ in the class I wrote it for.

So it's not much.  But it's a start.








*Like warm weather, and breaking into young adult publishing, and pie, and trivia about the executive branch of government, and musical-bow-tie-wearing boys, and abolishing sophomore honors english from the high school English curriculum forever.

**And I like her blog.  Especially this post and this post.  And the rest of her blog.