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Harley Burgess
Salyers, ENG102
September 5, 2014


Who I Am as a Writer
As a child, I lived for the stories that my mother would read to me before bed. She intro-
duced me to grand adventures, daring heroes, and damsels in distress. Before I ever knew it, my
mother began teaching me the rules of plot, theme, tone, and genre. I learned about swashbuck-
ling pirates, impossible feats of bravery, and terrifying monsters and ghouls. By the time I en-
tered kindergarten, I could already write my name and I knew the alphabet long before my first
day of school. My love for reading and writing began with those bed-time stories, even if I was
not aware of it at the time. This love affair with words would continue throughout my entire life,
breaking apart and coming together, similar to the ups and downs of a romantic novel.
My first real experience in narrative writing came when I was in kindergarten. Like most
young children, I was armed with a wild imagination and a teacher that loved to exploit it. Every
day, before lunch time, we would have a few hours to explore, play, and take part in creative ac-
tivities. For me, those activities almost always consisted of writing, reading, and drawing. Before
long, my first masterpiece was composed. I wrote a book about a star that could not find his
place in life. He tried a variety of jobs, including a turkey, a sea star, a hat, and other wacky
occupations. Finally, the little star accidentally climbed on top of a pine tree and decided that his
life was meant to be devoted as a beautiful, decorative Christmas tree topper. Of course, this sto-
ry was very simple and silly, and the illustrations were horrible, at best. However, despite my
storys errors, my wonderful kindergarten teacher loved my efforts. Mrs. White took possession

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of my book, stapled it together, and paraded it around Cliffside Elementary School like Oprah
herself had recommended it. I was invited into every first grade classroom to read my inspiring
tale. While incredibly embarrassing, this experience boosted my confidence in an amazing way.
In many ways, I probably owe my love for writing stories to Mrs. Whites overwhelming, dedi-
cated enthusiasm.
Elementary school went by quickly, without any real literary excitement, and I was thrown
into a whole new world before I could blink. In one sudden burst, I went from knowing my envi-
ronment, my friends, and my teachers like the back of my hand to spending each day in a
strange, unfamiliar, hostile environment. Middle school is what I believe to be one of the most
awkward and difficult parts of a young persons life. This also happens to be the time period in
which I fell out of love with writing for a brief time. In sixth and seventh grade, I was placed in
advanced classes that pushed my brain to places that I had previously believed to be unattainable.
In my English class, we explored a horrible, torturous set of books, named Word Within the
Word. Root words, stems, and the ridiculous amount of quizzes we took on both took the fun
out of English for me, and I often performed poorly on said quizzes. Over time, I grew to hate
words.
After a brief breakup with language, I rediscovered my love for writing when I began read-
ing the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. It was love at first word. The books publisher created a
website for the many fans of the book that contained facts, biographies, and games. One feature
allowed a fan to create their own warrior cat name, taken directly from the series lore. As a su-
per fan, I was incredibly enticed and automatically typed in my information. I received the name
Mudfang; as you will come to see, that nickname stuck for quite a while. Eventually, I stum-
bled upon a forum-based literary role-playing game (RPG). In literary RPGs, a fan, writer, or

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normal citizen can create an account, a character, and basically write a co-op fan fiction. These
forums can be based on any fandom or, sometimes, they can be based around plots of the admin-
istrators original creation. This particular literary RPG was based on the Warriors series. With
my newly-created warrior cat name and a refreshed love for language, I jumped in and immedi-
ately became absorbed in the plot. I would write for hours, even if my content was not the best.
Before too long, the climactic battle was upon us and every clan was poised for attack. My
character, Mudfang, leapt into the battle and fought furiously, until she decided to get a bit philo-
sophical. Along with one of her friends-turned-opponents, she began questioning the logic of the
battle. Why were they fighting? Was some silly dispute really worth injuring her own friends?
Mudfang created a movement by play fighting and wrestling with her supposed enemies; I could
not even process what was happening until the entire fight had dissolved into friendly giggling.
Needless to say, the administrators and moderators were quite upset after the plot that they had
been developing for months was destroyed by a few thirteen year olds. I was threatened with
banishment, but that did not hinder my love for literary RPGs.
Three or four RPGs later, some of which I became a moderator or administrator for, I had
officially renewed my adoration for the English language. That love continued throughout high
school and landed me in a Speech & Debate elective course. As a debater, I was able to explore
my love for writing in a new way. Instead of worrying about my punctuation, grammar, and
spelling, my judges only heard the meaning behind my words and the persuasive choices I made
as a writer. I would write well-developed, thoughtful debate cases in minutes and I would come
up with arguments on the fly. This process allowed me to discover that writing is more than just
putting words together correctly on paper.

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Writing is about forming thoughts, arguments, and ideas with carefully selected, thought-
fully placed sentences and paragraphs that transcend ink on paper. To me, writing is about mak-
ing your audience feel something, whether it be heartache, desire, joy, or pride. For whatever
purpose, I will always write because I love language, not because I am encouraged or forced to
do so by others. The events that have shaped me as a writer have engrained this philosophy into
me and I hope that it will always be a part of who I am.