Young Writers Society

Today I was watching a show called "The Writing Life." It's a show that profiles Canadian authors. I watch it to get a glimps of the professional world I will be entering in the next few years. But something I noticed about almost all the writers they interview is that they all seem so bland and dispassionate. I believe that a good writer should be anything but that. When I mentioned this to my mother, who is also a writer, she said that this man had "intellectualized" his passion. I think it would be a total disaster if this were to happen to me, or any of the other writers I've met who I also enjoyed meeting.

Something my mom also said, and this is something I starting thinking since I started writing novels about five years ago, is that she would hate the idea that some university professor had decided to study her book in his class. I'd hate that too. I mean, with my novel, Wishes, I intended to write a retelling of my favourite story using the theme of ballancing growing up with a child-like imagination. After I finished it, I discovered all these layers that seeped in without my knowing, which I know an English professor would love to exploit. I don't want people writing essays on the dangers of overusing antidepressants after reading my book. I just want people to enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

It's a lot harder to enjoy a book when you're picking it apart.

Too true. Too true. I was thoroughly annoyed when I found out about all the Christian symbolism in the Narnia books. I could have easily figured it out on my own if I had been told to look for metephors and symbols, but it doesn't really matter to me. What matters is the adventure, finding a magical place just by stepping through a door, where mice and lions can talk, and the lions don't eat the mice.