My First Book

One of the funnest projects I remembered was in third grade. We made our own books. Since I loved writing even then, this was one of the coolest things we ever did. So I self-published when I was eight years old. And it is a classic — The Kitty Who Wanted To Go To School. You probably haven’t heard of it, because it had a very limited run of one copy, of which I am the fortunate owner. Last summer, my mom was able to part with this masterpiece when she gave me a giant Rubbermaid storage container of my old schoolwork. I am really glad this is one of the things she saved (Thanks, Mom!). Having read it, I am also really glad she saved some of my other writing that is not in book form to prove I was not so awful. I almost couldn’t bring myself to share this. You will soon see why.

I bring you The Kitty Who Wanted To Go To School!

I commend the teacher who came up with this idea. It’s simply cardboard and contact paper. Heck, if I don’t manage to get my current book published traditionally, I might resort to this method. I won’t be doing the cover myself though. “ding dong” is right!

That serves as a reminder to all. My mom wrote it inside the front cover, just in case I, or anyone else would mistake it for something current. I do hope I’ve become a better writer.

I have since chosen to write under my given name of Cynthia. This is the kind of work “Cindy” produces.

Oh yes, I really did start with “Once upon a time”. Worse yet, I used “their” instead of “there”. Of all the reasons I thought about not sharing this glorious work, “their” was the one! It makes me cringe every time I look at it. (My grammar checker even told me “their” was wrong in the usage of the sentence above. Gah!)

I established the main character and what he wants. Doing OK so far.

AAARRRRGH! There “their” is again! At least I was consistent. I almost presented a problem for my hero to conquer too, so the plot is trying to move forward.

But then the plot falls flat, because we are already at the denouement. In a seven-page book, that’s not good. That is one fancy kitty school with the silver chandelier though! This rich cat’s biggest problem was obviously just fulfilling his desire to go to school.

Half the book is denouement with no real conflict, so I was definitely lacking in good storytelling on this one. Apparently, I was also tired of drawing, because I got lazy in the mediocre art department as well.

I still love this little book of mine, bad plot and all. I do want to take an eraser to those “their”s though. (Judging from posts on Facebook, many people still haven’t figured out the difference between their/there/they’re, so consider that.) I’m happy to report that not only do I understand these words, I also understand what makes a good plot. One day, I’ll have a real book to prove it.