Author: B. Hollis

As many of you know, this blog is for a creative writing class I am taking. Sadly this class is coming to and end which means an end to the blog posts. Thank you for reading my work and leaving encouraging comments. I hope you enjoyed reading!

About the Author

My writing history has been mostly limited to school. Any writing I did outside of school was for school. Since this class has started I have begun to keep a journal in my free time. Over this semester I feel like I became a better writer. NaNoWriMo really helped me to push me to think about actually writing a full story with lots of details. Overall, I think this semester has helped me to become a better writer. I would define my writing style as writing about the future. I like to think about the present world and twist it into a dystopian vision of the future.

My chosen piece is a Tanka that we wrote in class. I based it off of my novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo a few months back. I really liked my novel so I tried to fit some elements of my novel into other styles we wrote. Out of all of my pieces about my novel, this one was my favorite because it really describes how my characters were feeling. I honestly really like writing Tankas so I felt like this was a good mesh of the two things I liked the most during the semester.

STUCK

Today is the day

I will finally go home.

No more dull, grey walls.

I will bathe in the sunlight.

The white doors close. I am stuck.

so much depends

upon

a grey concrete

sidewalk

littered with colorful

pictures

small reminders of

childhood

I wrote a poem inspired by “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams. I chose this type of poem because it was a new style for me. To me, this poem is about returning to childhood thoughts when I see children drawing with chalk. I would see what they were drawing and I would think about how my imagination would run wild and my thoughts would flow onto the sidewalk through my chalk doodles. I have always just been a really nostalgic person and this poem was a great way for me to express that idea.

I have never really been a big poetry person. I’m still not, but, this was a fun unit to get myself out of my comfort zone and try a new style of writing. This unit was pretty interesting because I didn’t really know anything about rhythm and meter. Although I struggled with some of the poems, I found that I really like writing haiku. To sum up, I enjoyed this unit and I hope I become more of a poetry person in the future.

Two pairs of eyes finally meet

They look familiar, do they?

She sparkles forever in day or at night

The girl has yellow pants with a crisp pleat

The light glistens over her today

Two pairs of eyes finally meet

She walks carefully over the grass that the animals will eat

but the children continue to run and play

She sparkles forever in day or at night

Some people stare her down like fresh meat

Most go on about their normal day

Two pairs of eye finally meet

She walks with a steady beat

She did not know that she would not stay

She sparkles forever in day or at night

She was viewed as very nice and neat

That was until the day

Two pairs of eyes finally meet

She sparkles forever in day or at night

I have been participating in NaNoWriMo’s Young Writer’s Program (YWP) for the past month of November. I decided to set a high word count goal for myself of 10,000 words. I am really proud of the work I did this month. My story is called The Escape and it is a story of 17 year old Lucy and Christian who are stuck in an escape room in Purgatory. On their journey of escape they find out some very interesting secrets about each other.

Read an excerpt from The Escape down below!

Chapter 1: The Accident

This whole thing should’ve never happened. It all started on a snowy January night in my small hometown. My friend and I were coming back from a party that had been thrown the day of our last midterm exams. I staggered towards my friend Chelsea’s car.

“Come on Lucy,” Chelsea exclaimed, “just give Conrad a second chance.”

Her words were slurred as a side effect from all the drinking that had happened. She was tugging at my arm to try and get me to go back into the house where I had officially broken up with my boyfriend of two years.

“Chelsea, I am not going back in there,” I replied. My words stabbing the air angrily.

I tried to drag a drunken Chelsea back to her car. I wasn’t successful as I was also highly intoxicated. We were almost to the car when I heard a low, slow, and slurred version of my name escape someones mouth.

“Lucy, come back,” the words poured out of Conrad’s mouth.

He staggered towards me drunkenly with his hand extended out.  

“Go away! I’m not going back in there, I’m not taking you back, and I’m definitely not letting you come anywhere near me!” I yelled.

“Lucy I’m sorry. I don’t really know what I did but I’m sorry.”

“That’s just it Conrad.”

“What?”

“You don’t know what you did because you think you’re Mr. Perfect.”

I turned away and continued to drag Chelsea to her car that was parked on the other side of the street.

“Lucy,” Conrad yelled into the dark void of the night. “Please let me drive you both home.”

“Why should I let you anywhere near me or Chelsea?” I spat back.

“Because Chelsea is more drunk than you and me combined and you don’t have your license.” He replied.

I took a moment and thought about it. Chelsea was pretty drunk and he was right about me not having my license. I glared back at him.

“Fine. You can drive us home but I have some ground rules.” I said.

“Okay shoot,” Conrad replied.

“No funny business, we go on the direct route, no detours, and no flirting.” I announced.

“Ouch, okay.” He said in sarcastic tone.

Conrad grabbed Chelsea’s other arm and helped me load her into the back seat of his truck. I hopped up into the front seat right next to him. We drove down the familiar roads of our town. No people were around and the tension in the air was unmeasurable.

“So,” Conrad muttered, trying to break the tension, “what’s up?”

I looked away. Partly because I didn’t want to talk and partly because I didn’t think I could actually make words come out of my mouth. Conrad continued to drive. He didn’t say anything.

The roads were snowy and icy as they normally are in January. I watched out the window and saw snowflakes resembling microscopic mirrors floating in the air and swirling across the road.

“Conrad!” I exclaimed, “Look it’s snowing!”

That was my first mistake. Telling Conrad to take his eyes off of the road. His mistake was following my order.

“Wow! It’s amazing!” He responded.

Snow was a thing of joy for the both of us. We played in the snow all the time when we were children. Conrad and I met when I was walking in the snow on the way to school. It was no wonder he got so excited when he looked away from the road. He got so excited that he didn’t see the car coming through the intersection. That moment of pure excitement was the moment that killed me.

Chapter 2: The Room

I felt the impact of the oncoming car all throughout my body. I felt my body jerk to the left. I felt my ribs collide together from the impact. I felt the car shake and begin to roll over. I felt every moment of the accident. Not in a physical way, but more on a spiritual level. I could feel my bones braking but there was not any pain. I suddenly felt so alive and like I had complete control over my body. I saw colored lights. I thought that they were figments of my imagination but they turned out to be the lights of first responders.

I knew I was dying but there wasn’t any panic in my body. I saw Chelsea on a stretcher and Conrad talking to the police. The strangest thing was that I saw myself. I saw myself lying on the pavement with my body bent in horribly unnatural position. I watched two people put me into a body bag. I watched my parents weep as first responders carried my crippled body away. I looked down at myself and I realized that I was transparent. I looked like a horror movie ghost. I continue to look around and I saw a big white building that appeared to be calling to me. I couldn’t figure out how to get to the building until I saw the white footprints. I didn’t really want to go to the foreign building but some kind of invisible force pushed me towards the building.   

I walked into the building to see that it was completely white on the inside. All of the furniture was even white. I continued to walk down a long and wide hallway until I got to a huge metal door. The force continued to push me into a room full of dull and muted colors. It felt like a waiting room at a doctors office. The force continued to push me further into the room until I had my back against a cold and sturdy wall. I tried to move but my arms stayed glued to my side. Suddenly the force let go of me. I tried to run across the room towards the heavy iron door to escape. I was almost to the door when it slammed shut, keeping me stranded in the room. So many thoughts raced through my head. Where am I? I’m actually dead. What about Conrad and Chelsea? What about my parents? Why did I trust Conrad to drive? He was so drunk. The thoughts kept coming at such an alarming rate. I could feel the weight of my thoughts begin to weigh my head down.

I looked around for something to try and calm me down. I began at the bookshelf. I moved the books around to try and find something to read. There were no titles on the books and there were no words on the pages inside. That’s odd, I thought, what’s the point of a book with no words. I continued to shuffle books around until I heard a thunderous banging noise come from inside the room. I jumped back from the bookshelf and began to nervously scan the room for something that would cause the noise. I shuffled around the room until I found a panel on the wall. It was made out of some kind of smooth, white material. There was no handle or lock to open it, there was only a hand-shaped groove on the left side. I placed my hand on it and the door swung open, nearly missing my side. Out fell a boy.

In the month of November I will be participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMO). I will be doing the Young Writers Program and my goal is to write 10,000 words.

My novel is about a girl stuck in Purgatory. She meets a lost soul who is trying to accomplish a task. The two end up being friends and the girl helps him to reach his goal.

Click the link here to join NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program this year!

Six Word Story:

It didn’t have to happen today.

2 Sentence Story:

Three last words were spoken. All of them were for me.

Here is the script for my short story called “Super Strangers”

Super Strangers

Band is really fun

Sometimes it gets really hot

I love all of my band friends

Morning Ritual

The ritual begins with a staggering walk down the stairs. I walk down in my ceremonial robes from the night before. As I enter the room where the ceremony happens, the lights turn on with stunning brightness.

My hands quiver as I heat the sacred water in the kettle. The steam fogs up my glasses as I reach over for the sacrificial beans. I open the bag and the harsh bitter smell instantly wakes me up. I carefully grind the beans and pour them into the filter. They wait there for the marriage. I pour the now simmering water over the beans and a symphony arises from my cup as the two marry.

I walk over to the frozen tundra land of Refrigerator and carefully pluck a bottle of creamer from the shelf. The white liquid swirls into the deep pot of amber fluid. It creates a tiny galaxy for a split second.

A gift from the land of Pantry is bestowed upon my mixture. The sweetness begins to overtake the hash flavor of the beans. This is not always the case as it depends on the type of beans.

I slowly take a sip of the essence of life. I instantly am comforted by warm liquid coursing through my body, delivering energy to every cell that makes up my body. I take another sip and think about what a great day it will be now that I have completed the morning ritual.