The Joy of the Idea | Teen Ink

The Joy of the Idea

November 6, 2011
By ShannonJr GOLD, Newton, North Carolina
ShannonJr GOLD, Newton, North Carolina
10 articles 0 photos 4 comments

Favorite Quote:
“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”
William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

“Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”
Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)


You know that one special moment when you are just sitting in your room and then suddenly you get this really amazing idea. You don't know what to do with it at first, but then suddenly, you get this immense urge to get out your notebook and write it all down. That feeling is probably one of the greatest feelings I have ever had in my life.

I can still remember that faithful in Mrs. Keenan’s fourth grade class; it was a big day: the day we started to learn about creative writing. I was really curious as to what she meant, I had never thought of writing as a creative outlet; it was more of just me writing down my name and answers for test. “How is writing creative?” I asked her immediately and she chuckled lightly at my silly question.

“Well, creative writing is really part of our everyday lives. You know the books you read?” Mrs. Keenan asked, she paused and waited for the whole class to give a slight nod yes. “Well, the authors who write those novels, they make lots of money from doing just what we are learning about today: creative writing. Of course, they write much more than we are going to and they are professionals. Soon, who knows, some of you may even realize you want to be like the authors of those books.”

I looked at her like she was insane. I remember thinking ‘who would spend so much time just writing, what’s the fun in that’. Naturally, I was very reluctant to even try to listen to this magical creative writing Mrs. Keenan was explaining. I mean, what self-respecting fourth grader would want to spend an entire class period just writing?

“Now, I want you all to think about something really imaginative and write it down,” Mrs. Keenan instructed. I had never had an assignment like that before. No teacher had ever told me to just write what ever wanted. So, reluctantly, I actually started to think. I wanted to do something scary, since it was very close to Halloween. I wanted a ghost story and eventually the idea had flowed through my brain and I picked up my Number Two pencil, and just started to write words.

Afterwards, we were instructed to read what we had written. Everyone had written about such and such’s fantastic adventure to somewhere land and their happily ever after, and all of them lasted just three paragraphs normally. When my turn came, I remember telling Mrs. Keenan that my story may be too long compared to everyone else’s and she just old me to go right ahead.

I started reading and by the time I was finished everyone loved it. Mrs. Keenan said that it was the best story she had heard from her students in a long time. I remember feeling such a sense of accomplishment and happiness all because I had written a story. To think that an idea written down on a page could have such a profound effect on me, even today still surprises me.

Those feelings of having an idea sealed my fate and made me want to become a writer; it really was one of the greatest feelings of my life.


The author's comments:
I was just thinking about what got me writing and remembered what made me love it so much.

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