Off to Iowa

In the summer of 2007, I decided to go on vacation -- to Iowa.

I signed up for a class at The Iowa Summer Writing Festival, booked myself into a bed and breakfast, packed up the S-10, and off I went. The class was lead by Sandra Scofield and was titled "Writing the Coming of Age Story."

I had the itch to write, but was intimidated by all the amazing authors on my library shelves. I thought starting with a YA novel, by and about younger people, would simplify the whole process of getting words on paper.

Right.

Writing is hard work, no matter the subject or audience. And writing for younger people presents challenges akin to writing poetry. There is no room for superfluity. Beauty is expected.

In any case, my classmates were wonderful and Sandra was inspiring. As I listened to my fellow writers defend their autobiographical plots, I realized that I didn't want my story to be about me. I'd pick a main character as unlike me as possible. So I scrapped the story I'd been tossing around in my head, the one about my great great grandmother's journey to homestead in MN, and picked up that seed of an idea about getting superpowers. My character would be male. He'd be young. He'd get superpowers. In short, this would not be an autobiography.

It turns out when you write from your heart, when you write something true, it's all autobiography.