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Harley Burgess
Salyers, ENG102
August 25, 2014


Who I Am as a Writer
As a child, I lived for stories that my mother would read to me before bed. She introduced
me to grand adventures, daring heroes, and damsels in distress. Before I even knew it, my mother
began teaching me the rules of plot, theme, tone, and genre. I learned about swashbuckling
pirates, impossible feats of bravery, and terrifying monsters and ghouls. By the time I entered
kindergarten, I could already write my name and I knew the alphabet long before my first day of
school. My love for reading and writing began with those bed-time stories, even if I was not
aware of it at the time. This love affair with words would continue throughout my entire life,
breaking apart and coming together, similar to the ups and downs of a romantic novel.
My first real exploration in writing came when I was in kindergarten. Like most young
children, I was armed with a wild imagination and a teacher that loved to exploit it. Every day,
toward lunch time, we would have a few hours to explore, play, and take part in creative
activities. For me, those activities almost always consisted of writing, reading, and drawing.
Before long, my first masterpiece was composed. I write a book about a star that could not find
his place in life. He tried a variety of jobs, including a turkey, a sea star, a hat, and other wacky
occupations. Finally, the little star accidentally climbed atop a pine tree and decided that his life
was meant to be spent as a beautiful, decorative Christmas tree topper. Of course, this story was
very simple and silly, and the illustrations were horrible, at best. However, despite my storys
errors, my wonderful kindergarten teacher loved my efforts. Mrs. White took my book, stapled it

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together, and paraded it around Cliffside Elementary School like Oprah herself had
recommended it. I was invited into every first grade classroom to read my inspiring tale. While
incredibly embarrassing, this experience boosted my confidence in an amazing way. In many
ways, I probably owe my love for writing stories to Mrs. Whites overwhelming, dedicated
enthusiasm.
Elementary school went by quickly and I was thrown into a whole new world before I
could blink. In one sudden burst, I went from knowing my environment, my friends, and my
teachers like the back of my hand to spending each day in a strange, unfamiliar, hostile
environment. Middle school is what I believe to be one of the most awkward and difficult parts
of a persons young life. This also happens to be the time period in which I fell out of love with
writing for a brief time. In sixth and seventh grade, I was placed in advanced classes that pushed
my brain to places that I had previously believed to be unattainable. In my English class, we
explored a horrible, torturous set of books, named Word Within the Word. Root words and
stems took the fun out of English for me, and I often performed poorly on our quizzes. Over
time, I grew to hate words.
After a brief breakup with language, I rediscovered my love for writing when I began
reading the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. From the first word, I was hooked. The books
publisher created a website for the many fans of the book that contained facts, biographies, and
games. One feature allowed a fan to create their own warrior cat name, taken directly from the
series lore. As a super fan, I was incredibly enticed and automatically typed in my information. I
received the name Mudfang; as you will come to see, that nickname stuck for quite a while.
Eventually, I stumbled upon a forum-based literary role-playing game (RPG). In literary RPGs, a
fan, writer, or normal citizen can create an account, a character, and basically write a co-op fan

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fiction. This particular literary RPG was based on the Warriors series. With my newly-created
warrior cat name and a refreshed love for language, I jumped in and immediately became
absorbed in the plot. I would write for hours, even if my content was not the best.
Before too long, the climactic battle was upon us and every clan was poised for attack. My
character, Mudfang, leapt into the battle and fought furiously, until she decided to get a bit
philosophical. Along with one of her friends-turned-opponents, she began questioning the logic
of the battle. Why were they fighting? Was some silly dispute really worth injuring her own
friends? Mudfang created a movement by play fighting and wrestling with her friends; I could
not even process what was happening until the entire fight had dissolved into friendly giggling.
Needless to say, the administrators and moderators were quite upset after the plot that they had
been developing for months was destroyed by a thirteen year old. I was threatened with
banishment, but that did not hinder my love for literary RPGs.
Three or four RPGs later, some of which I became a moderator or administrator for, I had
officially renewed my adoration for the English language. That love continued throughout high
school and landed me in a Speech & Debate elective course. As a debater, I was able to explore
my love for writing in a new way. Instead of worrying about my punctuation, grammar, and
spelling, my judges only heard the meaning behind my words and the persuasive choices I made
as a writer. I would write well-developed, thoughtful debate cases in minutes and I would come
up with arguments on the fly. This process allowed me to discover that writing is more than just
putting words together correctly on paper.
Writing is about forming thoughts, arguments, and ideas with carefully selected,
thoughtfully placed sentences and paragraphs that transcend ink on paper. To me, writing is
about making your audience feel something, whether it be heartache, desire, joy, or pride. For

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whatever purpose, I will always write because I love language, not because I am encouraged or
forced to do so by others. The events that have shaped me as a writer have engrained this
philosophy into me and I hope that it will always be a part of who I am.