DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

 

 

Terri Squires

 

Digital Story script

 

         

 

          So what I am doing at Stony Brook University you may wonder? I am about to complete my BS in Business with a minor in writing. Thankfully some of the classes for the writing minor will help me in my effort to finish the young adult novel I started this year. After I complete my degree, I wish to add something else to my resume…that of a published author.  

 

 

          Here is the pitch for my book, aimed at the young adult crowd of thirteen to seventeen year olds:

 

 

          Thirteen year old twins Marin and Josh lead pretty normal lives. They are both on the swim team and do well in school. But all of that changes though when a trip to the beach, and a near death experience for Josh, turns their world upside down.

 

 

          You see, Marin and Josh have inherited a special ability. It’s an ability so rare and difficult to control, that their parents died using it.

 

 

          Can hot tempered Marin and her impulsive brother Josh, keep their secret from getting out? And more importantly, can they ever control this gift, or will it control them?

 

 

          There is an old saying to write what you know, and that is what my stories will do. While my books are primarily fiction with a bit of fantasy, they are going to cover some real world tough subjects, such as bullying, abuse, and drug addiction. A little over a year ago in one of my writing classes, I recall a classmate complaining that her mother thought she wouldn’t be a great writer. Why, because apparently she hadn’t suffered in her youth. When she said that out loud, something clicked inside of me. While I had spoken of my past many times, I had never written it down.  I wrote of my experience of being bullied, and the abuse I suffered at the hands of a close family member. I have to admit that I was horrified when my professor suggested peer review of this essay in class. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let anyone read my paper last year. Why was I still hiding from my past after all of these years? A past where I was the innocent victim?  Perhaps, I didn’t want to be pitied. Looking back, it was wrong of me not to share my story with the class. I have since posted the entire essay in my Stony Brook digication.com e-portfolio for anyone to see.

 

 

          I wasn’t consciously thinking about my past when I started writing my book this year. But the bullying chapters flowed out of me onto the pages. You see, I had never asked for help at the time when I was young. And because of the years of bullying and abuse, “I slowly morphed into an out of control freight train ready to derail.” It was gradual at first. But month by month, I fell into a despair that was almost impossible to come out of. It would take me more than ten years to do that.

 

 

           I recently read an online article on how a middle school teacher used writing to help combat bullying and cliques in the classroom. Author David Rockower wrote an open letter to his students addressing what he was witnessing in his school. While my book won’t be as straightforward as that, I do have a similar goal. I am hoping that the young people who read my books, will see themselves in it. Are they the bully or are they the ones being abused? Even if they are neither of these, do they witness it and do nothing?  If I can get one young person who reads my book to say, “listen grownups in my life, I need help.” Then I will be satisfied. I don’t need to be rich and famous. That is not my goal. That isn’t to say that it wouldn’t be great if it happened, but it isn’t necessary.

 

 

          My best friend once asked me, “How did we get here?” What she really was asking was, “how did our lives reach this point?”  I answered her with, “by the choices we made.” Everyone makes choices every day…what to wear, what to eat, what route to take to school.  I want every young person who reads my books to empower themselves to make the correct choice…that it isn’t wrong to ask for help. You don’t have to suffer in silence.

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

Rockower, David. “Using Writing to Combat Bullying and Cliques”. Education Week        Teacher.  4 Nov 2013. Web. 13 Nov 2013

 

Squires, Terri. “Salvation with a side order of chow mein”.    stonybrook.digication.com/terri_squires. Nov 2012. Web. 29 Nov 2013.

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.