Recently, Aliyah Booth and Elizabeth Uehling, two CHS sophomores, participated in a creative writing contest through Indiana University Northwest (IUN), both winning an award.
“I was a little surprised, actually a lot of surprise, but happy,” said Elizabeth Uehling when asked what her reaction was to winning.
“I was honestly really surprised because I wasn’t even going to submit mine in, cause I didn’t think I was going to at all,” Aliyah Booth had explained, saying that she almost did not submit her writing.
Both of their writings were different, writing about what they thought was best. Uehling had written a piece called “My Poems of Lost Words,” which was about words she thought were interesting but were not used in everyday life. In contrast, Booth had written a piece about how it feels during an anxiety attack to try to bring awareness to the idea ‘you are not on your own.’
Choosing to submit pieces and writing them takes time. It could take from a couple of minutes to days to complete. It all depends on the writer in terms of the time it takes.
“Not very long, probably thirty minutes,” Uehling answered, when asked how long her piece took.
She added on that she uses a rhyming scheme, which means they tend to be short and simple. Though writing something like this could take longer, or could be done following a schedule.
“The first part took me about twenty minutes, and the second part took me about twenty-five,” Booth said. For her, this writing had started as an assignment for Mrs. Jendrzejczyk’s English class, which she decided to submit to this contest. The amount of time that it takes, though, could change based on their writing process.
“I have a set challenge that I do each day for myself. Sometimes it’s writing three hundred words or work on something for twenty-five minutes,” Uehling explained. She uses this process whenever she is writing, especially with the book that she is currently writing. This helps her get into a daily habit of writing whenever she can. Whereas Booth does not have a writing process, she just puts whatever goes into her head onto paper.
Overall, both of them were very happy about winning this award, and believe that writing is more than just words.
“Just write, honestly. Probably one of the hardest things is that people don’t write because they think that it’s bad, and yeah it’s going to be bad the first time around but that’s ok, because you don’t need to be perfect the first time when you write, it’s just getting your ideas out,” Uehling explains, saying that if you want to write, write. Do not be worried about it being perfect.
Writing is a way to express yourself and show how you feel. Putting one’s personality into it is what makes writing special, according to Booth.
“Honestly, not to overthink it, and just let your writing show your personality. Nobody wants to read something that sounds like a robot wrote it. I think you should just show yourself and not be afraid to sound too sophisticated,” Booth said.
Both of these pieces were showcased at a Zoom reading on Monday, April 28, to showcase the imaginative works of the NWI high school students. If you see either of these students in the hallway, make sure to congratulate them.
