Hi there! My name is Brianna Stahl and I'm currently a senior at Kankakee Valley High School. In early June I'll be graduating; I'm not sure if I should be really excited or if I should be having a panic attack. Either way, in the fall I'll be attending Valparaiso University as an English major. Someday, I hope that shelves in libraries and bookstores will be filled with my creations. I don't know why, but I've always loved reading. Ever since I was a child I adored the written word, and I was always striving to read more. Unfortunately, I think I will forever be hindered by the pace at which I read. A three hundred page book will probably take me several weeks to read, though I think that the reason for this is a good enough excuse: I savor every word. I pay close attention to details, so I think I just need to read slower to ensure that I don't miss anything. This may be the reason why I have a sixth sense of sorts when it comes to book. More often than not, I can predict certain events within a book. Whether this is because I am well versed in cliches, because I know what would shock a reader the most, or because I just pick up on key details, I don't know. Either way, I have a deeply rooted connection to the written word.
Now that's all well and good, anyone could love to read, but that doesn't automatically mean enjoy writing. Ironically enough, I discovered my love for writing while playing a computer game. Way back in 2003, I got a game called The Sims. The Sims was a life simulation. You'd create a virtual person (a "Sim"), build a house for them, and then you'd just let them live their life. The Sims, which became the first in a franchise that continues to expand to this day, was a very basic game, honestly, but it was mind blowing to 7/8-year-old me. I could take my Sim and build them this beautiful house, make him or her have a career, maybe even meeting someone special and having a family. I adored it. The game was first launched in 2000, so by the time I became part of the fandom, it was a very large community. One of my favorite features of the game was how you could connect to www.thesims.com (a website which sadly was shut down several years ago and now reroutes you to the website of the newest The Sims arch). Players could upload families and custom content that you could then download and put into your own game. One day I noticed that one of the families had an odd last name, though I don't remember exactly what it was anymore. I quickly realized that the "last name" was actually a title. Many players were taking advantage of a scrapbooking feature available in the game (which would generally be used like a usual scrapbook, capturing memories such as weddings and births) by using it to write stories. They'd make the last name of the family the title of the story, each family member would be a character, they'd set up the home almost like a set, then they'd create scenes and take pictures of them, creating a storybook of sorts. It was very helpful that there was no limit to the amount of words one could type in the photo's caption. Of course, being a young kid, I decided I wanted in on the latest trend. My first stories weren't very good, many of them being very similar to ones I had already read. Slowly, I began to drift away from that path and came up with my own ideas. I began to look forward to coming home from school so that I could go onto The Sims and continue writing my various stories. When I became tired of waiting to go home, I started to write my stories in notebooks before making the final leap and transitioning to other computer programs like WordPad and Microsoft Word. It took me many years to realize where my first writings had come from, but now I firmly believe that life simulation helped me discover what I want to do with my life. Sadly, because the website was shut down and the original computer that my game was installed on is long gone, I no longer have any of my old stories. I do remember them though, and while many of them make me grimace with embarrassment, I do find myself missing all of them. No matter how bad they were, those first few made a great impact on my life. This is why I will always have a soft spot in my heart for The Sims franchise, so don't be surprised if I ever get all mushy or emotional if asked about any of the The Sims games.
Moving on from my sappy confession about how I discovered I love of writing, I'm going to go ahead and talk about my Creative Writing class now. In a word, it was fun. Though I'd definitely skip on the poetry if I could, possibly the play too, I found that I really enjoyed most of the genres that we covered. My favorite by far was the short story because I finally found the motivation I needed to work on a story I had a couple of years ago. In its current form, Snapped is a short story, so everything that takes place is highly condensed. However, it was exactly what I needed. As much as I love to write, sometimes I really doubt myself and my dreams. Some days I feel like it's just a hobby that will never get off the ground. However, after being told that the second half (which if made into a full novel would be the bulk of the story) was "pretty incredible," I got the motivation I needed. I hope to edit Snapped over the summer and expand it into a novella or novel, depending on how much I can write without milking it. Maybe my odds aren't that great, but being in Creative Writing helped to renew my hope that I'll succeed in getting my work published. Though the time was short, I'll definitely never forget my time in Creative Writing. It's hard to explain the impact it had on me, so just know that the experience meant a lot.
I intend to keep this portfolio and let it grow over the years as I progress with my writing. Who knows, maybe a piece of writing on this site will catch someone's attention and get published. Happy writing :)
Now that's all well and good, anyone could love to read, but that doesn't automatically mean enjoy writing. Ironically enough, I discovered my love for writing while playing a computer game. Way back in 2003, I got a game called The Sims. The Sims was a life simulation. You'd create a virtual person (a "Sim"), build a house for them, and then you'd just let them live their life. The Sims, which became the first in a franchise that continues to expand to this day, was a very basic game, honestly, but it was mind blowing to 7/8-year-old me. I could take my Sim and build them this beautiful house, make him or her have a career, maybe even meeting someone special and having a family. I adored it. The game was first launched in 2000, so by the time I became part of the fandom, it was a very large community. One of my favorite features of the game was how you could connect to www.thesims.com (a website which sadly was shut down several years ago and now reroutes you to the website of the newest The Sims arch). Players could upload families and custom content that you could then download and put into your own game. One day I noticed that one of the families had an odd last name, though I don't remember exactly what it was anymore. I quickly realized that the "last name" was actually a title. Many players were taking advantage of a scrapbooking feature available in the game (which would generally be used like a usual scrapbook, capturing memories such as weddings and births) by using it to write stories. They'd make the last name of the family the title of the story, each family member would be a character, they'd set up the home almost like a set, then they'd create scenes and take pictures of them, creating a storybook of sorts. It was very helpful that there was no limit to the amount of words one could type in the photo's caption. Of course, being a young kid, I decided I wanted in on the latest trend. My first stories weren't very good, many of them being very similar to ones I had already read. Slowly, I began to drift away from that path and came up with my own ideas. I began to look forward to coming home from school so that I could go onto The Sims and continue writing my various stories. When I became tired of waiting to go home, I started to write my stories in notebooks before making the final leap and transitioning to other computer programs like WordPad and Microsoft Word. It took me many years to realize where my first writings had come from, but now I firmly believe that life simulation helped me discover what I want to do with my life. Sadly, because the website was shut down and the original computer that my game was installed on is long gone, I no longer have any of my old stories. I do remember them though, and while many of them make me grimace with embarrassment, I do find myself missing all of them. No matter how bad they were, those first few made a great impact on my life. This is why I will always have a soft spot in my heart for The Sims franchise, so don't be surprised if I ever get all mushy or emotional if asked about any of the The Sims games.
Moving on from my sappy confession about how I discovered I love of writing, I'm going to go ahead and talk about my Creative Writing class now. In a word, it was fun. Though I'd definitely skip on the poetry if I could, possibly the play too, I found that I really enjoyed most of the genres that we covered. My favorite by far was the short story because I finally found the motivation I needed to work on a story I had a couple of years ago. In its current form, Snapped is a short story, so everything that takes place is highly condensed. However, it was exactly what I needed. As much as I love to write, sometimes I really doubt myself and my dreams. Some days I feel like it's just a hobby that will never get off the ground. However, after being told that the second half (which if made into a full novel would be the bulk of the story) was "pretty incredible," I got the motivation I needed. I hope to edit Snapped over the summer and expand it into a novella or novel, depending on how much I can write without milking it. Maybe my odds aren't that great, but being in Creative Writing helped to renew my hope that I'll succeed in getting my work published. Though the time was short, I'll definitely never forget my time in Creative Writing. It's hard to explain the impact it had on me, so just know that the experience meant a lot.
I intend to keep this portfolio and let it grow over the years as I progress with my writing. Who knows, maybe a piece of writing on this site will catch someone's attention and get published. Happy writing :)