A girl ventures into a world full of fantastical creatures. But when she must decide between staying there or returning to her old home, whatever her decision is, she knows it’s… “A Train Away.”
This is the title of senior Jackson Barnes’ first book, published on Sept. 8 by Laureate Life Press.
Ever since he was young, Barnes has been a big fan of fantasy novels.
“One (collection) that I always like to tell people about is Narnia. I had the whole collection,” Barnes said. “My dad got it for me one Christmas when I was around 10, and I just ended up reading all of it.”
One of his biggest inspirations was during his freshman year, when he was assigned a short story to write in English.
“I got way too into it, and it was very long,” Barnes said. “I went to Mr. Morris’ office, and I handed him my short story, super proud, but he told me that I went over the limit, so he didn’t give me a great grade on it.”
But he didn’t let this discourage him.
“I was kind of upset, and I wanted to do better,” Barnes said. “I spent the rest of the week trying to write that short story and just make it the best it could be.”
He started working on his book at the end of his sophomore year.
“On days where I was really swamped, I got around 30 minutes (of writing) in,” Barnes said. “On average, I got two hours. If I was really feeling myself, I went ahead and did three.”
However, even though Barnes had meticulously planned the story out beforehand, he still struggled with writer’s block.
“I came to one chapter where I just couldn’t think of anything for the life of me,” Barnes said. “It just felt so stale and uninteresting. I just moved on to the next one. Then I kept coming back to that same chapter, and I just couldn’t figure out what to do with it.”
Even after he was done writing by the end of his junior year, there were still months of editing ahead.
“The editing process was boring and really, really repetitive,” Barnes said. “You get sick of reading your own writing after a while, and you start looking at everything three, four times over. It’s not great, but it’s necessary.”
Though Barnes wants to pursue an engineering degree, he is confident that creative writing is and always will be a big part of his life.
“Creative writing is a great outlet for a lot of different things,” Barnes said. “I think people should take some time out of their day to throw up ideas on paper. It can really help you reflect on yourself and confront different ideas you might be struggling with.”