A book that I believe created my passion for creative writing and for my distant future as a creative writing major here at Ball State was one of the first books I ever read as a kid. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. As a kid, my dad chose to bring home a gift for me every day he would return home from work. Those gifts, despite a little debate between him and my mom, were books. One in particular was the illustrated hard book edition of Black Beauty. It was my prized possession and I still own it to this day. It’s not a simple read, not difficult, but to a young child who was starting to read it was a little difficult.
The combination of images and words that I had never seen before piqued my interest more and more as I read page after page for my homework assignments. The elaborate illustrations of Beauty and his friends in the pasture, then Beauty pulling the carriage, and all those big scenes in the book made me ever more interested in the story and in reading in general. I count this as my introduction into creative writing and my spark for my passion because without reading there wouldn’t be writing, would there? We all have stories that we can say started our journey into writing. Books, comics, manga, poetry, screenplays, all types of literature have sparked our interests and passion towards writing and creating stories for others to read. I write stories for others to escape, just like I wanted when I chose to read certain books and stories. It could’ve been a long time ago or just yesterday. Reading inspires. It sure inspired me, and I think that’s why I’m here as a Creative Writing major in my final year at Ball State. I want to create a story because of the first one I had ever read.
