Megan McCafferty

“That’s all I have to say.” (1979)

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Before I begin writing a novel, I need to know how it ends. Perhaps this method grew out of the creative frustrations I felt during my earliest years as a fiction writer. When I was in first grade I would often start a short story without any idea as to how I would finish it. When the plot reached a dead end, I would conclude the story thusly:

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Tags: juvenilia

“It’s 1990 and I’m not the person I expected to be”

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

Yes, I realize that many of you weren’t even born when I was a junior in high school. But as this New Year’s 1990 writing assignment shows, I was a confused, melodramatic, self-flagellating mess when I was seventeen in a way that I’m just NOT anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t have all of life figured out. But I don’t spend nearly as much time worrying about it–probably because I’ve got too many other things to do. This is but one advantage of getting older that almost makes me feel okay about the southward migration of my @$$ out of my bikini bottom. Almost.

Make the most of this new year…and every year after!

(As for my end-of-decade predictions, it was a decade of tremendous changes. I was indeed married by the end of the 90s but didn’t have a baby until two years into the 00s.)

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Tags: juvenilia