College Essay, Crack Three
Wont though I am to ignore my peers' advice, I decided actually to listen for once. Here is the result, post-peer, pre-Jane.
Oh, and it's 497 words. Read it and weep.
"You are Donkey Kong."
"Streaming tears cast white lines through the mask of dirt on your face. The burning in your eyes does not subside. Whimpering, you try to rub your eyes clean, but the same disgusting crud encases your giant knuckles. You shake your head, squeeze your eyes, and spit savagely, using any means necessary to clear your facial orifices of the grime. The sequence dislodges dirt from your eyes, ears, and mouth, and you clap your hands together. A basketball-popping impact produces a minor explosion of soil, but you seal your eyelids and lips to prevent any from entering your just-cleansed cavities."
I write fan fiction for fun. Role-playing with friends was one of my favorite activities in my early elementary school days. The Star Wars series inspired the first of these ventures, in which I acted the role of a Jedi Knight. When at home without friends, which was how I spent the majority of the 1990s, I devoured the Hardy Boys series and Star Wars novels. The synthesis of reading and acting was writing. Discovering Microsoft Word allowed me to document and invent scenarios involving characters pulled directly from published work and characters inspired by published ones.
My penchant for reading and writing subsided as I approached middle school. My parents disapproved of my reading – in their condescending, Chinese words – "kiddy fiction." My attitude toward literature turned cynical, a mutation in mindset that hampered my growth as an English student throughout middle school and high school. I reserved the written word only for school-mandated assignments and my private journal. Not until September of my junior year did I again try my hand at writing for personal enjoyment.
I drew inspiration for my writing on different levels. On the literary front, I cultivated a taste for humorist Dave Barry, stronger even than my attraction to the sci-fi and mystery novels of my youth. After reading Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day, Ishiguro's finesse and control of prose provoked my interest in achieving a comparable class of writing. Academically, strong peer editing in my honors Sophomore English class taught me conventions of writing. Electronic entertainment guided the flow of my writing and gave it shape. The open interpretability of video game characters and story provided my techniques with ideas. Internet message boards showed me that fan fiction could be beautiful and that having readers is deeply satisfying.
Together, these raw elements brought me back into writing fan fiction. The passage I selected above is the introduction to my latest project, a "Create Your Own Adventure" story starring the antagonist of Nintendo's 1980s arcade game, Donkey Kong. CYOA form involves audience determination of plot events while allowing me freedom to explore my style to improve my prose. In addition, writing in the second person brings me closer to my work. Nintendo does not give Donkey any ostensible hopes or dreams. They provide only the form of an ornery ape; I paint his characteristics and his thoughts.
SD
Oct. 21, '06
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