Legacies

It's been a long week in the Meyer household.  My newest daughter has been doing little more than eating, sleeping, and pooping.  She's a fussy little thing, although I have no idea where should could've gotten that from.  :-P

I've tried to sneak some writing in here and there, and I've managed to come within striking distance of finishing Schism.  However, with a new child in the house, life has gotten considerably more complicated.  In addition to taking care of another baby, my first daughter still requires attention.  I've tried to devote a lot of my time to her since there's precious little I can do for the newborn besides lie awake out of guilt when her mother goes to feed her at 2:30am.

So imagine both my surprise and delight when I rounded the corner into our living room a few nights ago and saw this:

(My budding author)

That's right - Rachel decided she was going to write a book.  This isn't actually the first book she's written, but the others were just on scraps of paper.  This one, she decided, would be a coherent story on construction paper that she would "publish" by stapling the pages together once she was done.  The story is about a Chinese princess trying to capture a Chinese fairy(she's really into fairies right now) so she can watch it dance.

And this isn't the only thing she's into writing.  She's writing several songs that come to mind.  Whether they're about her new sister or a dream she's had, she churns out something new at least once a week.

To watch the Muse take hold of her and inspire her to create has been magical.  True, she's not churning out War & Peace, but she's also only seven years old.  She's getting a two year head start on me since my first foray into storytelling didn't begin until I was nine.  She's also come to me a few times asking me to read over what she  writes and give her feedback.

I'll admit, that's a hard balance to strike.  If I'm anywhere close to too hard, I risk stomping on the flame before it can grow.  At the same time, I want to gently nudge her down the path of excellence, so I need to say something.  I've tried to be encouraging, as well as an interested reader, and mostly I've only focused on her spelling at this point.  The questions I ask about the story are geared more towards exciting her imagination further rather than critiquing the content(So, what did the fairy do when she was done dancing for the queen?).

I'm really hoping she keeps on this path, and her mother and I will do what we can to encourage her to develop her imagination in this way.  We love listening to her stories and the songs she's written, and we try to ask for more.  A couple of days ago when her favorite TV show was on, I called her in to the TV room so she could catch up with the action, and I can't tell you how proud I was when she replied, "I think I'll go into the living room and work on my book instead."

This, of course, might be nothing more than a passing fancy.  After all, she's also expressed the desire to be either an engineer, a restaurant owner, or a dog groomer, but I'm enjoying the moment while it lasts.  If she decides that she wants to do more with it, I'll happily do whatever it takes to develop her interest.  And if she abandons it to go down a different path, that's okay too.  She's seven, and her whole road lies in front of her.

Now I've just got to get her to describe that road to us...

(Ready for her first book signing)