The Story Continues...

          It has only been one week since I last saw Kevin and his original one page draft has now transformed into the following:

          Three (ok, two and a half) pages of writing in just over a week!  This is amazing considering that it originally took him two weeks to write barely a page.  I was amazed to say the least.  

I quickly noticed that Kevin had begun to use verb tenses in a consistent and correct way.  Although he was able to implement some transitional and connecting words (such as “suddenly”), he was still struggling to include more, but that was to be expected, especially considering that he had just begun to learn how to use them in our last mentoring session. 

Perhaps the biggest accomplishment, though, was not his writing itself, but rather his enthusiasm for the project overall.  Where he once seemed somewhat apathetic, Kevin now was excited to show off his work and share his writing with me.  It seemed as though he enjoyed what he was writing about, and learning the steps to write better had increased that enjoyment ten-fold. 

Kevin has done a good job at creating a sense of urgency in his story.  Where at first it just began with a boy getting pulled into the video game world, now the stakes are raised and the boy has to get back within the 30 minute time limit his dad has given him to play the video game initially or he will have the privilege of playing taken away from him.

            On the second page of the story there is a line that has been erased.  I asked Kevin to think of how he could develop this part of the story in a more detailed fashion.  He tried to fit everything back into the erased space, but ultimately had to write everything down on a new sheet of paper and merge the two documents together once he typed his story.  What was interesting about this process was that, for the first time working together, Kevin didn’t immediately take the ideas that I was suggesting to him and instead took the time to develop his own.  I saw him growing more confident in his abilities and his own ideas. 

            Unfortunately, Kevin and I do not have any more scheduled time together to meet in person.  Nonetheless, he has invited me as an editor in the Google Docs for the story.  I am excited to continue to work with him and see where his writing will take us!