Fiction Writing

When I was eleven our class was assigned to write a story about the future. Apparently this was for a city writing contest for elementary kids and the best stories would be compiled into book. I wrote two full pages without a sweat, and the teacher selected me and two other classmates. He thought I had the best one. I can barely remember what happened after that. Months later my mom and I were invited to the party at the city hall. There were so many people in that small room in the back of the city hall. Even the mayor was there for the book release event. There were journalists photographing. I got one copy of the book and opened it.

…Except they spelled my surname mistakenly in the book and I remember having been upset, because my name is easy! They messed up by inserting a random t in my name! It’s not like I have a foreign name, so why the mess up?! I was the proclaimed spelling wonder among my classmates. Why can’t an adult spell my name correctly?!

However, I remained quiet about that, since I was far too impressed and shocked with the entire happening! I got my story in a book! This was probably where I got my huge inspiration to continue writing fiction.

So I asked my mom about the book, who indeed thankfully kept the book and the original (it had no spelling mistakes) saved, but I was most surprised by the title of the book: 

The city, the street, the society. Maastricht in 2010

…well! That’s in the present. It’s basically about how the city will or should be like in 2010. There are tons of complainers in the book; mostly about the lack of multiculturalism, things that need to be changed, the locals who live here don’t accept outsiders, lack of disco, blahblahblahboring… and suddenly! Sci-fi creative writing from elementary students! According to my mom, out of all elementary schools we were the best.

A translation if you can’t read Dutch:

Laura: “Floating houses were invented 5 years ago and that was very useful. On the ground it won’t become that busy any more. With the atmosphere there were in no problems, because of the silent cars. Bad gasses are no longer used on the Earth and you only get your driver’s license at the age of 25.
While looking through the super strong crystal windows I noticed a girl who could run 5 meters with each step. That’s probably due to the C5 pills.
I push a button and suddenly the doorbell rang. A robot is standing before me, and he asked in dialect to pay up 25 euros. So I gave him the 25 euros and stuck it in his mailbox. He put down the groceries and flew away. What I found between the groceries was a lottery ticket and if you won, you would get a free trip to the moon. The moon probably became fertile, I think? But the food also changed a bit. I didn’t get normal food, but eating pills. You had to do it like this: you put the pill in your plate and sprinkle some water on it. For example, a hamburger appears on it.
I sat down in front of my 3d-television and watched the journal. The journalist said there was poverty on earth and that they invented a video phone in New-Mexico.
It’s only 7 ‘o clock, so I sat down in front of my school computer. You didn’t need to go to school if you had a computer. The exercises you don’t get will be explained by the teacher. I was ready at twelve ‘o clock, that’s two hours earlier than in the year 2000.
Then I read in the news paper that the hurricane Gregor had been in Mexico. That’s pretty bad, but maybe in 100 years everything has already changed.”

LOL. I frowned several times. (Driver’s license at 25?!)

The other boys had pretty much the same crazy and over-active imaginations about the future. More >