Messummer
Writer's Speaks/Inspiration/Questions for Improvement

My Writer’s Speaks:

Honestly, this piece was very hard for me to write. I’ve wanted to write a story about dinosaurs for so long, but I was always so scared, because I’ve offended people with this sort of material before. That’s not this story’s intention at all. It’s just a sci-fi adventure piece with a twist.

What made this story hard was just all the research I had to do for it. It delayed it, so I got a late start, which proved to be very difficult with the time crunch and page limit for my class (twenty-five). I wanted to give up multiple times, but I always pushed myself to keep going. My goal was to toss in everything I’ve learned about writing since 4th grade into it, so I went to extreme lengths in order to pull Messummer off.

Dan is my favorite character, partly because I based him off my dad, whose name is also “Dan”. That doesn’t mean I don’t love Messummer, too. These two characters came very naturally to me, because I knew what I wanted their story arc to be from the very beginning.

That said, the plot wasn’t that difficult–not as difficult as Evangeline’s Flame, at least (the other story I had to write for my class). To help with it, I watched a documentary on the K-T Mass Extinction. I was severely disturbed by it. I felt so bad for the dinosaurs, but I thought the extinction would be an interesting concept–one that you don’t normally see in dinosaur stories. I tried to keep the disaster scenes at a minimum, in case people were uncomfortable with reading about animals trying to survive.

I threw some things in from my personal life, too. The death of Dan’s mother mimics my brother’s death, as well as Dan’s lesson about moving on and accepting where he belongs. I wanted Messummer to be his mother’s spirit, but I had a bit of trouble pulling it off. If you guys could give me suggestions on how to make this paranormal sub-plot work better, please do not hesitate.

Before I move on, I just want to say something really quick. I know the time traveling rules are bent in this story, but that’s what I wanted. It was the only way to make Dan and Messummer’s relationship work. Sometimes you have to bend the rules. I do that all the time when I write, but I still get called out for it.

Other than that, I hope you enjoyed Messummer.

Questions for Improvement:

1. Dan and Messummer are both important characters, so I considered writing the story from both their point of views. But with the time crunch, the page requirement, and late start of this story (due to all the research I had to do for it), I ended up writing from Messummer’s perspective. What do you guys think? Should I write the story from both Dan and Messummer’s point of views?

2. How can I make the paranormal sub-plot work better, with Messummer being the spirit of Dan’s mom? I tried to include subtle details of it, but do you think I can add a few more? I want to make it not as obvious as Axis’s secret in Evangeline.

3. I’m still new to sci-fi, so I’m wondering what’s working and what I can do to improve in this genre?