A G major sounds on the piano as “The Lightning Strike” by Snow Patrol plays. Former East student Haley Fisher sits in Starbucks—earbuds in. Then she starts writing. Her fingers follow the beat, tapping on the keyboard. The paragraphs begin to mesh with the rhythm. The song ends and kicks back to the beginning, staying on repeat. The writing in her book begins to piece itself together as Haley follows the feeling of the music.
Songs always have to match the writing.Fast powerful songs with drums, vocals and electronic beats fit intense scenes. Serious songs filled with strumming guitars and mellow vocals are perfect for the moments when her characters are feeling lost.
* * *
Haley’s dream of writing and publishing a book began in fifth grade at Belinder Elementary. Her teacher, Dr. Bruce Carter, introduced her to fiction writing. The task was to write a three-page novel with the provided characters and setting. All the students had to do was develop a plot, but Haley dove deeper into the assignment. A classroom project turned into a nine-chapter book. Her rough draft grew until the day the final draft was due when she turned the unfinished book into Dr. Carter.
“We were supposed to type it up and make it awesome,” Haley said. “But I didn’t get a chance to do that because I was still writing it. [Dr. Carter] was great about it. He didn’t care; he still gave me an ‘A’ because I wrote the full story.”
Fifth grade was when Haley developed her love for reading and writing. Her chapter book sparked a love for writing fiction stories while “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card created her love of fantasy books.
“Everything about [Ender’s Game] made me want to write,” Haley said. “It’s different from anything else I’ve ever read. I don’t read sci-fi books and that is about as sci-fi as a book can get, being set in space with aliens. Something about the story and the way he writes it, it’s been my favorite book since fifth grade.
From the time she began reading young adult books in elementary school, “Enders Game” and other books shaped her writing. Series such as “Delirium” and authors such as J.K. Rowling affected her future; their style and plot ideas primed her for writing her own fantasy series.
She continued to experiment with writing as she left elementary school. Short stories and poems written as assignments in middle school and high school helped her to develop as a writer.
At home, she began to start writing chapters. Never a full book. Always just the first chapter, just to get a feel for writing books.
* * *
She started writing her book, “Rising Calm,” the summer after her senior year in high school. Haley was enrolled in Johnson County Community College for the following year. The idea for writing a series had always been at the back of her head. Slowly the main plot for the series began to form.
Two worlds in the series are separated—earth and Lyria. The main character, Cara, a junior, goes to Shawnee Mission East for the first time. She supports her younger sister and a deadbeat family. She makes two new friends at school—James and Crispin. At the same time, there is a prophecy regarding Lyria—a world that is on the brink of an end-all-be-all-war. The prophecy states that a girl will choose the winning side and all of the hopes of Lyria rest on this girl’s shoulders.
Haley made an attempt to write about Cara and Lyria everyday, some days taking a notebook to class and others sitting in Starbucks or Latte Land with her MacBook. She only wrote the scenes that she wanted to, skipping between chapters and sections with no clear idea of the overall story. She continued writing this way until one of her friends asked to see the book.
I wanted someone else to read it,” Haley said. “I was like ‘[the readers] actually have to start at the beginning.’ So throughout I would write a scene here and then go back to the beginning and write some more.”
Haley began to hand the book out to her friends and family. Her friends would read the book one chapter at a time, critiquing her story as they went. This was only the first part of the editing process. Finally, she began to consider publishing her story. Publishing came with new editors and different techniques, now focusing on the grammar of her writing.
She found an opportunity on a site she often uses called Goodreads. Through this, she found Sara, an editor for Silver Tongue Press.
“[Silver Tongue Press] loved it right off the bat,” Haley said. “It’s a little company not on the same level as Scholastic or something like that, but they wanted it as soon as they heard about it.”
After talking to Silver Tongue Press, Haley received a contract to publish the first book in her series of five on Feb. 14.
According to Haley, the ending and major plot points for the series are set but the individual events leading up to them aren’t known. Characters’ secrets began to develop into large factors, minor characters began to take on bigger roles and small facts developed.
Haley has a general picture of how characters will turn out, but they can still surprise her.
“Crispin is actually my favorite,” Haley said. “He ended up being the most surprising. I knew who he was and a lot of the stuff he was going to do but as I was writing him, he turned out to be just a little bit different in a bunch of things than I thought he would be so it was fun to be surprised by him.”
As her characters continue to develop, Haley will keep writing. Although she is unsure of where the series will lead her, she knows where she will be in the future. Her familiar table at Starbucks, earbuds in, letting the music wash over her as she shapes the lives of her characters.
Leave a Reply