Creative Writing Commons^™

The Survivors, Abigale Ralston

Honors Theses

Set over 100 years in the future, this story follows the lives of teenagers Alex, Leon, and Paige. The world has been destroyed. In order to survive, humanity has had to learn how to survive in space, in a vehicle called simply The Ship. Lately, however, Alex and his friends have noticed problems occurring on The Ship, indicating a disaster may be imminent. Alex, Leon, and Paige are now tasked with finding the causes of the problems and saving the last of humanity from extinction.

Phoenix Rising: A Scout Is Born, Seth Hunter

Honors Theses

The Kingdom of Taris lies in flames, a shadow of what it once was, crippled by the Brutes of the Northeast. The King and Queen’s deaths, followed by their only daughter’s capture, cast a shadow over Taris, far darker than the depths of the Old Mines.

Are We Good Or Bad Or Somewhere In Between?: An Original Novel, Faith Lymburner

Honors Theses

This thesis is an original fantasy/crime/mystery novel that takes a look at the concept that no one is just good or bad; instead, everyone is somewhere in between. The process/challenges of writing my first novel and leading into writing a mystery/crime novel (this is the first draft).

Mountains In The Deep, Andy Strauss

Honors Theses

When Evan, prince of the Fourth Quadrant, sees a vision of a ghost-like crown hovering over his father's head, he is sent on a dangerous mission to face the mystical shadow beast ravaging his kingdom--the same beast that has marked him as its prey and that will stop at nothing to hunt him down.

Challenging White Fragility Through Black Feminist Political Poetry, Langley Leverett

Honors Theses

Due to overwhelming patriarchal hegemonies that women – white women, rich women, young women, and cis women – continue to uphold, feminism struggles to serve all women justly. To combat this negligence in feminism’s fourth-wave movement, I will use this thesis to highlight ways that Black feminist poets have not only shaped feminist theory through their own contributions, but also have prolonged and saved the livelihood of both gender and racial equality. With a strong emphasis on Intersectional Feminism, I will explore the ways in which women can be united against tokenistic power, beginning with the inspiration from three voices: …

A Bag Of Marbles, Cora Saddler

Honors Theses

A short story collection that takes inspiration from the magical mundanities of everyday life.

Hello, Olive, Bec Braly

Honors Theses

Mia Bailey is forced to live as someone she’s not. Fighting her way back to her own life, she unearths some dark secrets about her family.

Making The Bible Modern: How I Created A Retelling Of The Good Samaritan, Laura Beth Warner

Honors Theses

This thesis includes the process and methods employed in creating a modern-day retelling of the parable of The Good Samaritan for a first-grade audience and the final product of a children's picture book.

Our Stories, Paige Wright

Honors Theses

My first memory of feeling absolute and utter horror stems from my father. You have to understand, my father is a large man who, in the right light, is terrifying to a small child. This first memory is from a few days before Halloween. My parents had just bought some of those colored, spooky bulbs (they may have been purple or orange or red, in truth, I cannot remember) and were trying them out in the living room. I simply remember coming down the hallway—I may have been four or five, we definitely still had the dark, 70s style paneling …

Editing The Editor, Adeline Goodman

Honors Theses

When I was in the fourth grade, sitting at a round wooden table at the end of our kitchen, I wrote the first story that made me proud. My mom, Karrie Goodman, had taught me how to turn the dinosaur of a laptop on, plugging in the dial-up and giving enough time for the machine to whirl to life. At the time, we had a CD player nestled onto a shelf nearby, which was where I began my first inklings of a writing process, a writing preference. At that malleable age of barely ten years old, I preferred a glass …

Daniel's Journey In First Grade / El Viaje De Daniel En Primer Grado, Hannah Gallagher

Honors Theses

After growing up in a city where I was privileged to observe a combination of cultures, I felt especially drawn to how children grow up in these environments, especially as it pertains to education. With this in mind, my thesis easily became a place for me to write and illustrate a bilingual children’s picture book. This picture book is for children between the ages of five and eight years old and is written in the English and Spanish languages. I have focused the book specifically on circumstances that immigrant children from Central or South America might encounter, as they adjust …

Once The Ashes Settled, Brittany Parker

Honors Theses

She grabbed her ballcap that she had worn almost every day for the last thirteen years and started the short walk. A three blocks jaunt had its advantages on days like today, especially this morning. He promised he would pick up the roses and meet her here at eight which hopefully allowed them enough time to have a private moment before people started moving about. As she waited, she stole a few glances at the space around her, the water a constant reminder of what all had been taken in the background. It had changed so much over the years, …

Crafting Comics: My Journey Through The Creative Process, Carrie Hill

Honors Theses

When I was 12 years old, I drew a short, goofy comic book that followed the adventures of Carrie Hill and her wacky friends. Now as a 22-year-old graphic design student, I've continued to draw comics because they can tell stories with great depth using only a sequence of images. Whenever I read Ben Hatke's Zita the Spacegirl or Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant, I dream of publishing a graphic novel or comic strip. This dream prompted me to create several comics for my thesis, exploring different genres and styles. My original intention was to develop several 10-page comics, …

Stories From Elsewhere: A Novella, Andrew Crook

Honors Theses

It's certainly rare to see people with animal heads while walking down the street, but it has been known to happen. On the occasions when a person does see someone with an animal head, they think something along the lines of, "Oh, what a quaint performer!" or something equally as posh and oblivious. Peter, however, was a man who didn't trust his own reasoning. Not if he could help it. So, when he happened to see a person with an animal head while walking down the street one fine Saturday, he paid attention. There it was, down the alley: a …

Notes From Kilroy: A Collection Of Stories Inspired By The Lives Of Arkansas Wwii Veterans, Victoria Anderson

Honors Theses

No history is far from static, not even mine. Some people may think history is stuck in the past, along with the lives that have come before, but if that were the case, there would be no point in studying or even recording history. If it is truly something that dwells only in the past, unmoving, then it would not affect anyone--but it does. As William Faulkner said, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past."

It is the same with God. God is not confined to a certain time or place. He surrounds his sons and daughters and guides …

La Bete Noire Et Le Beau, Hannah Wright

Honors Theses

Betrayed by the one who is supposed to care for her most Marceline must find a way to reverse her curse before she loses everything that makes her human and her mind reverts to that of a beast.

In The Flesh: Fiction As An "Incarnational Art", Marissa Thornberry

Honors Theses

My goal in this paper is to support O’Connor’s claim that fiction is “incarnational” by providing additional evidence and addressing implications that she doesn’t. I am professing that fiction-writing is indeed “incarnational,” in even more ways than O’Connor directly expresses. If this thesis holds true, then it is difficult for Christians to rightly make light of the art of story-writing. Contempt for creative writers is tempered in our time more by a trend toward tolerance than by public or personal conviction of the human need for storytellers. Even in an environment where making money and tending to physical needs and …

The Limbgate Visions: A Novel, Sean Jackson

Honors Theses

Charlotte Crow was killed on her eighth birthday.

Or perhaps Charlotte never existed, and the whole tale was a product of a few children’s fevered imaginations.

Perhaps those children were themselves driven to murder by their imaginations.

Perhaps Charlotte’s dream world outlived her. Or perhaps it was her father’s dream.

I cannot judge the truth or presume to understand this story. I can only present the testimony of a few witnesses, to judges more knowledgeable than I.

I went to immense lengths to compile these diaries. My search began a few months ago when my grandfather, Robert Lamb, passed away. …

Show Me A Story: The Creative Process Of Communicating Truth Through A Picture Book, Katie Hopmann

Honors Theses

After working at camp for six weeks during the summer of 2011, I was exhausted. I had great expectations to love the camp counselor life, but God was continuing to shape exactly how I would serve Him with my life. Driving home from camp, I was confused. I felt Called to minister to children and so badly wanted to be a "camp person." I wanted to be that awesome camp counselor, full of energy and fun, but I had discovered I was simply not. Like God often has, He spoke strongly to me when my pride was broken.

I had …

Interwoven, Ellen Eubanks

Honors Theses

Fantasy (and speculative fiction in general) is often looked down upon. People don't see it as having any literary value beyond entertainment. I respectively but vehemently disagree. Stories have power. Our emotional involvement in stories makes their lessons stick more than the simple presentation of an idea will. They can slip things into our minds without us realizing, sneaking in behind our defenses....

When I began to think about what I would write for my OBU Honor's Thesis, I was, naturally, drawn to the idea of writing a fantasy novel. For my Directed Study, I worked on doing a bit …

Freeflight: Conveying Christian Redemption In Realistic Literature, Anna English

Honors Theses

When I began writing Freeflight in 2008, I did not think of it as part of the "Christian fiction" genre. I intended to write a realistic novel1 containing ideas that interested me, such as unconditional friendship, the effects of fame, and the world of modern rock music. I wrote for a secular audience, envisioning my novel in the mainstream fiction section of a bookstore instead of on the one shelf of Christian fiction squeezed in the back corner. But finding the best balance between Christian themes and a non-Christian audience is a complicated matter. In this thesis, I attempt to …

"This Frightful World" By Alexander Blok Translated By Jason Curlin, Jason Curlin

Honors Theses

Alexander Blok was one of the poets of a movement that would come to be known as the "Silver Age of Russian Poetry" and thus an avid Symbolist, in fact the leading Symbolist poet at this time. The poets in this movement, while maintaining in many places the strict rhyme of the earlier so called "Golden Age," began to deviate from the strict meter of that time. These poets are products of their time, the earlier 20th Century, and were heavily influenced by those they found around them.

"This Frightful World" was begun in 1909, a mere four years after …

Not Growin' Up: Poetry For Children, Lindsay Chastain

Honors Theses

If adults are the prime reviewers of children's poetry, then children may not give the poetry a good review. After writing my own children 's poetry and having it read by Dr. Johnny Wink, I put it to the test of Gifted and Talented fourth-graders. These bright students gave me feedback on my poetry and told me where to improve. At the completion of this project, I submitted a collection of my works to two children's book publishers for review.

Mooncakes And Marshmallows, Jessica Schleiff

Honors Theses

Hannah Jones awoke on the morning of her first day of school in a cold sweat. All summer she had dreamed the same dream. It was about her first day of 10th grade, her first day of high school. Her dream first day was fine. Nothing went wrong. It was a normal first day.

Normal day.

Normal Dream.

Normal Hannah.

But then why djd it freak her out?

House Of Leaves: Navigating The Labyrinth Of The Deconstructed Novel, Molly Throgmorton

Honors Theses

Ever since I learned how to read, I assumed that books must be read a certain way: open to the first page, start at the top, and read from left to right, top to bottom, page after page until the end. I thought that books have one main narrative told by one narrator, and that this narrative has a clear beginning, middle, and end. I also believed that books have clear meanings and explanations (tense). After reading Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, however, I realized that not all books are so neat and predictable.

House of Leaves is …

More Than Just Books: Using Fiction To Help Young Girls Relate, Katie Michelle Simmons Laney

Honors Theses

In recent years, I have had the opportunity to work in a variety of ministry settings. One such setting brought me in contact with a girl who was in a bullying situation. In her case, she related to me action taken in her classroom by her teacher at the urging of her parents. The situation had been remedied, but she was still dealing with the emotional repercussions of having been a victim of relational aggression. In my acquaintance with the girl, I knew she enjoyed reading. Therefore, she helped to inspire my original thesis idea of learning more about the …

Mime: The Musical, Aaron House, Matt Landers

Honors Theses

This is a script, including scores and lyrics, for a new musical.

Premise Listening is the key to harmony. Those who do not listen to others provoke disorder, chaos, and war; but a listening ear brings peace, love, and happiness.

Cast of Characters Siga -A rebellious mime prince, who believes in talking and especially singing; Rayrna -The beautiful princess of Speak City; King- The old fashioned king of Speak City; Queen- The King's nagging wife; Advisor- The King's evil advisor, who wants to marry Rayma; Guard 1- One of the King's guards; Guard 2- Another Guard; Guard 3 - One …

The Story Of A Picture Book: A Process Analysis, Christy Evans

Honors Theses

Creating a successful picture book is neither an easy nor simple process. The illustrations must-harmonize with the text, move the reader smoothly through a story, and be, as Burningham puts it, "verdant." To achieve this, an author/illustrator must be prepared for constant revision. In my story The Fantastic Transformation of Frog the main character experiences some bizarre changes, but reverts to his normal state in the end. Through my process of creating a picture book, my story also went through numerous changes, but, unlike the main character's changes, these changes were not reversed. They led to other changes.

Nowhere Land, Andy Davidson

Honors Theses

This is not a finished manuscript. Even after two semesters of work, I have not found the time to complete it. What follows is a book that is still in revision. It has a beginning and an end, but in between are numerous errors and oversights on my part, things I have yet to correct. Also, the content is not in its final form. Sentences will change. Characters will change. What you're about to read is my second draft, but far from the final one.

Pictures Of The South: A Novella, Paul Brent Williams

Honors Theses

Definitions oftentimes are not definite enough. By their very nature, those little clips of what is what in our world fail to capture anything but trivia or insignificance in their attempt to label Creation. Simple definitions fail because they do not prescribe to us our concepts of environment but describe our general ideas of that stuff around us. And it' s a great big world.

Try to define God. You cannot. He's too much; he's too all-encompassing; he's too personal; he's too far removed. But still, mankind knows Him. We know Him through our holy texts that discuss God in …