#FreeWriteFriday: The Beginning
"The smell of musty books lingered in the distance." That independent clause was the first one in the futuristic novel I began to write in fourth grade. I've always gone through book genre phases. At that point, I had just progressed from beloved young adult science fiction novels — Lois Lowry's "The Giver" and "Gathering Blue," to name two — to more adult classics, such as George Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm." The idea of an alternate way of life captivated me so much that I daydreamed about it for the next few years. But I didn't just want to create my path — I wanted to create someone else's. So, I started to write. "8563" began in an antique bookshop, where Chloe Blackwood (which weirdly turned out to be…