Many high schoolers dread having to write essays or stories. However, there is one particular student who not only likes these challenges, but has a gift for writing. That student is senior Maddi Carr.

Carr has enjoyed writing for numerous years, and through those years has developed an excellent skill and proficiency in writing and grammar. “I love to read through my old stories, but they’re super cringe-worthy because I had no idea how to develop my characters with any finesse, so they spent a lot of time doing random things that made no sense. That’s still something I can improve on,” Carr explains. Through the years, Carr has written “hundreds of stories, I just don’t finish a lot of them.” Ever since she was young, she has had a passion for writing and creating worlds along with her friends. “My friends and I used to make up stories about ourselves where we would end up in our favorite universes from different shows and movies, and eventually I started writing them down.” She has considered trying to publish some of her completed work, and has researched it some, but has yet to submit any.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of genres, including combined genres. Out of all of these, Carr’s favorite to write is science fiction. “There’s a lot of freedom . . . you get to make up intense, ridiculous-sounding words and then just play them off as real . . . you get to pretend that it might happen someday in the future.” Senior Lexi Jones has admired Carr’s writing throughout their friendship. “Maddi is able to incorporate so many different aspects into just one piece and can get into a deeper meaning. She’s able to put a bridge between her subject and possibly another. It’s just really great and intelligent and thoughtful.” Whenever Jones reads any of Carr’s writing, she is always astonished. “We sit next to each other in Writing 122, and her research paper is connecting the show, Dexter, to her hopeful major of Psychology. Her writing is just is so inspiring.”

Her progression as a writer has been seen at all levels of students, and faculty. History teacher Dave Case had Carr as a pupil for AP U.S. History. “She came in a really polished writer. Sometimes students that are that strong of writers have trouble adapting to the specific style that AP wants, but Maddi did that very well. She knows when to use a simple sentence or one with more complex thought.” Case sees her going far in writing in her life and in many different fields as well. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s the Secretary of State or something like that. I could totally see her becoming a professional writer. In her artwork, she’s an excellent artist as well and her attention to detail matches with her art and writing. It has to be perfect . . . there’s not a comma out of place.” Carr would love to write as an adult, but perhaps not as a primary source of income. “If I’m super lucky, and I find myself with free time in the future, I’d love to write books in my spare time and publish them. But it’s a lot of hard work and kind of hard to do casually.”

Carr recently presented her extended application project, which was a book she wrote. “I wrote a story for my EA project about a boy helping another boy deal with his sister’s leukemia. It’s emotionally exhausting though so I took a lot of breaks to write silly scenes that I never put in the actual book,” Carr says. Many people aspire to be writers, and Carr had some advice to give her fellow story-makers. “Don’t feel bad for not finishing your stories, and always take advantage of inspiration when it strikes cause you’ll write the best stuff then. Even if it means writing at like 3 am.”
Carr who has written for much of her life has continued to push her limits and is constantly improving her skills. Many who have read her stories know her talent and how inspiring it can be. So next time you see senior Maddi Carr, you might be witnessing the creation of a whole new universe.