2009 CREATIVE WRITING AWARD WINNER: LAUREN JOHNSON

"Writing on paper is like finger painting. I can be messier and not have the urge to correct myself, to edit constantly, as I do on the computer."

Perhaps the stress of exam week prompted Lauren Johnson to begin writing a "fairytale-esque" story about a woman being chased by a wolf. "I was falling asleep," she said, "and when I woke, I wrote the first paragraph." She wrote bits and pieces during downtime that week and finished the story over the Christmas holiday. Her entry of "The Wolf Wife" won the 2009 Creative Writing Award. Figs and Thistles published her story in its 2008-2009 edition.

Lauren almost always begins a writing project with pen in hand. "Writing on paper is like finger painting. I can be messier and not have the urge to correct myself, to edit constantly, as I do on the computer," she said. "I prefer to write in one-subject, spiral-bound, college-ruled notebooks in fun colors. Sometimes I have trouble leaving Wal-Mart if I don't have a pack of five."

"When I get stuck, I just start drawing," she said. The margins of her pages are full of doodles and squiggles and pictures. She ends up with "as many doodles as there are words." At times the writing is almost like illustrating. Sometimes she draws her characters' faces. When she goes back to reread her work, she adds cross marks and arrows.

"Taking this jumble and translating it from paper to type," she said, "I completely rewrite the story as I go from paper to computer. I write slowly. Lots of times I'll write in dialogue like a script and then have to put in breaks in speech and descriptions. It takes a long time."

Lauren is always prepared to write: "I have a mini-notebook in my purse in case I get ideas."

by Jill Frey