SelfDesign provided the tools for this learner to write and publish her first novel.

“You need self-discipline, but without a supportive community, you won’t get near to the potential that you are capable of,” says Maia about writing as a career choice and the role SelfDesign Learning Community played in helping her realize her dream to become a novelist.

Maia began writing Thrown To The Wolves in January 2018; in June 2019, the Falkland, B.C., teenager graduated with a Dogwood Diploma (B.C. certificate of graduation), after 12 years with SelfDesign. In the time since, she has finished writing and polishing that first novel, researched publishers and self-publishing platforms, published the book on Amazon, and is now crafting its sequel and plotting out a third book in the series.

That’s quite an accomplishment. She credits her work ethic, drive and persistence to succeed in her craft to the support that her learning consultants and learning specialists provided through grades 10–12.

Support

“My English 11 and 12 mentors really taught me how to be clear in my writing,” she says. “I tend to ramble in my writing. The help of my mentors and all the resources that SelfDesign provides gave me a greater understanding of concise writing. I learned about run-on sentences, broken sentences, and general poor grammar. And Science 10 in SelfDesign enabled me to learn how to find credible sources of information.”

If it wasn’t for that support and guidance, Maia says, “I probably wouldn’t have put in the effort to get the story published.”

Freedom to explore interests

SelfDesign also allowed her to pursue her interests and passions.

“I think the biggest learning for me was the ability to take my learning into my own hands,” she says. “Without the countless crazy, huge projects that I came up with, I never would have had the conviction to finish this project.”

In grade 6, Maia undertook a project to learn about the Okanagan River Basin, where she lives, and explore how, where, and when the water flows. “I realized how little information there was about the waterways and where they went. The project ended up being scrapped, but I learned how to create a project that was achievable and realistic but still really pushed me.”

Another of her huge projects allowed her to explore her interest in horses for an entire learning year. Maia rides English-style, competing with her horse, Rory, a Welsh cob cross, in dressage, and enjoys backcountry riding. “I was going to do mini–stop-motion videos of horses through the ages, with a voice-over of my research over the course of the 1400s to present day, but I soon realized that, between the stop-motion – which takes forever – and the long, slow process of gathering research and putting it into a cohesive script, the project was far too big.”

The project instead led to two short videos – one about the 1400s medieval horse and the other about present-day horses.

“Without the freedom to try wild, crazy, huge projects in the first few years of school and my storytelling journey, I probably wouldn’t have gotten this novel to publication,“ she says. “In English, I wrote short stories and, in my last year, I did some short films. These experiments and the feedback I received helped me to take constructive criticism. This made the editing process easier, and I was able to learn a lot from it. “

However, the novel wasn’t one of Maia’s SelfDesign projects. “I kept it separate, because I wanted to just do it for fun, without any hard deadlines,” she says. “I do wish now that I had used it for more assignments, because it was such a cool project.”

Thrown to the Wolves, which Maia published on Amazon with cover artwork by fellow SelfDesign graduate Wilde Marsh, draws on the research skills Maia used in her horse-video project. It also is informed by her grade 10–12 learning experiences – in particular, coursework in which she learned about women’s fight for the right to vote and about how many rights that women today enjoy are so recently attained.

“It led me to explore the idea of how women in history could have had the power to change things in their world.”

Community and self-discipline

The novel follows the story of Myra, a princess of medieval-like Gandalon. Myra is abandoned in a nearby forest by her father as a sacrifice to the gods for his not having had a son. She adopts a wolfpack, which she communicates with. Hardship, derring-do, tragedy, intrigue, betrayal, and bravery ensue.

The story emphasizes the theme of acceptance, belonging and community, a theme Maia returns to when she talks about her own SelfDesign experience. “SelfDesign has always been a place I could really feel a part of the community. I’ve always felt like I’ve belonged here.”

In fact, she says that sense of community was as important to her finishing the novel as the support and freedom she had to explore her passions. “I learned through SelfDesign that, although most of your learning comes from yourself – meaning you are in charge of actually learning what you are given – and most projects require a lot of self-discipline, if it weren’t for community, both in SelfDesign and in my own town, the story wouldn’t have made it.”

Self-belief

Maia specifies one key lesson from her novel-writing and publishing experience that she wants to share with other learners, aspiring writers and everyone else:

“Trust that all the work you’re doing now is going to lead you where you want to go. Don’t say it’s bad or can’t happen before you even start – there are so many people out there who have always wanted to write a novel, but they can’t get past their own mental blocks. You are already ahead by starting. This applies to all dreams, not just writing,” she says.

“Trust that you have the power within you to follow your dreams, and try not to doubt yourself. You’re a lot stronger, braver, and more resilient than you realize.”

 

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