Middle School
Worksheets
Mark Wakely
Mark Wakely is an innovative writer with an interest in science. He has learned over time that writing a successful novel happens first through trial and error. Each mistake is a valuable learning experience, and it's these experiences that help writers grow in their skills.
Wakely has been fascinated with science since he was a young boy. Anything related to science intrigued him. He enjoyed telescopes, microscopes, rocket models, and the space program. When Wakely was a senior in high school, he started a science club. He also mastered the science portion of the ACT college entrance exam. He earned the Bausch and Lomb Science Award. Although his passion for science still remained, Wakely changed the direction for his future during his first year in college. He felt the need to express his artistic side, so he turned to English as his major and began to pursue writing. Wakely started writing poetry and short stories, but he found himself naturally drawn to writing science fiction. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Wakely eventually worked his way to the position of a college administrator at Elmhurst College, an esteemed college in Elmhurst, Illinois. He also got married and began a family. Wakely's need for a creative outlet, however, inspired him to begin writing part-time.
While working in his full-time career, Wakely began writing his first novel. From the start, he had doubts that he could ever write something with enough length to be considered a novel. He had no desire to write a novelette or a novella because his heart was set on the completion of a novel. Wakely started writing with only a general idea of how to begin or end his novel. His number one concern was length. Wakely attempted to "pad" the novel with content, thinking that he could later edit the length. He feared that once he began cutting content, he "might accidently slice into the very soul of the book." He spent years working on his first novel. However, the end result and the consequence of Wakely's self-doubt was a bloated novel with too much length and not enough soul.
