Young author writes success story

SANDPOINT — Pauline Harris well remembers when she decided to become an author. The biblio-epiphany struck early, starting a writing career that, for this teen-aged writer, already has resulted in a stream of short stories, novels and trilogies.

“I was 7 when I just sort of figured out that books have authors,” the young writer said. “I decided I needed to have a book.”

Pauline penned a story that fell within the oeuvre of Nancy Drew mysteries, taped it together and had some friends take a look. They liked the tale, but didn’t understand her passion for writing.

Now a twice-published author at the age of 17, she finds that her classmates remain confused by her keenness for wordsmithing.

“They see it as being like homework,” the author confided.

Through elementary school, she continued to write short stories that kept getting longer. By 12, she had done fairly extensive research into agents and publishers, opting instead to self-publish her book, “The Secrets of Evelyn Taylor.”

Three years later, she completed a trilogy titled, “Mechanical” — a story that dives into the world of a quiet, somewhat self-conscious android named Drew who goes out in search of a soul. In keeping with this convergence of threes, a trio of publishers lined up to gain rights to the book. Pauline signed a contract and “Mechanical” started its journey toward becoming a published work.

Until, that is, the author saw the cover design. She didn’t like it and told the publisher as much.

“I think they were offended,” she said. “They terminated the contract.”

No big deal. She contacted the next firm down the list and they grabbed the trilogy. Luckily, the new cover design was more to her liking.

Although Mechanical has only recently been released, it feels like something that was completed a lifetime ago, the writer shared. She has finished two books since then and has just begun work on another sci-fi trilogy. Her voice has matured and the writing has become more descriptive in the interim, but the process itself is no less demanding.

The first 20 pages are always easy, she pointed out, and the ending is a breeze.

“It’s the middle part that’s hard,” she said.

Pauline keeps a hatbox in her room, where she stores snippets of paper that contain elements of a new book waiting to coalesce.

“Parts of a story, a scene, a title …,” she listed. “The box is very full right now.”

The writing goes through a meticulous progression of outlines, drafts, edits and re-edits. Once she sits down to write, however, Pauline’s ideas spring almost immediately into text. When the flow of words begins, she stays with the work, writing into the wee hours and foregoing meals to chase her characters as they lead her deeper into the story.

It’s a discipline that proved beneficial when she took part in an online project called NanoWrimo — short for National Novel Writing Month — where participants were challenged to complete a 50,000-word book within a one-month deadline. Pauline wrapped hers up in three weeks.

“I didn’t get any sleep — I was writing 2,000 words a day,” she said. “It was difficult, because I didn’t have any time to outline it. That was stressful, but it was also fun.”

Hammering out large blocks of text on a daily basis was a new routine for the author, who said she normally writes “when I have something to write about.” Still, she was pleased with the outcome and the book currently is under consideration by a literary agent.

As yet another book moves toward the publishing phase, Pauline is thinking ahead to how she might exert more control over her own work in the future.

“I’m interested in forming my own publishing company,” she said. “It’s going to be called Scripturient, which means ‘a person who writes.’”

Along with a knack for cover design and book layout, one of the writer’s admitted strengths is an ability to come up with great names for the characters in her books. One of her villains goes by the name of Benevolence Devere, while a protagonist is known as Penelope Trump. One would be tempted to think that each of these people land on the page because they represent some aspect of the author’s personality.

Not necessarily so, according to Pauline.

“Penelope is the most unlike me,” she said when pressed for a comparison.

“I’m probably most like Drew,” she added, calling out the soul-searching android from “Mechanical.” “She starts out unsure of herself, but becomes more brave as she figures herself out.”

If Drew ever goes looking for a role model, she might consider a 17-year-old author who has two published books, a third title headed in that direction and her own publishing company in the works.