Simon died from an illness as a baby, but in an imaginary world he continued to live the life he would have if he had survived. What happens when Simon tries to make friends is the story told by Cornwall Middle School students Andrew Kroemer and Daniel Duignan.
Last year, the two sixth graders joined their school’s Writing Club. Over the past year and a half, they’ve been developing their short story, “The Real Imaginary Friend.”
Kroemer was first to join the Writing Club, run by librarian Kathryn Loughran. After a recommendation from a friend, he invited Duignan to be a co-writer.
The young authors started writing during ninth period, and took advantage of any free time they had.
Using Google Documents, the two would switch off writing and providing ideas. Each day they would trade places. While one was writing, the other was editing. The authors would share ideas, but didn’t always agree. As a result, sometimes they’d take a break from writing, but when they got back to it, they ultimately compromised on their creative differences.
A month before they started writing, they developed the subject of the short story. No outline or rough draft was created, but further ideas flowed as they kept writing. In the end, the book wound up being about 20 pages long.
“We never thought it would become as big as it did. I thought we’d just show it to some teachers and they would think it’s cool.”
Andrew Kroemer
Loughran, however, had other plans. She’s been working with the students to create a cover and intends to print multiple copies, through a website, to keep in the library.
“It’s nerve wracking,” Duignan said. “Other people will be able to judge a year’s worth of work.”
Without giving much of the story away, the writers did share there are a lot of plot twists and at one point an incident befalls one of the main characters. As a result, he runs away from home.
The editing isn’t complete, but the boys hope to have a finished product, for their peers to read, within the next month.
In the meantime, Kroemer is already working on a sequel while Duignan has started writing his own series.
