Natalie Shaffer enjoys reading historical fiction, realistic fiction and science fiction, and her favorite stories have kept her guessing until the end.
For the purposes of this story, we won’t use any cliffhangers.
Please, join us in congratulating Natalie who is the Grand Prize Winner for the middle school division of the Flash Fiction Contest Awards, which is organized by the Western Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English. Click here to read her story, “Three.”
“It’s really cool, because I like reading a lot and have never really tried writing before,” Natalie, who is in eighth grade, said. “So, it made me really happy, and it made me want to try writing more.”
Natalie decided to try fiction writing several weeks ago when Mrs. Tammy McQueen sent an email to students about the contest.
Mrs. McQueen, Deer Lakes’ K-8 gifted support teacher, wasn’t surprised Natalie wanted to try something new.
“Natalie is such a neat kid with a wonderful personality and a great sense of humor,” Mrs. McQueen said. “She’s a really hard worker, thoughtfully creative, an academic risk-taker, a go-getter and a deep thinker. She's definitely a shining star.”
The flash fiction piece had to be less than 500 words with plot and character development.
Natalie’s writing process included drawing stylistic inspiration from the suspense of stories she’s read in her Advanced English class and garnering feedback from her teachers. The plot of her futuristic story stemmed from her interest in the environment.
“It takes place in the future and centers around a girl who is feeling the side-effects of a polluted earth that doesn’t have oxygen or water,” Natalie said. “It’s one day in her everyday life. The message I was trying to get across is if we don’t do something now about pollution, this could be our future. We have to take action now, so we don’t have to deal with this kind of future later.”
This isn’t the first time Natalie has earned recognition in a regional competition.
She earned first place last school year in the middle school division of Powering Pittsburgh. She teamed up with Elizabeth Strang, Jillian Beiber and Lia DeForce-Petersen to come up with alternative ways to power the city of Pittsburgh.
Their solution was an underground biomass electric generation plant to produce power throughout Pittsburgh.
When Natalie isn’t competing in academic competitions, she participates in strings, softball, cross-country and student council.
“Natalie is a wonderful young lady who is very invested in her education,” Natalie’s eighth grade Advanced English teacher Mrs. Charlena Welteroth said. “She is always willing to try new things. This couldn’t have happened to a more deserving young lady.”
Natalie plans to enter more academic contests, including fictional writing.
“I’m not really sure what else I want to write about yet, maybe more earth-friendly stuff or other problems in the world right now,” Natalie said. “I don’t know, though. We’ll have to see.”
True to her love of fiction, Natalie is going to keep us guessing.