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Tyler Henry
Mrs. Corbett
4th Period
19/4/2012
Final Speech
Mystery, thrills, and chills. These three things have inspired me to write for my senior
project. Ever since I was young, I absolutely loved to read, especially mystery and whodunit
books. When we first needed to choose what we wanted for our senior projects, I jumped at the
chance to write a mystery book of my own. My end product is my published book, Playback,
where private investigator Joseph Barrow hunts down a criminal ring in his town. At times, this
project has been a rollercoaster for me; writing this project has been one of the best things I have
done so far, and at the same time, one of the hardest things I have ever done.
My research paper was based around the troubles and innovations of the publishing
industry throughout the ages. While publishing only took a short time for my project, it played a
large role as it was one of my major aims to accomplish with my project, and because I was able
to publish my book, I was also able to put it up for sale The most interesting fact that I learned
while researching publishing was how publishing allowed for the spread of vast amounts of
information throughout the centuries, and its spread throughout the world. From scrolls to
scribes, from the printing press to printers, the world has come a long way from the beginnings
of the printing industry. For instance, the Gutenberg press was one of the first printing presses in
Europe, and allowed for the expansion of printing and publishing throughout the times. Later,
innovations such as the steam-powered press would expand and advance the use and power of
presses until knowledge was able to be spread instantly through computers and the Internet.

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Understanding the history of publishing has really enabled me to see the value of innovation and
publishing, as I had no troubles having my own book published.
My product is my book, Playback, a one-hundred twenty page mystery novel. I chose to
write a book because my passion for reading, and because I have never written something to the
extent that I have written this. I first started by drafting an outline and a dramatis personae, a list
of characters and their personalities and descriptions. Then I started to type it up, where I had a
few bad starts before I was able to settle on a beginning which felt right. On some days, I would
sit down and type absolutely nothing. On other days, I would sit down at my computer and watch
as the words flowed from my fingers to the screen. Later on in my project, I learned why editors
get paid so much for what would seem to be an easy job in the age of the spell check. I can not
believe the amount of mistakes that I would have missed had I not had a few people look over
my book. However, I would not have been able to type or edit a single thing if it had been for my
facilitator.
My project facilitator was Farris Yawn, who is the owner of Yawn’s Books and More in
downtown Canton. He was actually the facilitator of several other seniors who also wanted to
write and publish books; this is due to his experience in having books published as well as
facilitating seniors in their senior projects. He helped in a number of ways, mostly by providing
advice for writing, editing and making the layout for my book. Farris provided immense help, as
I had no idea about some of the complexities in book making, such as how far down on the page
to put the title or how to stagger page numbering. His main role was the publisher of my book,
which accomplished my project goal.
While writing a book, it is not too hard to write as long as you have a concrete idea to
work with and are able to focus on that idea. I learned that it can be difficult to focus while

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writing for hours without end. If I did not make sure to zero in on the idea I had, I could really
diverge from my original purpose. At times, I would really lose track of where I wanted to go
next or what to write about next with my characters.
The monotony of staring at the computer for quite a while was another problem I had
frequently. The more I worked on my project the worse it got; even though I was closer to
completing, I just could not sit down and type as much as I needed to. This was probably one of
the biggest problems I had, and never got over it, as it was not a simple issue.
Writing is very simple. However, writing a book in a much shorter time than actual
authors is extremely difficult. Writer’s block was a common obstacle while writing my book, and
as I continued writing my book I found it more and more difficult too. The problems, however,
did not start at the end of my writing, but started at the beginning. I was even unsure of how to
write the beginning of my book, and it did not get easier to contend with my growing boredom.
Despite that difficulty, I would probably write another book rather than not write one
ever again. If I did write another one, many of the problems that I had while working on this
would be solved or even non-existent. Now that I know the process for book-making, my next
hypothetical book would be easier to write than this. With the ability to correct my mistakes
when writing Playback, my next one could be a piece of cake. Just as well, I would not be so
limited with my book through a deadline as I was with Playback; while I might not be
completely free of a deadline, I could expect to have a year or two even to write it.
Over these past few months, I have learned of my strength in writing, and I have learned
of my inability to focus on writing for very long. I learned of the joys of writing, and I have
learned of the frustration of writer’s block. Yet, despite my inabilities and weaknesses with
writing, I had a great time doing it and probably would do it again some other time. With all of

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my new knowledge and experience from writing my book, I would encourage for others to write
their own books. In fact, I challenge all of you to try to write your own books if you have not
written one already, and have them published. Thank you for coming here and listening to my
project, and good luck if you try to take up my challenge.