In one of my college English classes, I was given an assignment along with everyone else to write a book review. I was getting good grades on these routine assignments, but was sick of writing them. I actually wanted to become a better writer, not just earn a good grade. I decided to risk failure and petitioned my teacher to let me write a fictional story based on a character in the book. If I neglected to put in the effort, I’d accept a failing grade, but I needed him to agree to not fail me simply because I didn’t stick to the assignment or couldn’t write good fiction. After some persuasion, the teacher finally agreed. I worked really hard on that paper because I was a complete novice at writing fiction. I ended up doing ok, but not as well as I would have done writing the book review.…
