Kumari Pacheco, junior, was accepted into a creative writing pre-collegiate program at Stanford University.  She sent her application in January and received her acceptance letter in April. She applied because of the program’s prestigious nature and potential opportunities to receive letters of recommendation from Stanford professors.  She believes that the experience will strengthen her college resume.

“I hope it will give me very good training on my craft, which is writing, and it also might look good on my college resume that I went somewhere to get a genuine college experience in my high school years.” said Pacheco.

The applications for the program included questions about the applicant’s work ethic, involvement in writing competitions, paragraph writing and samples of the applicant’s writing, both creative and academic.

Additionally, she is interested in potentially pursuing her higher education at Stanford.   This is largely because of its location in California, because she likes the climate of the state as well as its progressive political ideals and culture.  She also finds the look of the campus to be very different from that of Saint Louis colleges, which appeals to her.

“I’ve lived here a good three-fourths of my life, …so it’s nice to have a change of scenery.” Pacheco said.

Pacheco’s interest in the creative writing field started as a child when she read many books, especially ones in the fantasy genre.  She names Erin Hunter’s Warriors series and The Sight by David Clement-Davies as her primary inspiration.  The Warriors series, an ongoing series about clans of feral cats living in a forest, were the first chapter books she ever read, and they inspired her to write stories that humanized animals.  The Sight, a book about a pack of wolves,  inspired her to write books about animals for an older audience and made her realize that books about animals did not have to be exclusively for young audiences.

“”I thought the same thing [that books focused on animals were for children] until I read The Sight.  That was a really big adult thematic book. It was still fantasy, but definitely not for children, and I thought ‘wow, this is a genre that can be for multiple different ages.”

Pacheco says that her passion for writing comes from the idea that you can use it to take readers into worlds from your imagination.  

“Eventually I felt like it would be really cool if I could create a world from my own hand and be able to explore it on my own and share it with other people” Pacheco said.

Pacheco’s work mostly focuses on wolves and other canine animals.  She says that she finds their pack mentality makes for great material, and also writes it in a way that is relatable to human social structure.  

“I feel like wolves are very similar to humans in the fact we are family animals.  We like to hang out with individuals of our own kind, so I feel like it is very easy to relate wolves to people, which is why I use them a lot.” Pacheco said.

In Pacheco’s writing, wolves are portrayed in ways similar to Native Americans and Pacheco has taken inspiration from the cultures of native tribes for the behavior of the wolves in her stories.  

Pacheco says she currently working on a novel about a pack of wolves living in a large, mountainous forest.  She says she has been working on it since she was twelve years old.  The main theme of the book is real heroism versus perceived heroism, as well as faith versus doubt, and fate versus free will.  She plans to finish the book in December.

“Most of the books I read have one or more of these themes so I’m playing off of what I’ve read.” Pacheco said.

Pacheco says that when she first started writing the book she prioritized characters before the plot, but has since decided that the plot should come before characters.

“Plots are really the unique element.  Most characters are archetypes, but its the plot and environment you create that is different.  It’s easier for me to add characters to that.” Pacheco said.

Pacheco recommends that anyone looking for success in creative writing would take the work in small steps, rather than looking at the big picture, which she says may be daunting.  She also recommends that you read a lot for inspiration.