Meet 17 year-old author Chelsea Schar-Grant - the creative genius behind In My Dreams

Where did the inspiration from your book come from?

 
I wrote ‘In My Dreams’ during an English lesson at school when my teacher, Mrs Koefer, gave us time to do creative writing. I was inspired to write a calming bedtime story or school reader to inspire the imagination and dreaming of young children to help them become all that they were born to become (which is our school motto) and to remember that just being yourself is also special.

What is your favourite childhood book, that most influenced you as a writer?

 
My favourite book in my childhood was ‘The Terrible Underpants’. I thought it was so funny and I made my Mum and a family friend read it to me over and over again. I also loved a book my Aunty wrote called ‘A Letter for Leah’ which is about the excitement of getting a letter in the post.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?


Even though I am only 17 years old I have been an avid writer for a lot of my life. I have always loved books, reading, writing, poetry, speech and drama. My school teachers asked my Mum if they could send some of my writing to different competitions and I won poetry competitions such as the Adelaide Plains Poetry competition, Runner-up Young Writer's Award in 2016, my poetry was published in the SAETA Poetry Anthology, and I have gold medals from the Adelaide and Balaklava Eisteddfods. Last year I achieved a Certificate in Voice & Communication from AMEB/Adelaide University.

 
How long did it take you to write your book?


I wrote ‘In My Dreams’ during my English lesson at school. It was like all the words came flooding quickly and flowed onto the page. I love it when that happens, and I get my best work when I have these moments of inspiration.


What is the most challenging thing about writing?

I would love to write a novel or longer stories, but it is challenging to stay with the one idea for a long time without starting on something else. As I grow older, I hope to mature into my writing and develop more skills to create projects like novels.


What do you hope young readers take away with them after reading your book?

'In My Dreams' uses imagery and rhyming to create a calming voice and inspire imagination and dreaming. I hope children and parents can spend time together dreaming out loud. With each page the child can be taken on a new journey as a different type of future job and carries them along in their minds for example, a pilot flying high, or a police officer protecting lives.

 

At the end of the story, hope my readers will remember that no matter what they choose to do, they are beautiful inside and out, by just being themselves.