From MHS Graduate to an Author

MHS graduate and now BYU-I student, Adam Schellenberg, shares his experience writing and publishing a novel, and takes us on his journey to becoming an author.

Schellenberg has always been very creative minded. Often having scenes and stories floating around in his head since he was a child, which formed the foundation for his novel. After about 7 years, Schellenberg finished his first book.

“For years I wanted to publish. I began writing as early as 13-14 years old and formed the foundation of the book I published. It took me three years to write 50 pages because I kept deleting and rewriting everything! I took a couple year break to start college and go on a mission then continued again when I returned home. I wrote 300 pages in just 2.5 months, completing the book I had started so long ago. It was a journey and struggle to determine how I would edit and publish, where I would get cover art, and what places would carry the book, but it was all worth it,” Schellenberg said.

Schellenberg’s fantasy novel will be at the Madison’s Public Library next week and is a story about two friends trying to find justice in their country.

“The genre is fantasy and it follows the story of two friends struggling to find their way in a new place and right many wrongs that have corrupted the country. One of these friends, Drew, masquerades as a long-searched prince, but struggles with this deception while he and his friends are working to help ‘his subjects’,” Schellenberg said.

Schellenberg gave encouraging advice to students who are even thinking about writing and publishing their own novel.

“Struggle through the hard parts! More often than not, I sit down to write and feel that nothing is coming. It’s like opening the fridge when you know you’re hungry, but nothing sounds good. It seems like whatever idea you wanted to write down just won’t work. At first I was unable to finish because I thought that I had to wait for this feeling to pass before I could continue writing, but that never worked! You have to struggle through that feeling and force yourself to write something. You have to start that chapter, no matter how bad you think it will be. Write something horrible and promise to go back and fix it later. When I force myself to do that, usually the feeling is gone in about ten minutes and things start to flow much easier,” Schellenberg said.

Click on the link below to check his book out on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Empty-Throne-Adam-Schellenberg/dp/B08DT1FS1N/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=the+empty+throne&qid=1600304473&sr=8-2