Seniors Brendan White and his friend Andrew Burnham, a former Kearsley student now attending Davison High School, are currently in the works of developing a novel.

White and Burnham have been interested in writing and coming up with ideas since the eighth grade. The two have been working on their current story development for about two years, finally settling on the current plot.

Without revealing too much, the story can be summarized as a group of people who were inexplicably brought back to life and banded together to work to defeat a great enemy.

The most difficult part for the young writers has been keeping a steady pace of constantly working on their novel.

“The hardest part is keeping it going,” White said. “It takes a lot of time and it’s easy to get caught up on little imperfections and details and to not finish with the rest of the story you have left to write.”

Burnham agrees with White, also including the struggle they’ve had narrowing down details and bringing the novel up to par.

“The biggest challenge is definitely time and pushing ourselves to write,” Burnham said. “When you write, sometimes it feels as if it’s not good enough, so it’s a lot harder to get yourself to continue adding on to something if you feel as if it’s not at the level you want it.

“We’ve had to push through that, and we’re learning now we can bring it to the level we want with hard work.”

White shared advice to any young people that would like to complete a similar task.

“Just write. Write what you want, how you want, and about whatever you want,” White said. “Write to express yourself, and for no other reason than that. And find the time to do so. If I learned anything from Andrew, it’s that you don’t need sleep.”

Burnham said young writers require a large amount of persistence.

“It’s not a short process. If it is, you’re doing it wrong. Think it through,” Burnham said. “Constantly ask yourself, ‘How can I make this more realistic?’

“The process is incredibly rewarding. But like anything else, it has its ups and its downs.”

White and Burnham do not have any interest in pursuing a long-term career in writing. They see their writing more as a hobby.

Both mentioned that if the novel were to receive large praise, they could see themselves writing more.

The pair expect their novel to be finished, or close to being finished, by the end of the current school year.