YOUTH SPOTLIGHT: Dotson, the young author

Maddison Dotson is a creative sixth grader with a remarkable gift for storytelling. She envisions a future where her love for writing transforms into a fulfilling career, allowing her to share her passion with the world.

She enjoys reading and writing fiction and non-fiction and hopes to become a published author who inspires others one day.

“I first became interested in writing because I love reading. I love to express creativity. So that’s how it really began,” Dotson said, “I like writing non-fiction because I feel like I give people the gift of truth.”

Dotson said she enjoys being on the Cottonwood Valley Middle School yearbook crew.

“My teacher has been allowing us to write articles for the newsletter and begin with the yearbook stuff, and I’ve written quite a few of the articles,” Dotson said.

She said she’s written articles on field trips, student council and spelling bees.

“I think about my future. I think about things like wanting to be an author and have all these job opportunities. And then I thought, why not journalism? It gives people the truth while you also paint a picture with your words,” Dotson said.

She enjoys embodying different characters and telling their stories when she writes fiction.

“I like being involved in a story, like I feel like I’m in another character’s skin, or, in some cases, scales,” Dotson said.

One of her favorite series is “Wings of Fire”. The fifteen-book series follows seven dragon tribes that have been at war over an ancient, lost treasure for generations.

She loved the series and spent two years writing a book inspired by the characters. Unfortunately, her computer crashed, and despite her father’s best efforts to recover it, she lost the files.

“So now my book is gone,” Dotson said.

But that hasn’t seemed to stop the young writer, who is now working on another book.

“My book, which I’m writing now, is based on a dream that I had. It’s a little shaky because it was a dream, and I just had to put it down on paper,” Dotson said. “My first chapter is about 5000 words.”

She said that when she gets writer’s block, she goes back into her story and rereads it for inspiration.

“Then if I still have nothing after that, I take a break because breaks are perfect for that but not too long of a break,” Dotson said.

She said if that doesn’t work, she’ll often turn to music for inspiration.

Dotson said she has support from her family and looks forward to her future.

“She’s very smart and very good with her words,” Kourtnie Dotson, her mother, said. “If she goes down this path, she’ll be very successful.”