All Eyes On Nathan McWilliams

Magical new worlds exist on Truman's campus - in the mind of Nathan McWilliams.

McWilliams, a freshman English major, published two fantasy novels, "Crystal Clear" and its sequel, "Nathaniel's Triumph: Crystal Clear 2," during his final two years of high school in Leonard, Mo.

"I finished writing 'Crystal Clear' when I was 17," McWilliams said. "But the publishers would not accept anything until you're 18. Thankfully, when I had finished, it was just a few days until I turned 18."

It took him all of his junior year to write his first book, and he wrote the sequel during his senior year.

"The second book was a lot easier to write," he said. "Because I already had that base of the first one. I was able to apply the facts I had from the first one, keep going, make some new stuff up as I went."

Despite being published at such a young age, he said he didn't let the local acclaim get to him.

"Since getting published, in high school, they pretty much thought I was a genius, but I just told them that I'm just a normal guy with a lot of free time on my hands," McWilliams said.

He said his books were inspired by games like "Legend of Zelda," "Halo," and "Final Fantasy."

"After I played 'Final Fantasy 12,' that's what inspired the plot for my books," McWilliams said. "You know, Basch fon Ronsenberg and Gabranth, they were brothers, both came from the same land, but they became enemies over time, and at the end, they were good to each other."

It wasn't only video games that inspired McWilliams, though.

"Half of why I wrote the first book was because I had a crush on a girl," McWilliams said. "We're friends now. The second book was written partly because I said, 'Hey, I've got some good momentum going here,' but also because of the girl."

He said the overarching theme of the two books is brotherly love.

"The plot to my first book is you've got two brothers, Nathaniel and Zeromus," McWilliams said. "There were four wayward sorcerers who came by, and gave Zeromus all their powers. One day Zeromus goes insane [and] destroys Nathaniel's hometown - that's the cliché right there. Most people are used to the whole 'man searching for his father' cliché. My cliché is that the hero has his hometown destroyed."

Other than writing, McWilliams said he likes to play video and computer games, fiddle around on the guitar and read fantasy novels. He said he wants to learn a foreign language because of his experiences with international students.

"Sometimes, I'll study on my own, beyond what I'm told to read and study, because I would love to be able to speak a second language," he said. "You know, all these international students come by, and they had to learn to speak English, and it makes me feel, I don't know - outdone, that I only know English."

McWilliams began writing in grade school. He said the very first story he wrote was in the second grade.

"I was trying to write a Mega Man story," he said. "It was very, very rough. You couldn't read the handwriting. It would say 'Mega Man fires his Mega Blaster at Sigma. Sigma explodes.'"

Despite his early stylistic hurdles, he kept writing because he had a lot of free time in school. McWilliams said he often finished assignments early and used the free time to write.

"Normally it would be about a popular video game or a really cool story that's out there, and I'd just put my own little spin on it," he said. "Of course, that would be, what do you call it … copyright violation? So eventually I had to say, well, I can make something original."

So far, he said he has enjoyed his classes and his time at Truman, and that he really enjoys the Liberal Studies Program because you have the opportunity to learn about everything.

"I'm thinking about being an English teacher," he said. "Partly because I really like hanging around international students a lot, I've always thought about going to a foreign country and teaching English as a second language."

He said a third installment of "Crystal Clear" is in the works, but his "progress is like a paragraph every two days." He said he does have some misgivings about his aptitude for action writing.

"I tried writing action, and it just didn't work," he said. "The problem with writing action, for me, was that the hero would never get shot, and you know, the hero needs to get shot sometimes."

McWilliams is optimistic about his next few years at Truman and said it has taught him to balance his writing, which is influenced by different people he has met.

"Truman has definitely opened my mind," McWilliams said.