At OH, all students can make an impact on the school through sports teams, clubs, or charity. OH, sophomore Mason DeWolf decided to leave his mark by writing a book, The Experimentals, tailored to his age, hoping to interest students like him.
“At first I wanted to write a comic book, but since that is more difficult to do, I settled on doing a thick fictional book. But then I ran into a creative block and settled with a short story,” said DeWolf.
Even though he ran into a lot of trouble, he’s been able to rely on his friend, OH sophomore Nate Jimenez, to lend a listening ear and help him fully develop his characters and storyline.
The author with his finished book Credit: Terry Acosta 42Fifty
“I helped him build the background for the main villain and the background setting for where he lives,” said Jimenez.
Despite facing many roadblocks along the way, his family and friends loved his idea. When he got some momentum writing in his freshman year, his family was thrilled.
“Since kindergarten, I’ve been planning this. But from the first grade through freshman [year], it was challenging to write a book and get it published,” said DeWolf.
During the creative process, his friend helped him gather his thoughts and put them into the book.
“He has a lot of thoughts stored in his brain, so writing this story lets him put thoughts out of his mind and into paper,” said Jimenez.
Eventually, they got the basis for the book down. It starts as a fictional book about a teenage boy. This main character moves to a new location and uncovers a dark secret of superpowered people and untold villainy.
“A lot of people think that it’s hard to publish a book but it’s fairly straightforward,” said Mason.
One of the easiest parts of the process was to publish the book thanks to Amazon publishing it for them. The book is now available on Amazon.
“As of right now, I’m helping him write the second book,” said Jimenez.
DeWolf is working on a sequel to this book, hoping to improve upon the story by doing what he couldn’t do in the first book. He hopes to make the sequel book longer, with time to fully develop the main character and the fictional setting of his world.
DeWolf is also an actor for the OHS Fall plays, he has been so since freshman year. “Yeah I joined since it felt like something I was good at,” said DeWolf. DeWolf practiced in the 2024 play called You Can’t Take It With You, which he really enjoyed being a part of.
“Though I also have bigger goals in mind than just acting, doing this felt like accomplishing a small goal which helps make the bigger goal attainable,” said DeWolf.
With acting season now in break, DeWolf finally has time to work on turning his dream of writing a book into reality.
“Much like in my time in acting, once I finish a small goal it helps me focus on my larger ones,” said DeWolf.
My name is Terrence K. Acosta and I am a Senior in Oswego High School.This is my first year in digital journalism, throughout my final school year i have ventured into many endeavors and school interests to see if one of them captivated me. However I've had no luck anywhere, so I have given journalism a try. I am hoping to enjoy this role in the school a little even if I still have to keeping looking for what captivates me in school.
