I wrote "Flowers in Heaven" for the first time in eighth grade. I wrote it as a mandatory journal assignment. The story has been improved quite a lot. In this version the actual matter of flowers going to heaven comprises a very short part of the story, although the narrator alludes to it a few times. In the original, that is all the story was. There was no Dave or flashback or anything. The story had begun in the flower field and ended when they left. As I looked through my journals, I decided to rewrite it and modify it. "Blue Nightingale" and "The Gem I Gave Away" are also modified versions of journal entries. The idea of the story being a flashback somehow suddenly struck me. The only planning I had at that time was that I would somehow include a story of how the narrator was asked by her sister about flowers going to heaven in a flower field.

Dave was an idea that came later. At first I just wanted to state his existence before the flashback as the husband. Then he became a childhood friend who confessed to her. After the confession I planned to end his role, but then I included the part where the narrator starts to like him, and I revisited the confession and how it changed her perspective about him.

The elderly woman and her children were also added in later. This was not supposed to give an environmentalist message. At first there was no destruction of the flower field. The field didn't have an owner initially. This was an on the spot, new idea. It's safe to say that the news of how the flower field was destroyed must have deeply upset the protagonist. However at the same time, she confesses that over time as her sister's obsession with flowers decreased, she visited it less. Her attachment must have also been reduced. Nevertheless, she still has nostalgia towards it, and for her sister, it was a very important landmark that helped her decide on her future goals.

I wouldn't say that this short story has the most entertaining plotline. It might be boring and unentertaining to some. But for me it is very meaningful, and it is also one of my first works to be completed.

-Milo