Part A
Writing identity prior to course.
I was overconfident in my writing skills, I believed that I was really great and that this course would be a breeze. I then learned, about a month in, that I still had to go a long way to develop my writing identity. I wasn’t a writer before this course, I didn’t take last year’s seriously until the end, so I didn’t have enough time to develop last year.
Writing identity now
I have found an identity that works for me, if I’m completely honest the identity I have created does not fully reflect me, it’s more for the purpose of fulfilling the requirements of both this class and english 20-1 and 30-1. I am more realistic in the identity I have, I am nowhere near as overconfident about it, I have developed my identity to see and showcase my strengths and to be true and acknowledge my shortcomings/ weaknesses.
Development
Ideas: I believe I’ve found the ideas upon which I can work from and know how to work things to fit with what I can and can’t do, without limiting myself from branching out, although that last point still needs some work.
Details: I have never been one for detail, i find over description to be boring and as such out of my realm for what I want to do. However, I have being trying to work more relevant details into my writing, especially after I heard about Important items in stories.
Structure: I really didn’t try to work on this at all, it was not my priority, but in developing my skills with writing social pieces, i think some of the structure has leaked into my creative writing.
Voice and style: I think I’ve found my niche, I have built my own style and can see it in almost everything I write. My voice is also my own, I can tell that I’ve written the things that I post, with my specific word choices and poeticism.
GUMPS: Still trash, I have been trying to go over the things I write more, i have at least fixed most of the capitalization mistakes, or so I hope.
Explain voice and style
I try to write in a slightly poetic way with word flow and a specific perspective. My style is very character focused, I forgo setting details instead for more of a look into character specifics.
Mentor
Read, it helps a lot, don’t wait too long to figure that out. Also do take the course seriously, it can help a lot if you pay attention and put in effort.
Plans/goals
Pass 30-1 diploma, I don’t love writing all that much, it isn’t a passion of mine, and I can’t see myself happy in a future that holds a lot of writing. However I do see its importance and as such can’t see myself not taking CW again next year.
Part B
Development as a blogger
I actually paid attention to my blog this year, and because of that I didn’t hate it nearly as much as last year. If I’m honest I’ll never really like my blog, but I didn’t despise it this year. I have started to flesh out my blog to fit myself better and I have also kept up to date reading others, forgoing comments for the most part however.
Blog critique
Positive
I updated it, I am proud of some of the things up there, but really I just like the way it looks, I feel my blog fits my personality well and as such enjoy the aesthetics of it.
Negative
I still don’t like blogging, it really isn’t for me, and for my to put 100% into something I really need to enjoy it, because of this my blog is not as clean or as updated as I want it to be, i just can’t find it in myself to put 100% into it. Although I did try to mask that better this year.
After the course
Unless Marlow uses blogs in 20-1 it will sit stagnant until creative writing 35. I do plan on using and expanding my reading ladder to keep myself accountable to reading even if I don’t do anything else.
Student blogs
Sheema and Shane, I enjoy both of their specific styles of writing and can see myself checking back to see if they have posted anything.
Professional bloggers
None, I have no passions that work well with a written blog, the topics I do care about are done better justice in video form, so I haven’t explored any blogs outside of the class.
Part C
AHA
When you told me something along the lines of “If your story has no important items, it has no important story.” or something like that. Once I heard this I took a long look at what my story was and realised you were right, my story had no important items or story points, so I changed it a lot.
Reading
I READ A BOOK OVER CHRISTMAS BREAK, i have never done that before, it was big for me to read something over the time I could have been doing nothing. MY favorite book I read was “Ready player one,” I just loved how connected it was to my own hobbies and passions. I can’t entirely understand or explain or understand how reading helps writing, but it does, I’ve started to read more and can see my writing improving as well, but I can’t tell you why, magic maybe?
Writing accomplishments
Not a whole lot, I have worked on making it better all around, I haven’t done anything extreme with it or anything that stands out, just practice and dedication to doing it. I plan to continue writing at least a little in my free time, I have accepted how important it is and as such will continue to drudgingly do it.
CW plan
Of course I’ll take CW again, I’d worry about you being lonely without me, how could you possibly teach a class without me? Not possible. Now on a less serious note I do enjoy CW it is a fun and supportive space for me to develop my writing, which has come a long way but still needs a lot of work.
Part D
My writing seminar: I was happy I did Tatiana De Rosane, I ended up not liking her books all that much (I read sarah’s key, and some of “A secret kept”) but I did learn a lot from her work. She uses a lot of simple poignant sentences, that has helped me with my excessive comma use, as I have emulated some of her style to try and cut some of my sentences down to hold meaning without going overboard on length. I would have rather done either Shane Koyzcan, or Drew Karpryshin, they are my Favorite writers. Shane would have made a great writer’s seminar, he has so much style and meaning and I think it would be interesting to explore some of why that is… maybe next year? Drew on the other hand is not nearly as simple to picture as a good seminar, he has had an extensive career and many accolades for his vast amount and variety of work, but it is all rather simple can’t type reads. (Not that that can’t work, but I did that last year so…)
Other’s seminars: I absolutely loved Lucas’s writer and am seriously considering picking up “The Martian” book, the mix of both beautiful writing and in depth science and mathematic topics really gets my attention (I love everything to do with math and science). Some of the snippets of great writers best passages gave me a lot to work with, even if they didn’t evolve into full emulation pieces, almost all the passages gave me an idea to expand on or incorporate into other works of mine. If there was one emulation I liked it was was “Oh my enemy” from my October poetry submissions, I can’t exactly remember what inspired it but it included the line “oh my enemy” somewhere in it. https://g8m8848.edublogs.org/2016/11/17/poetry-october-submissions/. No writer’s seminar really opened my eyes to a new genre, I still focus mostly on reading fantasy and sci-fi, but Andy Weir may lead me to more Sci than Fi in future reads.
Part E
This piece is titled Shattered Reality, the name is supposed to go with the theme and idea of seeing and experiencing something that isn’t real.
17 word summary: (not exactly 17 words)There once was a man, a man in love, tormented by the thought that he could hurt those he loved.
I wanted to write this piece because of a few reasons 1) I needed a piece for my free choice for September. 2) I had this kicking around in snippets all over my journal and mind. 3) I like (more so at the time) the way this piece turned out. The main inspiration for the piece was a song, Hello by Evanescence, then my mind took over and turned into this weird thing. The song is similar to the piece in that they are both about illusions, seeing what isn’t there, and insanity. I went for a try at poetic description of a surreal setting with fully gory (for me) details, I think it worked well but, if I had the drive and the time I would very much like to rewrite it as I have learned and improved a lot this year. As I said this story lived in pieces all over my journal and mind from the end of last year. In September I decided to bite the bullet and make something out of what was a disorganized mess. In review this piece is the perfect representation of what I was as a writer, and with the other 2 pieces I share can be used as a benchmark of my progress this semester.
https://g8m8848.edublogs.org/2016/12/09/they-say-they-felt-pain-november-submission/.
They say they felt pain- the title is a joke about one of the lines, specifically “she said her soul hurt” it is a joke about how teenagers say that they feel pain and their lives are hard, when in all reality they aren’t.
17 word summary: They knew the risks, they had been told, but they faced the devil with open arms and were accepted.
The explanation at the end of the piece speaks to the intended audience and the purpose as well as the influences. I went for a direct style with this piece, with some definite blame being placed, I forwent my usual style of poeticizing everything and decided with such a serious topic I would be lyrical for a build up then bluntly state a point. Originally this was two pieces, one being the first 2 stanzas then the paragraphs being something completely different, in writing the second part i saw that the poem i had made with the 2 stanzas fit the piece and added it in. Other than the mash up, the other revision this piece went through were a few changes when I typed it out, then I revised it with your suggestions. I honestly think this is my best piece of not just this year but that i’ve ever written.
https://g8m8848.edublogs.org/2016/10/26/letter-to-you/.
Letter to you- the name of this is really the name of the letter, it is to an unspecified person about the distance in their relationship.
17 word summary- letter to a man that everyone thinks is dead, the bonds of love can’t so easily be broken
This piece was 100% for me, I wanted to write a piece like this and did, I enjoyed writing and enjoy reading through it every so often.
This was really all me, I think we did an activity or read something as a class that sparked it, but I can’t remember, so it couldn’t of been that important.
I can’t see any glaring style or craft points, this was purely an enjoyment and candy write, it wasn’t meant to mean anything, or show anything. It was simply fun to write and fun for me to read.
This piece started as me trying to write something profound and cantered on the stress of a wife or girlfriend while their significant other was across the pond fighting in either world war. I didn’t like where that piece was going, I just couldn’t get it to work the way I wanted to so I made it something a little different for me
If it ain’t obvious, i love fluff, this was my first pure fluff story and I loved writing it, and I read it over every so often when I want to smile and feel good.