Part A:
Prior to taking Creative Writing in grade 12, I felt as if my identity as a writer was solidified. I believe my talent truly shines through poetic writing. Last year when I took this course I felt as though my writing was geared more towards expository writing and storytelling, however, I have come to find that poetry is much more enjoyable to write and I end up coming up with more ideas as I am more motivated in that type of writing. I would say that now my writing identity is more or less the same. This year I do not think I have done a whole lot to better my writing and because of this, I have in a way stayed in the same spot. In terms of genres, I feel more inclined to write about horror with a bit of non-fiction thrown into the mix. Reading and listening to countless pieces of writing that incorporate these genres have inspired me to reach outside of my comfort zone and write about the nitty-gritty. Reading the works of authors such as H.P Lovecraft has also motivated me to incorporate aspects of poetry with a chilling horror backdrop. I have learned to use minor details to effectively set up the scene for a specific setting that I want to showcase in my writing, so I have tried to not shy away from going really in depth about specific details. My structure in writing has developed in which I have tried to separate specific lines within my poetry so that I can emphasize on important details and create a contrast between two ideas. That way I will effectively hook the reader and create symbolism in a way. I would say that my voice and style in writing has shifted more towards the poetic side as I am now exercising what exactly I can do with my poetry. My expository writing has fallen off a bit but I am ok with that as I am much more enthusiastic about poetry. My writing also incorporates styles of imagery and symbolism that may take the reader a while to understand the true purpose of a specific writing piece. As for my GUMPS, I believe grammar has always been something I haven’t put a lot of time into since I would say my grammar is quite good. My voice as a writer is more poetry driven with a touch of narrative writing. I like to incorporate both my expository writing and poetic writing in order to tell a story while at the same time having symbolic elements and a detail-loaded read that is interesting and able to hook readers. A piece of advice I would give to future writers would be to never give up. Always try and persevere. I know that losing motivation hurts the individual and will ultimately hurt your ability to write. If you’re really serious about becoming a great writer you need to overcome these things. Get over writer’s block. Seriously. Just put anything you think of onto the page. Spill it all out. It really helps. If you need proof read my blog post “soul.”. Honestly, when it comes to writing I don’t know what the future holds. Previously I wanted to become an author but I’ve recently lost a lot of motivation for writing. I hope I can someday pursue this and work towards being the top notch quality writer I know I can become.
Part B:
Prior to taking creative writing in general, I had never blogged before. I knew exactly what it was and why people do it but I never felt the need to get involved as I spill all my ideas onto loose leaf. After taking creative writing I started to become more in love with blogs as I realized anyone could see them I wanted people to see my work. I wanted to be noticed. It really made me feel more comfortable sharing my work with both my classmates and anyone else that could take a look. Blogs as a whole have increased my confidence when it comes to having other people read my work, which I think is vital considering critiques are probably the best way to improve as a writer. As for this year, I feel I definitely could have written more and made my blog much more complete. There’s a lot of things missing and because of this it has, in a way, downgraded my blog. Now that I am graduating and the summer is upon us, I want to put more of my work out on my blog and make it more complete. I want to make up for everything I didn’t do this semester and expand upon my writing skills. I will continue to follow all of the student blogs there are in the creative writing class as I am curious to see what everyone else will do with their blogs. I have honestly not explored any professional bloggers as of yet (besides Ms. Hunniset :D) but in order to grow as a blogger and a poetic writer, I will definitely look into that. This year I have not blogged as much as I could have so but I will try my best to make up for it in the future and especially in the summer to come. I want everyone to see that I love writing and that I am not afraid to share it with anyone. +
Part C:
An “Aha” moment for me would be during class where we were to write about different images that Ms. Hunniset would show us. We could emulate or we could just explain what was going on in the picture. I found this to be very interesting and it helped me branch out my writing. I also felt some of the river walks to be an eye opening experience as even though I have been to Edworthy Park many times, it still feels like a brand new adventure and there is always something new to write about. This showed me how diverse and varying the outside world can be for writing, as different things can always happen, which can ultimately affect your writing depending on the day. You never know when you’re at the right place at the right time for you to create a masterpiece. As a reader, I have started to read books that I would normally not read, such as Crank by Ellen Hopkins. As I am starting to fully embrace my abilities pertaining to poetry, I felt as Crank would be a perfect book to start the semester off with. The author Ellen Hopkins as a very interesting style of writing where she tells a story in poetic prose, which creates a distinct atmosphere. Ellen Hopkins essentially embodies what I am trying to perfect as a writer, that being poetry mixed in with narrative writing. Novels by Ellen Hopkins along with books covering topics such as mystery and government conspiracy are things I have learned to appreciate as a reader. I plan to look into more of these kinds of novels about mysteries as they incorporate a lot of what I am trying to do with my writing. Reading some of the professionals will help guide me into what I want to be good at in my writing. By looking at what these authors do in terms of sentence structure and stylistic choices and details they include within their writing, I can see what I need to work on myself and I can essentially teach myself the best ways to tell a story while mixing in some poetic devices. As a writer, I have learned to embrace the mystery and to not be afraid of what’s to come. There is no such thing as failing when it comes to writing. I want to take on the horror genre and hopefully, come up with some interesting ideas there even though I have no experience in that area of writing. I am embracing it. If I was given a chance I would definitely take Creative Writing again as I love this course for bringing new ideas to me and making me embrace the things I would normally be uncomfortable with. If there is a course similar to this in university I would take it without hesitation.
Part D:
Studying other authors, especially ones that I am not fond of, has vastly changed my writing as I am now branching off into many different categories of books that these authors write about, and so I am learning different techniques and stylistic choices that I try to incorporate in my everyday life. Some of the styles of writing, such as horror, have peaked my interest and now I want to be able to write in that genre confidently, therefore I will practice. For the writing seminar, the author I chose to do was George Orwell, a dystopian novel writer. The reason I chose him is because I usually do not read dystopian novels and he sparked my interest, as well as the fact that he was a different type of writer overall. Orwell covers more dark and mature themes within his novels that really encourages thinking and reflection about a lot of key aspects of life. I have learned from George Orwell to be aware and not be subdued by the government or really anyone that tries to convince you that they have power over you. George Orwell shows us that everything is not as it seems and that knowing information is one of the greatest assets an individual can have. If I had to choose anyone different it would probably be H.P Lovecraft as I have come to love his style of writing and the poetic devices he uses in his writing and short stories in pieces such as The Call of Cthulhu. He also writes horror which is something I am starting to get into, which is also another reason I would choose him instead of George Orwell. The horror genre has really interested me above the rest and I hope to start experimenting with this as I start to write more again. From these writers, I have learned that it is okay to be afraid of writing. There is no problem there. Whenever we do something that is outside of our comfort zone it is only natural that we feel a little fearful. The problem arises when you let this distract you from writing and sharing your writing with everyone else. You cannot become a better writer without critique. Lack of confidence within yourself is also a major downfall as in order to become a great writer you need to have faith in yourself and put all your efforts into what you’re doing instead of shying away from it and ending up writing something that does not reach your full potential. Ellen Hopkins has been an inspiration to me as her stylistic writing reflects what I want to achieve in my own writing, a mixture of poetry and a narrative-driven concept. An emulation I would love to share is one I did in class with one of the pictures Ms. Hunnisett showed us. This piece can be found here: https://ifyourereadingthisyoureonmyblog.edublogs.org/ I intend to read more of Ellen Hopkins work such as Glass and Burned. Hopefully, by reading and understanding how she writes I can improve my writing and start incorporating her stylistic choices into my own writing.
Part E:
This writing piece is about time as a whole or the absence of time. Me as a grade 12 student, I have realized what little time I have left and I wanted to reflect upon this within all of the writing pieces on my blog. Time is a very important part of life, especially now and I feel as though it is most appropriate to have written about this now as I have so little time left. There was a lot on my mind and the main challenge was how to keep it concise while also getting my point across.
When I posted this blog I was feeling very overwhelmed in life and I just wanted to spill out everything that was going on inside my head. I just wanted everything out so I could feel better. The lack of grammar and punctuation expresses the laziness and sense of naturalness. I want the reader to know that this is real and all there was during this time was raw nothingness. The challenge I faced with this was keeping it interesting enough so the reader would read all of it. Without punctuation and no capital letters it kind of makes the writing piece seem “dead” in a way so I had to try to keep it alive.
This piece was from an emulation I did in class from a Dr. Suess poem “Oh The Places You’ll Go”. This really related to me as in a few months I’ll be starting a different journey and pursuing something I actually want to do. In this poem, I reflect upon everything I did this year and the things I didn’t do. While it is very short, I believe it sums everything up quite nicely. Since this was a Dr. Suess quote originally I wanted to keep that in check while emulating it into my own poem, which became a challenge because I wanted to keep Dr. Suess’s authenticity and simplicity while also incorporating more complex ideas of struggle and regret.