Reflections

Part A: Me, the Writer

What have you improved in as a writer

Genre

  • I took writing a lot of poems as a goal this semester and although I am not that great at poetry, I love writing it.
  • My poetry improved significantly from the guest speakers that gave us examples along with tips and tricks. A few Spoken Words also helped me be more creative; trying to invent my own style of poetry.

 

Ideas

  • Following the breadcrumbs that I received in class and through my reading I tried to incorporate ideas of the human condition into my work
  • Some of my poems including my short story pieces, talk about the human condition such as fear, rebellion, greed, being troubled, etc. In general, it talks about humanity and its negative side.

 

Details

  • Through a lot of reading, I have picked up how to somewhat successfully set imagery. Before I used to lack a lot in displaying a scene in my writing, but now I think I have progressed in this field.
  • When writing a piece other than poetry such as a short story or an anecdote, I try to include as much imagery as I can; senses such as sight, taste, touch, smell and sound. Even in my poetry I try my best to include a bit of imagery and try to use a lot of metaphors and symbolism to convey my overall message.

 

Structure

  • After learning a lot about the many different types of structure through Mrs. Hunnissett’s presentations and our guest speakers I learned a lot.
  • In my recent poems, I have embedded the idea of a full circle in my poem. And I continue to find new structures to use them in my poems. But other than that my pieces are usually simplistic.

 

Voice and Style

  • My usual voice in the majority of my pieces are very dark because they talk about the many negative sides of a person; such as fear, rebellion, greed, being troubled, etc.
  • My usual style in my pieces that I incorporate is a deep underlying message or meaning with a lot of symbolism and metaphors, along with a few bits of imagery.

 

GUMPS

  • Through No Red Ink, I have learned a lot about sentence structure, active and passive voice, grammar and punctuation and this contributed a lot to my progress in writing.
  • Through the many activities, my punctuation such as my semicolon and colon use has been rectified, and my sentence structure and grammar has improved a lot but I still need to work on my paragraphing.

 

How would you explain your voice? What is stylistic of you?

  • As I have previously mentioned, my voice is dark because of the matter and context that I usually talk about. And because I deal with matters such as fear, and horror, I tend to have a very dark and dreary voice.
  • My style tends to always have a deep meaning and symbolism behind the overall context of my piece because I very often write poems, and poetry carries deep meanings behind their context.

 

As a mentor writer, what advice would you give to future creative writers?

  • At the beginning of the year; being surrounded by many great writers, I didn’t feel that this course would be the right fit for me. But over the course of the semester, I gradually improved my writing skills.
  • For every great writer, there has been a time where they too have struggled and so we as writers must not be scared of the unknown and learn from others to improve ourselves.

 

Future goals and plans regarding writing?

  • My future goal is to at least write my own free choice piece every week.
  • In these writing pieces, my goal is to also explore as many genres as I can while also writing with many different voices and styles so I can improve as a writer.

 

 

Part B: Me, the Blogger

What do you think about your blog

Positive

  • In my opinion, the “Real eyes Realize Real lies” that I chose to be after my name was a really good choice because it surrounds the theme of the majority of my pieces; life is harsh and not everything around us is positive and mainly repetition.
  • I also did a really good job of choosing a good background picture that matched “Real eyes Realize Real lies”.

 

Need to Improve

  • In regards to aesthetics, I could improve my blog page and the way it looks.
  • And also I should have embed more picture that better suit my piece.

 

Which student blogs impress you the most?

Jed

Kshef

Tony

What professional bloggers have you explored?

I follow the following:

 

 

Part C: Me, the Student

Discuss an “Aha” from Creative Writing class

  • An “aha” moment was when we were going to interview the elderly at Bow View Manor, and I though it was going to be boring but the trip turned out to be very amusing.
  • I also captured a lot of breadcrumbs from my interviewee that I used to incorporate in some of my recent pieces

 

What have you accomplished as a reader? What is your PLAN to read next?

  • I have accomplished going out of comfort zones to reading genres that I usually don’t enjoy very much.
  • This year I have started allocating as much time to read books.
  • My plan is to explore many more genres and continue reading genres that are out of my comfort; forcing me to be able to enjoy all types of literary genres

 

Discuss the best book you read this semester.

The Book Thief

  • The best book to my knowledge that I have read this semester would be The Book Thief
  • The Book Thief was talked about in my writers seminar when I covered Markus Zusak.
  • The way Mark Zusak used metaphors and symbolism in The Book Thief was very impressive, and the way he did not exaggerate the usage of literary devices made his writing look good.
  • And although I do not enjoy war-themed books, the author has made me enjoy this book.
  • I also liked the way the author was creative and chose death as his narrator.

 

How has reading improve your writing?

  • Reading more and more has given me a different sense of feel for books especially when I started to read a lot more. And before I used to think I knew a lot but after reading books, I came across different ideas and knowledge that I had never known before.

 

What are your next steps to improve as a writer?

  • My next steps to improve in writing is to be around those who are proficient and prolific writers so I can learn from them.
  • I should also explore the different ideas, structures and ways of writing.

 

 

Part D: Me, the FAN

This post will be an explanation of your experience from your READINGS, from Writers Seminars, guests, teachers, and other bloggers in the class.

 

WRITER SEMINAR: How has studying published authors changed/improved your writing?

Are you glad you did your writer?  Who different would you consider? Why?

  • I heard a lot about Mark Zusak and to explore about him as an author I chose him. Through the research and reading one of his books, The Book Thief, I have learnt that he uses vivid imagery, a lot of metaphorical usage as well as symbolism.
  • If I were to choose a different author I would most likely choose J.K. Rowling. I have also heard a lot about her stories such her book Harry Potter was rejected by many people, yet she showed perseverance until it got selected to be officially published.

 

What genres have interested you the most?

  • The only genre that I love is Fiction

 

What did you learn from the writers?  Inspirations?

  • Be unique and creative, then only will people like you more.
  • Quoting one of Albert Einstein’s famous quote, “The person who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever seen before.” This quote explains that one must stand out to truly be seen.
  • Instead of following others you must be creative and invent your own ways.

 

Any emulations to share??? If so, embed a link to it on your log, or include here.

The Battle field – This is one of the cold emulations that I did in my writers seminar on Mark Zusak

Do you intend to read more of a writer?  Which?

  • I wish to read more of Ray Bradbury and J.K. Rowling because their books and story plots interest me a lot.

 

 

Part E: Me, the Critic of your work

You now need to take us on a journey of 2 pieces of your writing that you are most proud of from the semester.  Each will be its own paragraph whereby you explain what your piece is about, your process of writing it, any challenges you faced.

 

Don’t Trouble the trouble until trouble troubles you

  • My title with this piece was to embed the theme of repetition just like I did with “Real Eyes Realize Real lies”. The title was supposed to be a good hook to attract the reader; so that he/she can constantly repeat the title in their head while reading the poem and see how they both resemble.
  • Initially, the challenge was when I had the idea of the poem but I just couldn’t articulate further about writing the piece. For example, after writing the first stanza I was stuck and didn’t know what to write next but at the same time, I didn’t want to abandon this idea behind the piece.
  • The poem itself served a purpose for the reader just to enjoy reading the poem with its constant rhyme scheme.
  • Instead of making this poem bland by copying the style of other writers; I gave trouble life and just described it as an animate object.
  • Overall, trying to make this poem unique was very challenging especially when I tried embedding my own style into my writing, and so when I had “trouble” writing the poem I couldn’t get that much of help because no one knew my ideas and where I was trying to go with the poem.

 

Demon or Hallucination

  • I chose the title “Demon or Hallucination” for this piece because this whole anecdote revolves around the idea that “Am I imagining things? Or is this all real”
  • The biggest challenge that I faced with this was probably “fear”. And I was scared because this was one of my first pieces that I was going to publish on the internet and also I was scared of facing criticism and embarrassment from the people who read or saw this piece.
  • This anecdote is all spooky, in the sense that I meet an entity of my cousin but I am not sure if I am just imagining it or if it is an actual ghost in the shape and form of my cousin.  
  • This piece was in a way supposed to entertain the audience with a bit of suspense because they are waiting for a scary part in the story that relates to the title but at the same time, it gives them an insight into one of the scariest moments in my life.
  • In order to make this entity of my cousin look as real as possible as to what I saw, I tried giving the audience as good of a description as I possibly could give to help them imagine this entity and the scene.
  • Nonetheless, I finally overcame my fear of publishing this piece on the internet.