1. List/discuss
several of the different pieces of writing you've done this quarter, including
posts, comments, creative pieces, journals, in-class writings, and things
you've written on your own.
1. When
I think of different pieces of writing that I have done in the past quarter,
the first piece that my mind jumped to was my scary-story writing we did around
Halloween. My story is called “The
Secrets of a Psychopath.” It is inspired
from a picture of a man and a woman standing in front of a door with a body
hanging on the wall in the background. I was proud of this piece of writing
because I think it wrote itself. I loved unraveling the story and it was almost
as though I was reading it and not writing it. I could picture everything
happening in my head, and it was just putting it down on paper. This piece made
me excited to show people, and I probably got a lot of views by telling people
to go read this particular post.
2. Another
activity I loved doing (and maybe went overboard on) was our entry in our
journal about giving physical characteristics to non-physical things such as
love or depression. It included giving what the characteristic looks, feels,
smells, sounds, and tastes like. I did a good many of these, and even recently
I have considered writing some more. This is probably my favorite short
activity, and I will probably write more in the future because it is therapeutic
to write about what heartbreak or childhood is like.
3. A
nice creative piece we did in class recently included making a poem out of
words from another. I really enjoyed this because it was therapeutic to get it
out of my system. I had gone into that class-period with a lot on my mind, and
after writing this piece I feel like I got a lot of it out of my system and it
gave me perspective on my own feelings. In other words, it gave me a chance to
observe and figure out how I could make myself feel better. We have done many
fun activities in class before, but this one really just came in at the perfect
time.
2.
Name/discuss a couple of
pieces you’ve read this quarter, including other classmates’ work and/or
reading you’ve done in or out of class.
1. In
class we read different poems and songs to make our own pieces of writing, and
I enjoyed making my own works using similar words as other authors. It really
made me think about the different mindset that everyone has and how people’s
minds go different ways when they approach the same words.
2. I
read a piece of writing by Trevor Cobb, called “Yellow Submarine.” I enjoyed reading this because it was
clever, and we were talking about it for days. I remember texting Trevor later
that night after we had written our scary stories, and even he was freaked out
and could not sleep because of it. When I read it, I remember thinking about
how it could really happen. And it’s the stories that can happen that get to
you the most. Even now I think about being trapped in a submarine, and it is a
scary thought—to be trapped in a place that nobody would ever think to look for
you. This story stuck with me, and is probably one of my favorite writings by
any of my classmates.
3.
Write about setting up your blog and what you have gotten from that
experience. How did you come up with the name for your blog? Who do you think read
it or who would you want to read it? Will you continue to use it on your own in
the future? What kinds of things will you post?
Setting
up my blog was a fun experience. From having a blog, I have gotten a unique way
to share my writing with the class as a whole. It allowed me to get comments from
other people, and it made it easy to share my writing with friends and family
wherever I was because I could always just pull my phone out and show it to
them. It was a great way to share things with the world, and it made me want to
try harder—even if I knew that there really weren’t outsiders reading it. I
came up with the name of my blog by using alliteration, and it just sounded
catchy. Trevor followed in my footsteps when he did Trevor’s Terrific Tale (www.TrevorsTerrificTale.blogspot.com,
or just click on the cat with the pizza on the left sidebar.), and after that
it just seemed like an easy and fun way to come up with a name. My family and
friends read it, especially when I wrote something I was proud of and would
tell them to look up. My mom would get on and read things sometimes, and my
friends would look up specific posts if I told them about it. That was my
targeted audience, so it worked out nicely. I think I will continue to post on
my blog every once and a while. I will probably post pictures I draw and maybe
poems that I write if I get back into doing things like that. If I get inspired
by a picture, I may try to write about it again.
4. Write about journaling. What kinds
of things are in your journal? Who would you want to read it? Will you continue
to journal? What will you write about?
I
may still post things into my journal, at least until I fill up all of the
pages. I think most of the entries will be old assignments we have done, but
done differently. And I will probably try to do more magazine art. I have
poems, collages, stories, and different kinds of art inside of my journal. I do
not want anybody to read my entire journal, because some of the entries almost
feel like they belong in a diary. Although most people would not know what
inspired them or what they represent, it is scary to let anybody see it, just
in case. I want to keep my journal forever. I want to be able to look back on
it and maybe get inspired to do more creative writing.
5. Type an entry directly from your
journal that you consider notable. It could be a paragraph or a page or so.
Depression…
…looks like my journal pages, words
filling every space on the page.
…feels like a lump in my throat, and a
weight on my heart.
…smells like the ‘willow scented’
hairspray I used in 8th grade.
…sounds like fast and silly music
streaming through my headphones.
…tastes like salt after I cry “just
one more time.”
6. Type or copy/paste a passage or
section directly from one of your pieces of writing that you consider notable
or your favorite that you’ve written. It could be a section or a page or so.
This is me and my
brother Kylin,
learning how to play
together before we could even walk;
becoming friends before
we could even talk.
This is two life-long
friends,
kept together by a
friendship between two young women--
our moms.
This is two smiling
babies,
without a single care in
the world.
This is before the
fighting, before the separation,
before the move. It is
when life was simple. Without grades,
video-games, driver's
licenses, heartbreak, hockey, debate, or even potty-training.
This is before life
really started for the two of us,
before I was scared we
would drift apart.
This is my one and only
older brother,
maybe not by blood,
but by the time we have
had together.
7. What creative writing do you plan
to do in the future, if any? What do you get out of writing creatively? How
does this differ from the other writing you do, in school and in life?
I plan to go back and maybe do an old
assignment again, if I enjoyed it. An example would be writing a poem out of
magazine letters. I really enjoyed doing pieces of writing stemming from other
things. So I plan on doing that again.
When I write creatively, my writing comes more naturally and I tend to
write things that I am proud of more often than I do when I write things for
school or life (such as a college essay.) Writing creatively is much more therapeutic,
and I usually feel better after getting things down on paper. I never knew what
it could be like to write things that make me feel better until I learned all
the different ways I could go about doing it that weren’t just poems.
8. Offer some final words of
encouragement, appreciation, inspiration, etc. for your fellow writers you’ve
worked with this quarter.
Trevor- I really enjoyed having this
class with you and I think it might have been the perfect class to take
together. I say this because I have always known what a great writer you are
and I consider myself lucky to have been able to watch your thought process as
you write and also to have inspired some of your pieces. (Cough cough, how
about them airplanes?) You are my best friend, and please feel free to send me
your creative pieces of writing any time. I think you will go far with your
career in writing, and I am not just saying that because you’re my best friend.
(Although, let’s be honest, I probably wouldn’t be telling you if we weren’t
friends, because that might just be awkward.) Please come to Drury and make me
more excited than I already am to go there.
Naomi- I am so glad I met you this
semester, and I am going to miss you so much next semester and especially after
this year when you go back to the Netherlands. It has been a pleasure creating
so many memories with you, and I really hope we get to hang out outside of
school before you leave! Your writing has always cheered me up, and you are
definitely a very large reason as to why I loved Creative Writing so much.
Teyondra- I think I spelt that right!
I loved making memories with you in Creative Writing, and I feel like I made
another buddy to talk to after school. You are incredibly nice, and have made
me laugh many times this year. You are a great writer, and I am always
impressed by what you have done when you share it with the class. We should get
together sometime just to hang out. You were so great to have in class, and I
am very very glad that you came in and sat at our table on your first day. :)
9. Leave a comment on 3 of your
classmate’s blogs.
Okie dokie then.
