PART A: You, the Writer
What was your writing identity prior to the course?
I came into the class a lot more confident this semester than I did last year. That confidence made it easier for me to jump back into writing everyday in a creative way, instead of just doing the personal journaling I had been doing after Creative Writing last year as a way to keep writing everyday even if it wasn’t in a super creative way.
What is your writing identity now?
I think coming into the class with more confidence really did help me focus on writing about things that we more personal than last year. Not so much in the deeper idea range but more focusing on less vague things even if they are popular themes and ideas to write about. I do enjoy creative writing however when I don’t have to it’s still not a very big priority of mine. I am trying to work on that; however, I have a feeling my daily writing is going to stay in the personal range instead of the creative. That said, the class has helped with my confidence and I wish to continue to and expand on that and try my best to stick with the creative aspect of writing.
Reflect on your development as a writer.
We have focused a lot on GUMPS this year in class so I do feel like my GUMPS have gotten much better than they were last year. Genre wise I’m not into poetry this year as much as I was last year but I do enjoy doing flash poetry and letters. In regards to structure and ideas, they are all the same or similar to what I was doing last year. However, this year I came into the class with a voice already figured out so it was nice being able to jump back into that right away instead of trying to figure out how I was going to communicate with an audience. Details wise I’m still trying to figure out how to include some better imagery and symbolism into my writing, especially the poetry since it is a challenge for me although I do think that I have improved in that regard since the beginning of the semester.
How would you explain your voice? What is stylistic of you?
My voice is a little bit different this year than it was last year. I’m not as blunt as I used to be when writing but most of my writing is still very straightforward and easy to understand and interpret. I do use a lot of short and simple sentences to serve as statements in my writing but other than that I’m still working on using intentionally stylistic things in my writing. I would love to say that my go to sentence type pattern or really bad GUMPS is a stylistic choice but unfortunately, I just need to work on that stuff so it doesn’t really appear in my writing.
As a mentor writer, what advice would you give to future creative writers?
Don’t try and pressure yourself to write amazing things every time you sit down. There will be some days where you are on fire and writing some of the best things possible, write as much as you can those days, but don’t beat yourself up when you’re writing and nothing is turning out the way you want. Also, read as much as you can, different genres and levels of literature. The writing will come with the reading, they go hand in hand with each other.
Future goals and plans regarding writing?
This is a skill that I hope to carry on into University. I find that writing helps me express myself in ways that other things don’t and that in itself is a very useful skill for me to have and continue to develop. I’m not sure if I will keep up with the blog but the journaling for sure is something I hope to continue with.
PART B: You, the Blogger
Reflect on your development as a blogger
I’m getting a lot better at not second guessing myself when it comes to posting on my blog. I do like my blog and it continues to grow on me the longer I use it. That being said, I haven’t made blogging a routine in my life and in order for me to keep up with it, I need to incorporate it into my routine, which at this moment I don’t picture happening.
How would you critique your blog?
I would say as an audience member it must be frustrating to follow my blog; simply because I will be very inactive for a while and then post 2 or 3 things in a row, which can be frustrating. I would like to give myself time to spread it all out and be a little bit more consistent with the postings. I love the way my blog looks however, and am very proud of the writings on there and how it’s all laid out.
What will you do with your blog after this course?
I’m still not sure what is going to become of this blog when I’m done this course. Knowing myself I’ll probably keep up with it for a bit and then just slowly stop posting. To me the journalling is the more valuable part of the class to me, rather than the posting of my writing. We’ll see, maybe I will surprise myself.
Which student blogs would you continue to follow?
Well assuming everyone keeps up with their blogs, I will continue to follow Jade’s blog, Lucas’s blog, and Alysha’s blog. I became fans of these writers last year and this year in the class and would love to continue to read their writing as they grow, develop, and mature as writers.
What professional bloggers have you explored?
I haven’t explored a lot of professional bloggers besides cooking blogs that write life stories before the recipe I’m trying to find, which frankly is more annoying than anything. I know it’s not blogs but I love keeping up with TED Talks and watching Shane Koyczan’s spoken poetry videos on Youtube or his website.
PART C: You, the Student
Discuss an “Aha” from Creative Writing class.
I loved the walks that we did in creative writing to the river, they really helped with inspiration and finding closer relationships with others in the class. I really enjoyed the writers seminars that we did as well. They help me to find something to write from as well as introduce me to new writers and other genres. As a whole I really enjoyed everything that we did this year in creative, although the non-fiction stuff wasn’t my favourite, I did learn something from every unit we did.
What have you accomplished as a reader? What is your PLAN to read next?
I read so much and I have shortened my list of books I wanted to read. However, my list has also grown double the amount of books I have taken off of it. I finished a couple of books that I have been trying to read forever, as well as a bunch of F. Scott Fitzgerald books that my sister got me and I really wanted to read some of the classics that I got but I might have to throw in the towel because I am really struggling with some of them. This semester the best book that I read was Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald. It is beautifully written and super blunt which is interesting to read since most of the time you get unneeded context or description. I also really appreciated the time she took to establish the characters and help them grow through the novel. Reading does so much for my writing, being around a constant supply of other writing styles and bigger ideas helps my own writing become more developed as I am exposed to those bigger themes.
What have you accomplished as a writer? What is your PLAN to write next?
There’s not a lot of writing pieces that I have done this year that I really love, but I have been able to work on my confidence as a writer which has ended up being a really good thing for me to be able to do this year. I had a really big jump in my writing abilities last year which was something that was really cool for me to be able to watch happen for myself and see reflected back in my grades for my English class. I haven’t been able to see the jump and improvement that I have made this year. Mostly because it’s not nearly as large as last year but also because I don’t have that external mark that’s directly showing me how the work is paying off. As for my plan to write next, I’ve mentioned that already a few times in this final reflection, I mostly want to try and keep u the habit I have created for writing on a personal level, and then see if I can incorporate some sort of creative writing into that. I don’t think if I start off a goal to write personally and creatively I’m going to be able to keep it. I have to work it in to what I am already doing just in small amounts so that I am still doing it and if I end up writing something that I really like I will be able to expand on that and maybe post it on my blog at some point. I would like to keep up the blogging but it really depends on how much I write outside of this class with my own inspirations.
Will you take Creative Writing again? Why? Why not?
I would love to take Hunnisett’s creative writing class again but I have to leave for university so unfortunately I cannot unless it is as an alumni experience. I don’t have much interest in taking a university level creative writing class simply because this is very fun for me right now and I feel like taking it to university level would kill some of the fun for me.
What are your next steps to improve as a writer?
My next steps are going to be working towards a different type of writing since the plan for my life is going to be more academic writing. That type of writing is not anywhere near as fun but is will help me work on my GUMPS which still need the help. That being said I’m going to try and keep up with the creative writing as it is a good way for me to process what’s going on in my life. As for actual steps I would like to keep up with the grammar and some creative writing prompts so that I make sure I keep writing.
PART D: You, the FAN
WRITER SEMINARS: How has studying published authors changed or improved your writing?
I love doing the writer seminars in class. I find that looking at the themes that published writers generally use seem very similar but it’s nice to study some new writers that I have never heard of before and look at how they write and feel inspired by them. I enjoyed how this year we only really talked about 30-1 writers which was nice to see how they all wrote and what they stylistically all have in common. See my writers seminar here.
Are you glad you did your writer? Who different would you consider? Why?
My group did Shane Koyczan, which was fantastic and I really enjoyed learning and studying about him. I don’t really know who else at a 30-1 level I would consider to do. Ignoring the 30-1 requirement I would be interested in studying a writer like Anthony Doerr (All the Light we Cannot See) just because I love the way that he writes his novels and some of the character development he uses.
What genres have interested you the most?
I love reading historical fiction novels and so those alway peak my interest when it comes to writing seminars. However, lots of the poetry that we looked at this year was interesting to me.
What did you learn from the writers? Inspirations?
I learned that while there is a bunch of really common themes to write about, there’s so many ways to write about them. This is a comfort to me since ne of my biggest fears is to write about something that is overdone and redundant, however, these writers have shown me that with unique style and voice you can write about whatever you want since you will make it your own through those things. I also got a lot of inspirations from Shane Koyczan, Kristin Hannah, and Khaled Hosseini. I also learned that there’s some really strange things that you can do in writing that really help your writing become something not predictable and individualized.
Any emulation to share??? If so, embed a link to it on your blog, or include here.
I think my favourite emulation that I did I included on the bottom of my writers seminar. It was taken from the group that did Kristin Hannah, off of the book The Nightingale.
Do you intend to read more of a writer? Which?
I would love to read some more of Kristin Hannah. I have heard about her a few times and after looking at some of her writing this year in the writers seminars I would really like to find some of her other books to see if I will enjoy them as much as I did The Nightingale.
BLOGGER: Discuss 3-4 student writers in the class who you have commented on and/or are a fan of their writing.
I love Lucas’s writing. It is very entertaining to read and whatever genre he is writing in he pulls off the voice that only he can write with. I also really enjoy reading Sam’s blog since he has a great voice and I have really enjoyed watching him grow and work on that voice and some of his stylistic choices this year through the class. He is becoming a really great writer and is someone that I look forward to reading when he gets around to posting on his blog. Last but not least, Kiran’s blog is one that I find is really well thought out. She was in the same creative writing class as me last year and again this year and it has been a pleasure for me to watch he grow and become more and more confident as a writer while she explores more difficult themes and topics.
OTHER WRITERS who you are a fan of…
I love Erin Hanson’s poetry, F. Scott Fitzgerald has always been one of my favorites. Shane Koyczan will always be a source of inspiration for me. Mark Zusak, Anthony Doerr, and Jeffrey Eugenides are some other really amazing writers that are the ones responsible for some of my favourite novels.
PART E: You, 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. Explain what your piece is about, your process of writing it, and any challenges you faced.
EVALUATING MY WRITING SKILLS
The title of this piece is How to Live. It’s pretty straightforward since it is a response to Charles Harper Webb’s poem called “How to Live”. The whole poem serves as guide of how to live your life to ensure you are getting the most you can out of it. I talked about what life should look like and all of the things that we should be doing as well as what gives life meaning to me.
I wrote this for a general audience, for my sister (she’s the target with most of my writing), and as a reminder for myself. I get very stuck in my head a lot of the time and this was done as a reminder for myself when that begins to happen to me. Since it was an emulation, my influence was obviously from Charles Harper Webb. He inspired most of the structure and overall idea, while, the specifics were inspired by my daily life.
“Find a best friend that is able to understand you
better than you understand yourself. One who
knows what type of ice cream to bring you
when it’s needed and when to back off.”
For the most part, my style and structure for this was just to break it up into stanzas where it made sense and keep everything punctuated the way it should be. I don’t love enjambments so I stayed away from them. I tried my best to mix up the sentence types, but when I’m sticking to a format it makes it really hard for me to see where/ how to mix things up. For example, most of my stanzas have a statement in them somewhere, which I think is a good thing, but can make them less impactful.
“Kick life in the ass.
Love authentically.
Smile for the camera.
Die with grace.”
Some of the feedback that I received for this one was going back through the piece and making sure the punctuation and grammar is the best possible for the context and used correctly. I went through and edited it so that it makes more sense and the punctuation is fixed for the most part. That being said, I have a hard time knowing if what I picked to do is really the best option and I would like to give this to someone else so they can edit it and make sure everything is up to standard.
Similar to the other title, this one is very straightforward as well. A letter to my future self is exactly what this is and that in itself sets up what I’m going to be writing without confusing anyone or being too symbolic. I wrote this letter to my future self as a way for me to get out some of the fears I have about going away to university next year. Fears that I don’t necessarily have right now, but fear I will have as it gets closer to. It’s really just a piece about leaving home and trying to remember all of the things that you have learned through life regardless of where you are applying the knowledge. I wrote this for myself mostly, with the intention that as university gets closer I can read it and get out of my head a little bit. The first draft of this I wrote was very different than the version that was published on my blog. It was angry and hostile, but mostly very scared and concerned that the future wasn’t going to be everything I want it to be. I think the tone shift came from some of my peers and youth leaders at church. After voicing my concerns to them, I realized that while they are valid, they are also not really something I have to be thinking about yet, and I started being nicer to myself when I was thinking about all of the ways I could mess this up. The more positive influence those I talked to had on me changed my tone and in turn, allowed me to write the letter I did.
“Hello, it’s me again. I’ve decided to cut you some slack since I’ve been a little bit unfair recently. You are going to be dealing with some big changes soon and I understand that’s stressful stuff to be dealing with. The last thing that you need is some 17 year old telling you how to live your life, we both know all that’s going to do is make it worse.”
Stylistically, I choose to keep paragraphs short and alternate between memories, lessons, and things that future me needs to remember. Again, I struggle with alternating sentence types, so I would love to say that the repetition in that regard is intentional, but reality is that it’s probably not.
I haven’t received much peer feedback for this one yet, but my sister helped me go through it and fix some of the grammar/ spelling issues. However, I would like some more feedback content wise, although I’m not sure what that would look like since it is a very personal piece that is definitely geared towards me. Overall, I think that the most impressive part of this whole concept is how quickly the tone you talk to yourself in changes. It really shows me what tone I talk to myself in and how rude it can be compared to the one I wrote this letter in.