Reflections

Part A

I have immensely improved as a writer because of creative writing and all the extra practice and workshops done in class. Some of the things I have improved in as a writer in terms of genres include dark fiction and fantasy. I was inspired to write dark fiction because of the many people telling me to try to write dark fiction. Usually, I write only about success as well as happier endings; however, after trying to write dark fiction, I found that it is equally as enjoyable to write about. Also, my skills in dark fiction have improved because I have practiced writing in that style. Also, after reading so many different excerpts, novels, and short stories, I have thought and figured out so many more unique ideas I had never thought of before. Detail has always been an issue for me because I disliked writing out all the nitty gritty parts, but now I learned how to write with more detail which in some cases has really enhanced my writing. Sentence structure may be my most improved skill in writing because by learning all the different types of sentence structures, I was able to instantly start writing with more meaning and variety in my pieces. I was able to develop my voice and style more, solely because I wrote so much in class, but I don’t feel I improved too much. GUMPS is another aspect I have improved in my writing because of No Red Ink. Before, I struggled with commas and didn’t even know what a semicolon was used for. Now, I am able to easily find comma errors and can use a semicolon quite well. My voice and style as a writer could be described as more straightforward and direct since I don’t use figurative language such as a metaphor too often.

Stylistically, I have a persuasive and almost analytical style of writing which can be seen in my work because there are parts of analysis which deepen my ideas, an example being my poetry. However, my writing is also very straight-forward and does not have too much detail.

Some advice I would give future creative writers would be to read. Reading is the core foundation of writing and without reading there is no foundation to write with. Also, I would say to try writing out of your style and genre of writing. You will learn exciting new skills you never knew you had and may even prefer a different style and genre of writing after trying other types out. Lastly, I would advise creative writers to look at different authors and their styles of writing and try to emulate them which will help them to gain a new style they could implement in their writing.

My future plan as a writer is to continue to hone and develop these writing skills so that I am able to improve my ELA grade and overall have the skill to be able to put anything into words. Also, I plan to use my writing to write speeches that I will be able to present in order to persuade an audience effectively.

 

Part B

My blog is a place for me to show everyone my writing skills but at the same time a place for me to improve and get criticism from other writers. My blog is full of things that inspire me and things that I enjoy which is positive about my blog. Also, my blog really represents parts of me which I feel is very important for a good blog. On the other hand, something I could improve on the organization of the blog and also, I am selective with my posts which doesn’t allow readers to get all the parts of me.

Some of the blogs that impress me the most are Zaid’s blog (http://justdont.edublogs.org/), Unas’ blog ( http://hiddeninplainsight.edublogs.org/), Amit’s blog ( http://techandturbos.edublogs.org/), Nazeefa’s blog ( http://suggestedsimplicity.edublogs.org/),  Faryal S.’ blog (http://blissfullyunaware.edublogs.org/), and Tony’s blog (http://atticsalt.edublogs.org/).

I have not, but plan to look at professional bloggers’ blogs.

 

Part C

One epiphany I had during creative writing was when I saw the quote by Albus Dumbledore, “It does not do well to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.”. The quote had so many things that hit me at once. First of all, just the way it was written has such a flow which allows it to become that much better of a quote. The words “do well” and “dwell” are essentially the same in terms of sound, but to be able to use them together in a sentence makes the sentence’s flow amazing. Moving on to the meaning of the quote, the quote means to me that you shouldn’t always be focused on your dreams and trying to accomplish it and that you should take time for yourself and live life for enjoyment. Also, it reminded me of people always saying not to only think of the dream, but to actually live it – meaning that instead of only saying you will do it, actually do it.

As a reader, I have accomplished quite a bit, because I have started to build a habit and have actually followed a routine for about a month which is something I have never been able to do. My favorite book from this semester is, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. The reason this is my favorite book is that I feel that I can really relate to the main character, Huckleberry Finn, because of the feelings that he shows and some of the things that he does. Furthermore, I really enjoyed reading the novel because there was so much plot going on which allowed for the novel to not get boring. Reading has allowed my writing to improve majorly in one aspect: vocabulary. After reading so much more than I usually do, I was able to get an increase in my word choice and pick better words which strengthened and enhanced my writing.

The next step for me as a writer is to get more practice with writing as well as to maintain my reading habits while getting a balanced “diet” of books. By ensuring that I write almost every day, I will be able to build on so many ideas and possibly even develop an amazing idea which could become a future piece I write about. Also, by making sure I get a balanced “diet” of books I can challenge my reading abilities while ensuring I am still understanding and picking up vocabulary I could use in my writing. Maintaining my reading habits is going to be difficult as I have tried to keep a reading habit before, but due to my laziness I would let a day or two without reading go by and my habit would end up breaking.

 

Part D

By studying many different authors, I was able to get a glance into so many different genres which were able to help me learn something about each genre, so that I could find out the genre I like the most. Also, every author we talked about had some advice to other writers which were very useful because those successful writers used those techniques to become better writers.

I am very happy that I did Ray Bradbury as my writer because I had actually enjoyed his book, “Fahrenheit 451”, due to the plot and the themes it deals with. Furthermore, his genre of science fiction is something that I never imagined myself enjoying. I had considered doing Khaled Hosseini because I absolutely adore his novel, “The Kite Runner”, and also, “A Thousand Splendid Suns”.

The genre of horror interested me the most because when I first read H.P. Lovecraft’s work I was mesmerized by his writing style and wanted to read more.  In fact, I plan to read his books over the summer. I never liked horror movies which is why I never tried to read horror books, but I guess this is a prime example of a book being better than a movie. The amount of details that Lovecraft puts into his work is amazing and I feel that just by reading his books I will be able to instantly improve and enhance my writing.

From the writer’s, there was so much advice given however, there was one piece of advice that all writers gave: reading. Reading is the most important step to becoming a great writer. By reading more and more, you are allowing yourself to retrieve more words for use and also be able to emulate other authors in order to develop your writing style. Something that inspired me was by the songwriter Ed Sheeran. He said that in order to have one good piece you need a thousand bad pieces. He emphasized that at the beginning you were going to be bad and that it was the same for everyone. In order to be a good writer, you have to read and write.

For my writer’s seminar on Ray Bradbury, I had written emulations on two quotes I found very interesting. They can be found here: https://persistentprocrastinator.edublogs.org/writers-seminar/ 

As I have stated before, H.P. Lovecraft has hooked me into his writing and so his writing is what I plan to read over the summer.

 

Part E

The first piece I would like to discuss is, “The Festival” https://persistentprocrastinator.edublogs.org/2019/06/18/the-festival-fiction/

“The Festival” is essentially a story of a society that does a festival every month and has a leader who nobody knows, causing issues with control and power. The purpose of this piece is for entertainment, but also to visualize issues within our world involving tyrants and how they deal with society. I was trying to demonstrate that people in power never truly take the blame and when things are not going their way they merely dismiss it as something challenging its authority. Something that influenced my work would definitely be the short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson. I was thinking about that story and suddenly I thought about using a similar plot, but change who is picked by the lottery and some other details of the novel. Essentially, I have emulated the story. I decided to make the story in third person limited omniscient because I wanted to leave the people’s thoughts to the reader’s imagination but wanted to show the leader, Director Fox’s, thoughts in order to show my purpose more clear. Furthermore, I took the idea of a bell ringing from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado. Preferably, I plan out my main parts of the plot and then during my revision make sure that I get across what I was trying to, and have a final revision specifically for grammar. I feel that this piece was quite good because it has a structure to it, the idea was decent, and I enjoyed writing the piece.

 

The second piece that I would like to discuss is my poem “The World That Used To Shine https://persistentprocrastinator.edublogs.org/2019/06/10/the-world-that-used-to-shine/

This poem was written for the purpose of informing others of global issues around the world. I was trying to show people how amazing the world was before and how through everything we have done, we have destroyed the world and the people within it. Also, I had used symbolism in my writing using the birds as people. I made sure that the message about the issues of the world was direct because it would help emphasize the severity of the issue. The humanitarian crisis going on in Yemen inspired me to write this piece because I felt that these problems were becoming more and more, but we would not care. We turn a blind eye towards the problems of the world and love to face the success of the world with open arms. I refer to global issues like animal endangerment when is say “Giraffes are endangered”  and I refer to standing up for global issues when I say ” We shame those who speak out/And we shame those who don’t.”. When planning this piece, I had made sure to write out the issues I wanted to talk about and then just let my writing flow and later come back and revise each part. I would look at each sentence and where punctuation would work best. Finally, I have a final revision that allows me to check for any errors in my writing that would weaken the piece. All in all, I loved writing this piece because it is something that I am passionate about and would like to solve.

 

Citations:

https://www.iconfinder.com/icons/2453963/bell_bell_ring_golden_bell_ringing_icon

https://student.unsw.edu.au/effective-reading-and-note-taking

The Universal Law of Reflection

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/284378.php