Part A: You, the writer
What was your writing identity prior to the course?
My writing identity prior to this course was very limited. I only wrote when things were for marks and never for fun. I did not enjoy writing because I was always forced to stick to a format where I could never truly express myself.
What is your writing identity now?
My writing identity has expanded greatly after taking this course even though I still don’t write that often. I write a little bit more for pleasure and in way where I am able to express who I am without any constraints. I enjoy writing a lot more and I have found that my overall writing skills have improved too. With the freedom to write what I want , I feel a lot more motivated to try and incorporate different styles and technics into my writing. I have never felt motivated to do this before in a regular LA class and I feel the reason is that the environment is too formatted and controlled to allow much self-growth and reflection.
Development Reflection
When I first began writing, I always found that I needed a lot of inspiration from others work, to come up with an idea of what to write. Now I feel that I am more comfortable writing from my heart and about things that have affected me personally or just coming up with an idea by myself. I don’t need the validation of something that has already been done to make me feel like my work is okay.
How would you explain your voice? What is the stylistic of you?
My voice is kind of a voice so quiet that when the words leave my mouth you don’t know whether to be surprised by them or the fact that they came out of my mouth. Stylistically I try to write very personally as if we are friends and I am just telling you a story but I know it comes off way too mysteriously to fit that description.
Advice for future creative writers
I would give them the advice to keep writing no matter how hard it is or how stuck you are. Even if you feel that what you are writing is complete garbage continue and don’t give up. This garbage could turn into a masterpiece with a little bit of editing and thought.
Future plans/goals as writer?
My goal is to continue writing for fun and not let school or life in general get in the way of that.
Part B: You, the blogger
Blogger Development Reflection (Critique)
Honestly as a blogger I feel that I have not developed significantly in the aspect of the overall aesthetic of my blog. I still feel I have a lot to learn about the appearance of my blog and how to make it more physically enticing. I have improved a bit by adding pictures and tags to my post which is something that I did not used to do when first began posting. But I know this something that I will improve on with time and more experience blogging. My pieces that I have published on my blog have gotten a lot better though. I feel like their quality has increased from when I first began posting, the reason for this is because I have grown a writer throughout this course.
What will you do with your blog after this course?
In all honesty I do not think that I will continue posting on this blog.
Which student’s blogs would you continue to follow?
I would continue following these blogs
- Hope’s
- Kemi’s
- Carmen’s
- Lucas’s
- Katherine’s
What professional bloggers have you explored?
I don’t think that I follow any professional blogs. But I do follow some writers on an app called Wattpad which is an app that allows amateur and professional writers to post poems, stories and any kind of writing for their followers or the public to view and read. Some of my favorite writers are e MollyNight, Dreamerse, and BelWatson.
Part C: You, the Student
Aha Moment
An Aha moment that I remember was when I was on the bus riding to school and I had forgotten my headphones. I realized I never noticed how loud the quietness of the bus was and how much I was missing with my headphones on in the morning. I was able to sit and think about life and everything and I realized how much I missed my headphones at that point. This was the ‘aha’ moment that inspired my “For the Days without Headphones” poem. I am pretty sure that I wrote that poem that day in Creative Writing.
What have you accomplished as a reader? What is your plan to read next?
As a reader the best book that I have read this semester is Fly Girl by Sherri L. Smith. It is about a women Ida Mae Jones who dreams to be a pilot when America goes into war with Germany during world war two big strikes against her she’s a women and she is black. This was very inspirational book for me because it was about issues that I could relate too in sense. It talks about racism particularly the issue of colorism. Ida is black but she can pass as white if she straightens her hair and that is exactly what she needs to do to fit in with the other women in the air force group. She begins to feel lost because she has to change who she is to be accepted and pursue what she wants in life. I can relate to this because as someone who is mixed and has a fairer complexation I have faced this issue in my own life. When I hang out with people I am sometimes not accepted because I am either “too white” or “too black’ and even sometimes “not white enough” or “not black enough”. I never knew how to respond to these people because I really wanted to be their friends. But how do you act a color? Especially when you are both? Ida experienced many of the same experiences that I have too, of course her experiences were a lot more severe than mine but they still happened. This is why I think that this book resonated with me so much, I could relate to the main character on a level that I am not usually able too.
Reading has also improved my writing because it has exposed me to a higher level of vocabulary which I can use in my own writing. The more that I read I also find that I am more inspired to try new styles and technics to improve my writing because I really liked how other authors incorporated them into their own work.
What have you accomplished as a writer? What is your plan to write next?
As a writer I have been able improve my writing by incorporating a higher level of vocabulary. The more that I read I also find that I am more inspired to try new styles and technics to improve my writing because I really liked how other authors incorporated them into their own work. I feel that this is a major accomplishment because not only will this help me in LA writing but also as writer myself in my personal life. I plan to continue writing poems about things in my life that inspire me. I do not think I would post them on my blog but rather keep them for myself as my own personal therapy.
Part D: You, the Fan
Writing Seminar Experience
Studying published author Lemony Snicket has changed my writing by encouraging me to not be afraid of using higher level words even when I am not fully comfortable with them. In his writing Lemony would always explain words if he thought they might cause difficulty for his readers. This taught me to learn higher level words so that I can use them in my writing and provide context clues so that my readers can have the same experience that I did when I read lemony Snicket. Which is to read something and understand it and maybe even be inspired by it.
Craft decisions that have improved your writing?
Checking over my work more frequently and when I have complete the whole piece.
Are you glad you did your writer? Who different would you consider? Why?
Yes I am glad that we did our writer. If I were to choose someone different I would have chosen Lauren Oliver. Her Delirium Trilogy was one of my favorite trilogies that I have ever read. The way that she wrote the story was so enticing to me. She told a story with plot and character development but told it in a poetic way that is very rare. It was beautiful.
What genres have interested you the most?
The genres that have interested most are, romance, fiction, non-fiction, and sometime poetry.
What did you learn from the writers? Inspirations?
I learnt how to incorporate more poetry in my writing when I am telling a story that is not a poem. I believe that it really adds something spectacular to the writing. The authors that inspired me the most in the aspect of adding more poetry to my writing would most defiantly be Lauren Oliver and Ellen Hopkins.
An emulation of mine:
https://safiya101.edublogs.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=59&action=edit
Writer I intend to read more of?
Yes and Ellen Hopkins.
Part E: You, the Critic of your work
The most Tragic Lesson:
I emulated this poem from one of my favorite songs, Ilusm by Gnash. I wrote this because I was listening to this song one afternoon and became very inspired by the lyrics, they were very relatable. This poem is about a person from my past. Ultimately this poem is about a love that would never work out. The person and I’s circumstances would never allow us to be together. In this poem I was also trying to show the unrealistic expectations on how easy love is to find and maintain. In the media we see love portrayed as easy and very desirable which I believe contributes to our naivety to the difficulties that come with falling in love. We have been taught that if we fall in love, that it was meant to be and we should be prepared to do anything and everything to stay together. This is not true, love is not always meant to be, which I learned can be more heartbreaking than falling out of love. The process that I took to write this was quite simple I just sat down and thought about this my story and put it into poem form. The most difficult part was opening up to myself when I was writing this. I had to think of something from my past that really hurt me and write about it, that was the hardest part about writing this poem.
The days Without Headphones:
Originally I got the idea to write this poem from forgetting my headphones one day. It wasn’t a particularly terrible time it was just kind of a time that never usually happens. That day I was able to really just relax and listen to what is going on around me. It amazing considering how much of the day I spend without my headphones that it was during this early morning time that stood out so much to me. You think that you listen so much thought out your regular day consisting of daily lectures and interesting gossips but I don’t believe that we do. I think that during these times we are just hearing and responding because it happens so often that it has becomes a routine for us. When you truly listen to something I believe you won’t only hear it for what it appears to be but rather what it can be and what it means to you. My process of writing this was to just thinking about everything that happened in the morning like I explained and putting into a poem. The most difficult part about writing this was that I had to think back to a time that made me so sad. I was disappointed in myself that I was so affected by not having headphones.
The Lonely Man who Plays Sweet Tunes
I got my inspiration to write poem while I was watching Jurassic Park 2. As weird as that sounds it was during the end of the movie when a character who achieved his goal which was to catch a T-rex utters to his friend, “I’ve been in the company of death for too long” For some reason this line really resonated with me and encouraged me to write a poem with this concept in mind. This poem is about the realities of soldiers after they get back from deployment. “He has done too much for everybody but nobody had done much for him” Soldiers do so much for our country but often go very underappreciated which we see by the high amounts of homeless soldiers and those suffering with PTSD without help. MY process of writing this was just thinking of the realities of soldiers and how much that they suffer without any help. The only challenges that I faced writing this poem was trying make sure it flowed well.
Evaluating My Writing Skills
https://safiya101.edublogs.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=59&action=edit
- The title is “The most Tragic Lesson” and the significance of the titles is that it is exposing a lesson that is often ignored.
- Love is not always meant to be, which can be more heartbreaking than falling out of love.
- The purpose of my piece was to show people that love is not allows meant to be which I believe a lot of people don’t realize.
- I emulated from the song Ilusm by Gnash
- “You showed me the light but only for the night.” This is one of my favorite lines because for me this is describing how amazing and special this person made me feel, but how this was only for a short while. They were able to show me something so great that even when it shouldn’t exist it was able to, hence the light at night.