Part A: You, the Writer

I have improved in my short story writing as well as my nonfiction. The last couple of years I have struggled with those and something this year just clicked and I have improved greatly on those. It is much easier for me to find inspiration and ideas to be able to just write when I need to. I have gotten much better at learning when to put in significant details as well as how to strengthen what details I put in. My voice I think definitely has changed, but not a significant amount from my older pieces, it’s more my content that’s changed. I don’t know that my personal GUMPS has necessarily improved, but I have improved on my ability to proofread others for mistakes.

My voice is typically very poetic. In more critical writing I do struggle with that and making it sound less poetic. I tend to write from the first person and take pieces of my own life in order to be able to connect with my own writing more strongly. I more recently have been playing with rhyming as well as various styles of poetry. 

My advice to future writers is to always write down your ideas. If you get a spark or breadcrumb, make a note whether on your skin or in your phone or in a notebook. Don’t let it slip by because maybe it becomes something amazing. Don’t write for what other people want, but write for what you want. Writing what you like makes the details and story even more engaging because you are engaged. When you write what other people want, the reader can tell the writer is not interested in what they have created, thus they are not interested.

My future goals involve getting published. I most definitely want to publish a poetry book, however, I would love to be able to write a novel to publish. It has always been how I became interested in writing and I think it would be a beautiful way to commemorate where I have come.

Part B: You, the Blogger

For the last couple of years, I have struggled with my blog aesthetics and making it something I love. I came across my current theme this year and I could not be happier. Considering my writing, I love where I have come and I leave up my old posts to see my progress. I am always excited to improve and see where I can go from here and I will never turn down an opportunity to learn.

I have been very impressed by Abhay, Jed, Oba and Pierce. I had no idea of the thoughts they had in them and their ability to transfer that to a page. They are all so different yet all so inspiring. I plan to continue to follow them.

I read some of Amanda Faye, GUTS Magazine, and Thoughts Catalog.

Part C: You, the Student

My biggest ‘aha’ this year hasn’t been a specific prompt or something of such, but rather, learning the skill of finding breadcrumbs anywhere. I finally figured out the skill of looking around and seeing prompts all around me and not needing someone to give me something. 

This year my reading has not been successful as I have been struggling with my mental health, stress, and time management to balance homework with free time. I have a few different Cassandra Clare books to read up next. The best book this semester has been Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare. It is absolutely my favourite fictional world so I am always very excited about being able to read more of her. My reading has absolutely improved my writing. It constantly does.

To improve as a writer I just plan to always keep writing and finding prompts. Noting down ideas and in times where I have a lot of free time, expanding on those ideas. I want to continue posting on my blog and sharing my pieces.

Part D: You, the Fan

My biggest inspirations tended to come from readings in class and guest speakers we had in. I especially loved Jade and Sam Beavers. They really clicked something in me and I created some great pieces after that. One thing that I definitely grew with was our short story days. Writers seminars don’t usually do much for me prompt and inspiration wise, once in a while I’ll get a good piece out of it but usually not.

Writers Seminars. They have always been something I don’t enjoy making or presenting, however, I always do learn something. The ones this year definitely clicked in my head with the advice of writing for myself and constantly practicing. A couple of the authors did have pieces that gave me inspiration. I am not necessarily super happy with the writer I did, but I do not regret it. I am not sure who I would have rather done. I am always learning from writer seminars because every writer has their own style and way to do things. I find romance and more sad things to interest me the most. I intend to read/listen to more of Welcome to Night vale and its various things. Studying other authors has definitely shown me that you can put in a lot of details or next to none and still have a great piece. 

Part E: You, the Critic of Your Work

2 pieces of writing most proud of a paragraph explaining about, the process of writing and challenges faced

My two favourite pieces are Brötchen and The Sky is Falling.

The first one, Brötchen, is a piece I wrote with Oba for a man named Fritz in Bow View Manor. The title translates from German to mean Bun. We chose this title because he spoke a great amount of being a baker. The purpose of this assignment was to interview him at the Manor, and write a piece based on him and what he told us. Our audience for this piece was mainly him and his family and friends, however, I was so proud of this piece I thought it was important to post on my own blog. This whole piece was clearly inspired by Fritz, however, it is also inspired by previous examples of pieces from years past. As we were writing, we found it very easy to rhyme, so we followed through with that which also helped keep him interested. We broke it into sections based on topic as his storytelling in our interview was quite scattered with a lot of information. We did not do much revision in terms of fixing grammar and such, but rather of finding better words. We did often have situations where the perfect word came to us or we found it online very easily, but we had just as many times where it did not and it was a struggle. Overall, I am very proud of this piece

My other piece is The Sky is Falling. It was from a picture prompt very early on in the semester, which is at the bottom of the post. I chose this title because the central focus is about the stars coming down from the sky, thus looking like the sky is falling. The purpose of this was just to create a surreal image of something that, as far as we know, will never happen. My audience is just creative minded people and anyone who is interested in reading my blog. A song that influenced the concept of my story from Mary Poppins Returns called Trip a Little Light Fantastic where there are set people who go around lighting and putting out the lamps across the city. I chose to leave certain lines out on their own for emphasis purposes. The first draft I had of this was only a few lines so I went through and expanded details and added events in it.