Part A: You, the Writer.

• I feel that I have improved as a writer this year as I have noticed a variety of genres are becoming evident in my work. Instead of just writing horror or basic fiction, I have branched into new territory as well and mixing genres together to create an odd sort of unity. My ideas have changed over the years and I have noticed my details have become more in depth over time. My structure has stayed pretty consistent but I now understand how to effectively use different structures to strengthen my pieces. Over the semester I feel that I have strengthened my voice and style. I always knew what I wanted to convey but now I feel that I have been able to find the words to express it. Grammar wise, I feel that I have gotten a better understanding of the rules and how to break them effectively but of course there is always room for improvement.

 

• My voice in my writing is very similar to my voice in real life; I am unafraid to state my opinion and I will always be very morbid but that is just how I express myself. When Jade Bartlett came in, she described mystyle as being able to take the mundane and twist into something terrifying and I never saw that in myself until that moment. It really opened my eyes to what my writing could become.

 

• My advice to future writers is to not be afraid to be extreme in your details and feelings. If you feel something, write it down in all of the gritty details that you are feeling. Even if you worry it will make people uncomfortable, write it always, feeling uncomfortable around the intensity of another’s pain is good.

 

• I want to continue my blog and writing because it is what I am very passionate about. Eventually I want to try and get something published, I’ll probably enter a contest of something. On my blog I want to try and create a page for a collection of lines and small poems that just pop into my head but so many people have done that and I don’t want it to seem like I am copying them.

Part B, You, the Blogger.

• I really like my blog, it is my baby. I think it has grown so much over the years of me using it, it has matured and changed drastically. My aesthetics are so different from previous years and I think that it has really shown how I’ve changed (less angsty now) and I feel that I have found a happy medium between the light and dark parts of my personality. I finally changed my blog title after two years of it being the same thing to something that I feel fits better. It’s quirky and fun. To improve, I wish I could find better images that could be really cohesive with the theme but that is very difficult. I also want to organize my sidebar better to make it a little bit neater.

Claire– her beautiful existentialism that I really enjoy to read and write. You can’t not hear Claire’s voice when reading her work.

Paxton– My BFF who writes about such beautiful things and you can really feel the raw emotion throughout all of her work.

Liza– Just a fantastic writer and that I feel we should experience. Her blog is so beautiful and well put together that you can just know who she is from her words.

• I read the Welcome to Night Vale newsletter as well as the Davidstea blog. I have not read too many professional blogs (at least often enough to count)

Part C- You, the Student

• One of my biggest “aha” moments were some of the writers seminars, it really showed me how many authors and songwriters are out there and it shows just how inspirational they are. I’ve felt stuck when it comes to books or music so learning about these writers gave me some new ideas. I got some really great emulations from the presentations.

 

• My reading was definitely not as strong as last year but I plan to improve it over the summer. My writing has improved due to my reading because I have begun to read more challenging novels. My style has become a little more elevated and refined; it is not as chaotic or childish as it once was. I am planning on reading Shutter Island over the summer after reading a little bit of it in a bookstore and having to buy it after. I really want to go to a used bookstore over the summer to pick up some more books (without spending a fortune) my favourite book this semester was probably High-Rise by J.G Ballard, it is so different than anything I have read before and the ideas within it are so strange and improbable for it’s time but they seem possible now. If society continues to become so dependent on technology and efficiency.

 

• To further my improvement, it will read more and write as often as I can. My first step is to finish all of my necessary assignments so I can focus on writing what I want to write instead of what I have to write.

Part D- You, the Fan

• I had lots of inspiration from the presentations as well as my readings over this semester.
• Writers Seminar: Joseph Fink and Jeffery Cranor
• I’m glad that we did these writers because I am so passionate about their work, I can’t really think of any other writer that I would want to do at this point in my life.
• My favourite genre is horror and themes that cause confusion so it was really nice to explore just how far they will go to twist the normal.
• I have learnt that the main thing to do in order to improve your writing is to always write and always read, no matter what it is. Find someone you trust to read and critique your work.
• Emulation: And now, a word from our sponsor.

Your hands are red. Razors rip into your fingertips; you feel your skin become rough with slits and holes.

The smell of iron; your fingers torn to shreds. A monster, green with sharp spikes. it is angry and hungry, but a beloved pet. You fish your hands through its cage, under the leather collar tight on its throat. The bruising and slicing of tendons.

You hear a growl, a sharp beeping. You still reach; there is nothing but pain.

The teeth rush forward, biting at your knuckles. you lurch back, swearing. Something urges you back into that hell. You hurt even more. Blood sinking into your fingerprints and smearing upon the beast’s flesh.

You cannot stop, pain.

How much can you withstand?

Tears prick but none fall; you still reach but to no avail. You know this pain, it occurs every day.

Capital One, what’s in your wallet?

• I plan to explore most of the authors that we talked about in the seminars just to see what I might like or not.

Part E- You, the Critic of your Work

1. https://soullessbeings.edublogs.org/2019/03/07/two-sides-to-every-coin/

• The title is Two Sides to Every Coin and I chose this title because I wanted to express the significance of every story having two very different sides and perspectives. With the flip of a coin you could get either outcome.
• This piece is a strange kind of poem/prose/letter about the different outcomes of love that could occur. I focused on the positive and negative aspects of love and how they can affect a person’s emotions.
• My purpose was to shed light on a lot of different feelings that I have and to show how everyday I might feel differently about the same problem.
• I was mostly inspired by the exercises we did on Valentines Day, I’m not a romantic person so it was interesting to take a positive light on the concept and I balanced it out with the negative later.
• I chose a very divided, precise format and style where it exists of two two paragraphs and a singular line. It is very letter format but it is addressed to no one.
• I did a lot of revisions with this piece and I really focused on making both sides look eerily similar but drastically different when you read it.
• I like this piece, I obviously think it could be better but overall I am pretty happy with it.

 

   2. https://soullessbeings.edublogs.org/2019/06/13/the-magician/

• The title of this piece is The Magician, I chose this because I wanted to keep it very vague while still telling exactly what the story is about.
• The story is about a young magician in the 1920’s who has a chronic illness and that eventually ends up causing an accident.
• My purpose for this piece was to create a story with a realistic atmosphere and suspense.
• I’ve always loved traditional magic as well as I was really inspired by old magician posters, they are beautifully hand painted and I find them so creative.
• I styled it in a different kind of short story style instead of the traditional way of writing it. I didn’t name my character because it almost feels like a newspaper story where they only care about the story and not the person. I feel that it just maintains a level of ambiguity.
• I kind of just wrote a bunch of ideas down first, and I would have these snapshots of sentences or imagery that I knew would be effective and then I just formed this piece around it..
• I really like this short story, I think it is one of my best short story styles this year, usually I just stick to the traditional style so it was nice to go outside that style.