Part A: You, the Writer
As a writer I have definitely become more confident with my writing. I feel like I have more ideas and my writer’s block has reduced substantially because of my increased reading and vocabulary skills. Originally in the past I would not have been able to share my writing with everyone whether it be in small groups or the whole classroom because I felt like my ideas were weak in terms of how often it has been used in other peoples stories, making my writing boring and will not sound as interesting as other individuals within my class.
I believe my GUMPS have improved a lot due to the fact that I have learned new and previously unknown technique as well as improving my punctuation such as commas, semi colons, and colons. In the past I would have not understood how to fix this problem without the excessive use of no red ink. My spelling improves everyday when I learn new vocabulary from the books that I read. I’m now able to describe objects and events in my writing a lot better than I used to. When I read my pieces out loud I can figure out the places that either have too much description or not enough at all.
My voice as a writer varies depending on the books that I have just recently read. On one day if I read about a book of romance, for example a book like,”An Abundance of Katherines”, which displays the romance between to people towards the ending of the book. Other days I may shift my voice towards books like the Alchemist. In which I use the knowledge of events that have occurred in my life or in media and incorporate in some way into my writing.
As a mentor, my advice for writers is to push themselves to read especially if they do not feel the desire or results they are looking for to improve their writing. The continuation of reading will always improve even the littlest things like GUMPS into your writing. As a writer I also believe that people should go ahead with their writing even if they don’t know what to write about because new ideas start to pop up into your head. This leaves the story to become interesting and unique from others.
My future goal in my writing is to improve my short story writing. I always believe that I have good ideas, but I never know how to end or complete it with something that will make the reader think after reading it. I believe for this goal to be accomplished, I need to continue reading books and more short stories to figure out how to end something to make it interesting.
Part B: You, the blogger
I think my blog is amazing overall. I still really love the quote that I had chosen, “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”, quote by Charlotte Brontë in Jane Eyre. I feel like it describes my personality really well as I believe that no one should help me for my own benefits of improving and learning new things, and I am generally an independent person even when I was younger. I preferred to do things by myself like play basketball or do my homework because I felt that I could improve better at these things if I were to be alone. I like how the pictures of my posts pop out against the darkness of my theme in the background. I still really love the name of my blog ExquisitelyBeautiful and I will continue to use it in the future. Whenever I read those words I always feel a piece of serenity. Like a brief warm breeze on a cool night. Although I liked my aesthetics in my blog, I feel like the background of mountains and black headers doesn’t really describe me. I from the beginnings of posting this blog to now, I have gradually realized that the theme does not suit my overall personality of bright, light colors. In my future blog I hope to add something colorful into it, rather than the plain black and blue I already have.
Some student blogs that have impressed me the most are, Kshef’s, A Great and Terrible Be; Sadia’s, Yearning for Yurgen; and Simran C.’s, The Notorious Nefel. I believe they have really described who they are through the theme of their blogs and the style of their writing. I really liked all their quotes and what they have named their blogs.
I have not yet looked at any professional bloggers, but I hope to look at many during the summer break.
Part C: You, the Student
I had many AHA moments from Bow view Manor senior home. This is when I interviewed an elderly woman about her life. She gave us a lot of advice on life and there were many times where I felt from what she said that I could put it into one of my own stories or create a new story with it. There were also a lot of things that she did growing up that led her to where she is right now in her life. A major AHA moment that I had from all of this is when she said she has read a lot over her lifetime such as newspapers and biographies in which she highlights words and phrases in which she can remember. She used reading as a means of a learning strategy. The fact that she likes to read led me to think of a poem of a little girl gradually learning how to read and growing up in the process. She starts from reading easier books in her early ages and eventually grows up to become a reporter and banker due to her high reading skills. It then goes on to the present where she is telling this story to young teenagers so they can become aspiring writers. I really liked this idea so I and my partner put it on the Bow view Manor blog.
As a reader, I have accomplished better reading habits. Previously, before I started creative writing, I did not read as often as I was supposed to. My reading rate at that time was most likely five pages per day. This clearly showed in my writing and reading comprehension tests as I got low grades in that area. I used to always motivate myself to read at that time but I found it difficult sometimes and left it as a chore. Now, in creative writing, I do not see reading as a chore but as something that I find interesting. My reading rate has also drastically improved. The next book I plan to read next is A Thousand Splendid Suns by the author Khalid Hosseini. I read the Kite Runner at least a year ago from him and I really liked his style of writing. His writing was complex and simultaneously interesting and it led me to think at the end of his book. Reading has improved my writing in so many different ways. Improved reading has led to better vocabulary in my writing and the usage of that vocabulary. I have also improved the amount of ideas that I have had for my writing which has allowed me to write faster and better. The best read of the semester that I read was The Book Thief. I felt a lot of emotions as the main character goes through a series of loss in her life such as her brother, mother, foster father, best friend, and the Jew that once lived in the depths of her basement. It was a book of challenge in some areas but at the same time led to interesting events and times where I just could not put the book down. There would be those occasional days where I would read about 50 pages per day.
The next steps to improve myself as a writer is to write down more vocabulary so I can remember it and interpret it into my own writing. I also plan to focus more on my GUMPS and adding more literary devices to make my writing more interesting.
Part D: You, the FAN
As a fan, I liked how I have learned from other bloggers in my class because as peers we can give each other recommendations to make our writing even better. We can also learn new styles of writing from each other and get inspiration. I liked learning why other people choose their themes for their blogs and I look at it at a very different perspective. From my readings I have enjoyed many of the books and their authors. I have learned so many new vocabulary, styles of writing, inspirations, and fluency of my reading. Each story that I have read this year was so unique in a different way, and it has motivated me to write something different and new myself. After reading a lot of new stories, I have been able to make my pieces better and better each time. When we have guests come into our creative writing class, I get inspired to know that there are students who have later become successful in their lives by writing poems to being able to sing and make their own songs. My favorite guest was Chris Metcs. The songs that he created had words that soothed me every time I heard it and I have learned that anyone can make music by practicing writing everyday even if it may not be good because someday you might end up with something that is really good and make music out of it.
Through writer’s seminar, I enjoyed viewing writer’s seminars because it has allowed me to figure out what authors I may like. The advice of authors really helped me out especially since many have said to read a lot and practice writing and eventually you will become a better writer overtime. I liked learning the inspirations authors had for their books because it has allowed me to learn that it is very easy to find an inspiration and write about it. Author’s inspirations have also let me feel inspired and take those ideas and interpret it into my own writing. As I emulated different author’s writings, I learned from their styles of writing and new literary devices. I am glad I did my writer, John Green, for my writer’s seminar because I have been familiar with his writing in the past. Studying him has allowed me to know even more about him such as his biography, inspirations, and advice to young writers. Reading his books have allowed me to gain new vocabulary and his unique style of writing. His characters always have distinct personalities which helps me create my own characters for short stories, plays, and poems. Genres that have interested me the most are romance and horror. These genres always find a way to put shivers down my spine, and after reading many pages it makes think why things have happened behind the story. When I think of why things occur it will help me in the future when I am doing socratic seminars, critical essays, and personal response essays. A writer I would read more of for sure is Markus Zusak and Khaled Hosseini I really loved how their writing is complicated but also interests readers at the same time.
Part E: You, The Critic of your Work
About Me
https://exquisitelybeautiful.edublogs.org/about-me/
This was one of my first and favorite pieces that I wrote this semester. My piece is about everything in it that describes who I am. A line that has really showed off me is, “I worry that all what I put within my heart and soul may never be enough.” There are things in my life like impressing other people to gain more friends, studying more frequently, and being in my family more that sometimes I feel like I am not there enough to make people happy and that is where I start to worry. Everyday it gets better but sometimes I have feelings that I may fail to accomplish all the things that I try to do. This is why the next line comes in,”I cry to try to stop the best things from ending.” I fear that sometimes my grades will go down in school or that I may not be enough for anyone leading to some people leaving or simply ignoring me. This is why cry is a figurative term of what I may feel in the inside. Another line that I find really important is, “I wonder if the stars will begin to connect and form constellations that will lead me to the direction of my long awaited future,” because everyday I always wonder what I will do in the future because I am still unsure. I believe in making the right decisions so I am happy and satisfied for a very long time in my life. The title, About Me, describes who I am as a person. It is a broad title, but when my poem is read it describes everything that occurs often in my life. I feel the audience of my writing is for everyone because I feel that everyone should learn from my experiences. Whether it be someone younger, I can be a role model and mentor for them as they read my writing, or someone older who can give me places where I can fix my writing and make it better. I also want my audience to enjoy my writing and give me feedback all together. Overall, I really loved this poem that I wrote because writing everything down that describes me has allowed me to learn more about myself as well. I am now able to write those feelings down from my brain onto a piece of paper or a computer. From my process through writing this I found it difficult to write because I always doubted myself on whether I should write something or not or not because I knew other people would read it, but as I kept writing, I felt that in order to write about myself, I needed to become more confident. Writing everything that came to mind made my writing become way more easier. All the things that I have learned from the past have inspired what wrote in this piece because it came from my own personal experiences.
Piano Boredom
https://exquisitelybeautiful.edublogs.org/2019/03/22/the-piano-personal-narrative/
Piano Boredom was another piece I wrote and it was about a personal experience that I had when I was younger. The title means the boredom that I had when learning how to play the piano. More specifically, the piece explains a time I went to learn piano for the first time through a piano tutorial and I realized it was not for me. I became frustrated in a lot of things I was doing and eventually bored. Prior to coming to a room full of people and playing the piano, I had felt sick to my stomach already and did not feel like being there, but later as I saw my siblings play the piano, I became excited, not knowing what would happen next and realizing it would not be my passion. It explains at the end how I found a new passion which was art after a few days and I have been doing it ever since. The process of writing the story was easy because it happened to me and I did not have to think much. I was able to describe things so vividly that it felt that if anyone were to read it, it would feel as if they were in that moment. The only challenge that I faced was not being able to fully remember things, so I had to try my best to explain things to the best of my ability. Overall, the story ended up to be done really well despite not remembering every detail of what had happened. Before writing this piece, I was not sure what piece I should write at all that had to deal with my personal experience, but when my school bus rode me down the street near my house, I saw the Yamaha School of Music building where I did my piano tutorials, and I remembered the terrible experience that I had that day, so I decided to write about that. I believe everyone was appropriate for being the audience of my piece because they can learn from my experiences where I believe that it is important to learn new skills and hobbies, but to be careful on how you judge it because your not sure if you may like it or not. I decided to practice being more descriptive within my piece, so I can use it in other pieces of my writing. I was able to use descriptive techniques in other pieces in my writing more efficiently because of what I did with my personal narrative. I still hope to write better anecdotes in the future to make my audience want to read it. I want to include something that will make the reader’s jaw open at the end of my stories.
Image Sources:
https://writingcooperative.com/writing-the-story-that-wants-to-be-written-238522b04ea7
https://www.ionos.com/digitalguide/hosting/blogs/creating-a-blog/
