So, as i said at the beginning of class I'm moving to California, and now it's down to the last couple weeks. I had signed up for creative writing hoping to try and pursue it while still attending school for a usable psych degree. But after time had passed before the class even started i began to doubt my ability to even produce anything on paper let alone anything good. Since the class and especially since reading Goldberg i have found a bit of inspiration.
The last packet of work handed out on the last Thursday of class helped me to curb my fears. When i was growing up and going to school i felt that i was never a good writer because i have a tendency to focus on the content and less on grammar and spelling, that of which i have never been good at. The creative part was always the part i enjoyed doing. I have always written in a journal and it is nice to read in someone else's writing and out of the mouth of a teacher that just writing helps you become better at it. It is important to have some knowledge of grammar but when it come to writing that isn't the most important factor as they often teach in grade school.
I have to say that all of the examples of the popular and published unusual creative works in the class give me hope that one day i could write a piece and have it be published. I have a hard time with thinking of a plot in the story, and often write pieces that stand alone as an idea or an image. It was great to learn in class that there are people out there that may find it interesting and want to read. In psychology i have learned that generally as a human race, we desire to be heard. I hope that one day i will be able to combine my knowledge of psych and a passion for writing and be heard, and maybe even help change something for the better.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Essay Packet 2
I was thrilled to see the remainder of The Fine Art of Sighing. In the last packet the first paragraph or so was present and the rest was gone. When i read the packet at home i was disappointed that the rest of the story wasn't there, and also in class when we discussed the packet many of the other group members were upset as well. So I'm sure they were excited to read the remainder of that story as well.
I felt the author did an amazing job displaying what a person looks like and how they feel when they sigh. I liked how the author explained the different feelings that were involved or can be involved in sighing. Like pleasure boredom or melancholy. It was just a nice little collection of what sighs can mean and the reference to the carbon feeding plants when well with what the weight of a sigh can mean. Very great story!
I felt the author did an amazing job displaying what a person looks like and how they feel when they sigh. I liked how the author explained the different feelings that were involved or can be involved in sighing. Like pleasure boredom or melancholy. It was just a nice little collection of what sighs can mean and the reference to the carbon feeding plants when well with what the weight of a sigh can mean. Very great story!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Blog Response on Essay Packet
So i decided to do a blog response specifically on the story about the Eclipse. There was so much to that story and sometimes in class i want to say more but i try to give other people in the class opportunities to speak up and get participation point. Then it end up being someone who already has the points. Why everyone in that class is so shy I don't know.
I really enjoyed the eclipse story. Of course the first thing that grabs my attention, because it was at the beginning is the picture of the clown. I was a little unsure if it was actually a clown picture made with veggies or if that was just how she remembered it. Either way she did a really good job at making it seem more creepy that just a regular clown picture would be.
The second part that grabbed my attention and i feel like they kind of go together is the description of the how the eclipse kind of came at them like a shadow creature coming for them is what i pictured. She then wrote that she heard screams and something about how it's not uncommon that people would scream because the sky suddenly changes. How amazing a terrifying that would be all at once. Her writing really gives you a great image of what she sees and she put you in a spot to also feel what she felt at the time.
The story as a whole had this whole un-worldly kind of feeling. There are mentions of shadows like creatures unknown. There is a lot of the feeling and colors of time travel. She keeps mentioning that everything is wrong. The idea that the sun has disappeared and all that is left is a ring of where the sun once was. The sun is a need for all life on the planet. Plants need sunlight to grow. Animals need plants to eat. We, human need plants and animals to survive. The world can not exist without sunlight, so its a terrifying and mystical thing to actually see it disappear. To see something that not everyone can see in a lifetime, something that can be captured on film but never truly felt unless you see it for yourself and the actual event is something that is in itself something unworldly. She did a great job of putting everything of such an experience on paper, it was much better image reading this story that it would have been looking at a picture. Unreal.
I really enjoyed the eclipse story. Of course the first thing that grabs my attention, because it was at the beginning is the picture of the clown. I was a little unsure if it was actually a clown picture made with veggies or if that was just how she remembered it. Either way she did a really good job at making it seem more creepy that just a regular clown picture would be.
The second part that grabbed my attention and i feel like they kind of go together is the description of the how the eclipse kind of came at them like a shadow creature coming for them is what i pictured. She then wrote that she heard screams and something about how it's not uncommon that people would scream because the sky suddenly changes. How amazing a terrifying that would be all at once. Her writing really gives you a great image of what she sees and she put you in a spot to also feel what she felt at the time.
The story as a whole had this whole un-worldly kind of feeling. There are mentions of shadows like creatures unknown. There is a lot of the feeling and colors of time travel. She keeps mentioning that everything is wrong. The idea that the sun has disappeared and all that is left is a ring of where the sun once was. The sun is a need for all life on the planet. Plants need sunlight to grow. Animals need plants to eat. We, human need plants and animals to survive. The world can not exist without sunlight, so its a terrifying and mystical thing to actually see it disappear. To see something that not everyone can see in a lifetime, something that can be captured on film but never truly felt unless you see it for yourself and the actual event is something that is in itself something unworldly. She did a great job of putting everything of such an experience on paper, it was much better image reading this story that it would have been looking at a picture. Unreal.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Blog Response: Other Reading Source
This week we were supposed to be doing a blog response on something we were reading that was not in the creative writing class. I haven't had much free time to do reading outside of school because i work nine to ten hour shift every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So the stories that I have options to talk about are those i am reading in my Lit class. I had originally wanted to write about As I Lay Dying, by Faulkner. But i also have an interpretive paper project due in that class and i have chosen the story Boys, by Rick Moody. Because i am not yet finished with Faulkner i have decided to do my journal response on the short story Boys.
This story is as simple as it is meaningful. The first thing that grabbed my attention in the story is it's style. The entire story is three and a half pages long and is one long paragraph. The story is also consisted of long run on sentences. These sentences are statements of what a pair of twin boys do when they enter and leave their parents home, the home they grew up in. I believe the style of writing in the story gives way to how quickly life passes when you think back on your own. This is what you did, and this is how fast it went. The run on statement sentences really give you that kind of feeling.
I also really liked that the title and the mention of what the characters do is always in reference to boys. "Boys enter the house." "One boy enters the house bleeding profusely and is taken out to get stitches, the other watches." Every sentences in the story describes these twin boys lives when they enter this house. Throughout the story is is not direct reference to them being men. This is because they become men at the very end of the story. The boys father dies and has to be carried out of the house. The account of the moment of when these two boys became men and stated in the last lines: "here's where the boys are standing, as that beloved man is carried out. Boys, no longer boys, exit." It tell that these boys are no longer boys because they are now men. I loved this story and thought that it was done in a really neat way.
This story is as simple as it is meaningful. The first thing that grabbed my attention in the story is it's style. The entire story is three and a half pages long and is one long paragraph. The story is also consisted of long run on sentences. These sentences are statements of what a pair of twin boys do when they enter and leave their parents home, the home they grew up in. I believe the style of writing in the story gives way to how quickly life passes when you think back on your own. This is what you did, and this is how fast it went. The run on statement sentences really give you that kind of feeling.
I also really liked that the title and the mention of what the characters do is always in reference to boys. "Boys enter the house." "One boy enters the house bleeding profusely and is taken out to get stitches, the other watches." Every sentences in the story describes these twin boys lives when they enter this house. Throughout the story is is not direct reference to them being men. This is because they become men at the very end of the story. The boys father dies and has to be carried out of the house. The account of the moment of when these two boys became men and stated in the last lines: "here's where the boys are standing, as that beloved man is carried out. Boys, no longer boys, exit." It tell that these boys are no longer boys because they are now men. I loved this story and thought that it was done in a really neat way.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Burroway Response
I felt like this writing was long winded. But the examples were great, they really helped with me understanding what the author was saying, and the points they were trying to make. Most text books or books "like" text books are hard to get through, so this one was naturally a little on the boring side in comparison to Goldberg.
The author repeats what we have been learning all through class which is show don't tell. I like how the author talks about human as emotional creatures and when you convey their emotions through writing it helps the reader to assimilate the points in the writing you may be trying to get across. I also enjoyed the little blurb about writing detail and how liars know that details are important. The author makes a little not about how the power goes out and the wife tells the husband that he forgot to pay the bill. The husbands response is that of a detailed account of a sweater vest and talk of grandchildren from the person standing in line in front of him when he paid the bill. Although the power was still off, the wife had to believe the husband because he was so detailed in the account of paying the bill he didn't really pay. I thought that was a brilliant way to describe how readers want to read. You have to have enough detail so that the reader believes you.
I also enjoyed the section of the active voice. This kind of voice places your character in real life, and is a part of a vivid describing. I thought the comparison of the Debbie stories, the before and after. The detail in the first story was used well using the word was. They describe Debbie through what she was. In the second story the description of Debbie was seen not in describing what she "was" but what she did. In the written actions of Debbie you were better to see the type of person she was.
All in all i have to say the writing here was very helpful. I really enjoyed the explanation of the brain and it's past of reptilian and primitive. I felt that the writing kind of gave you instructions on how to write by using the skill you have when you read people in your real living life. Like if you tell a lie, and you want someone to believe you, you give them details. Or if you wanted to set up a friend with another friend, the way you describe them is not just flat out like, the person is nice; you tell about what that person does in their spare time or what they do.. their actions. Great writing and very helpful!
The author repeats what we have been learning all through class which is show don't tell. I like how the author talks about human as emotional creatures and when you convey their emotions through writing it helps the reader to assimilate the points in the writing you may be trying to get across. I also enjoyed the little blurb about writing detail and how liars know that details are important. The author makes a little not about how the power goes out and the wife tells the husband that he forgot to pay the bill. The husbands response is that of a detailed account of a sweater vest and talk of grandchildren from the person standing in line in front of him when he paid the bill. Although the power was still off, the wife had to believe the husband because he was so detailed in the account of paying the bill he didn't really pay. I thought that was a brilliant way to describe how readers want to read. You have to have enough detail so that the reader believes you.
I also enjoyed the section of the active voice. This kind of voice places your character in real life, and is a part of a vivid describing. I thought the comparison of the Debbie stories, the before and after. The detail in the first story was used well using the word was. They describe Debbie through what she was. In the second story the description of Debbie was seen not in describing what she "was" but what she did. In the written actions of Debbie you were better to see the type of person she was.
All in all i have to say the writing here was very helpful. I really enjoyed the explanation of the brain and it's past of reptilian and primitive. I felt that the writing kind of gave you instructions on how to write by using the skill you have when you read people in your real living life. Like if you tell a lie, and you want someone to believe you, you give them details. Or if you wanted to set up a friend with another friend, the way you describe them is not just flat out like, the person is nice; you tell about what that person does in their spare time or what they do.. their actions. Great writing and very helpful!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
To After That Response.
I am finding that most pieces of writing that have been assigned for this class has a sort of obscurity in it's style. This particular kind of writing is not really for me. For some reason I picture a group of people that meet to discuss such writings, and they are all wearing berets, smoking cigarettes and listening to jazz while they discuss the "true meaning" of said writing, like some portrayal of a distinguished art group in the nineties. That being said, there were a lot of parts in "To After That" that i did enjoy and found that by the time i had finished the text, there were many more sticky hold that spot because i like that sentence notes poking out of the margins that i had thought there would be, fourteen to be exact.
Considering the image of the nineties group that i got in my head, i will start off my saying that my first sticky note was stuck by something written that i feel i apply to my self. The excerpt says: " I wrote furiously on napkins, no choice without my journal, which i had left at home (I could have asked someone for paper, but I didn't want to go through society to get my work, plus I liked the picture: black girl sprawling desperately on napkin upon napkin. What that must have looked like. What a lone black girl might be thinking.)" There is something about this excerpt that i see in myself. I recently quit smoking, I feel considerable better since doing so. I don't really miss smoking. But there was something of the image of me drinking a cup of coffee and smoking a cigarette, that made me feel like i fit the image of being a writer. I liked how it looked and felt like if other were to see me that I would maintain that image of what i dark brooding writer would look like. It doesn't make sense to smoke or write on napkins, but in a way it makes sense when you are wanting to live up to the image of writing; it's in a way a feeling.
I also compared myself to the author in the sense that she seems to write throughout this book that she can not remember when she first started writing, if it were spring or summer, of 1998 or 1999. If it were not for her journals she would have not really known when she had decided to write the book or when she actually started. I have found that if did not write dates on things or did not write in a journal I would have no ability to distinguish exactly when important events started or ended. I feel that there is always so much world happening around me, before me, and so much that has happened behind me that i have such a hard time distinguishing dates of my past. It is something of blur, where all events of my past mush together to form the person that I am this day, only to add to the blur everyday. There were many other pieces in the book as whole that i really enjoyed, i still feel that it's particular style is not for me, but if it weren't for this class and the reading being assigned I wouldn't have picked it up, there for i wouldn't have found the many excerpts i found that applied so strongly to me.
Considering the image of the nineties group that i got in my head, i will start off my saying that my first sticky note was stuck by something written that i feel i apply to my self. The excerpt says: " I wrote furiously on napkins, no choice without my journal, which i had left at home (I could have asked someone for paper, but I didn't want to go through society to get my work, plus I liked the picture: black girl sprawling desperately on napkin upon napkin. What that must have looked like. What a lone black girl might be thinking.)" There is something about this excerpt that i see in myself. I recently quit smoking, I feel considerable better since doing so. I don't really miss smoking. But there was something of the image of me drinking a cup of coffee and smoking a cigarette, that made me feel like i fit the image of being a writer. I liked how it looked and felt like if other were to see me that I would maintain that image of what i dark brooding writer would look like. It doesn't make sense to smoke or write on napkins, but in a way it makes sense when you are wanting to live up to the image of writing; it's in a way a feeling.
I also compared myself to the author in the sense that she seems to write throughout this book that she can not remember when she first started writing, if it were spring or summer, of 1998 or 1999. If it were not for her journals she would have not really known when she had decided to write the book or when she actually started. I have found that if did not write dates on things or did not write in a journal I would have no ability to distinguish exactly when important events started or ended. I feel that there is always so much world happening around me, before me, and so much that has happened behind me that i have such a hard time distinguishing dates of my past. It is something of blur, where all events of my past mush together to form the person that I am this day, only to add to the blur everyday. There were many other pieces in the book as whole that i really enjoyed, i still feel that it's particular style is not for me, but if it weren't for this class and the reading being assigned I wouldn't have picked it up, there for i wouldn't have found the many excerpts i found that applied so strongly to me.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Blog Response For Fiction pack and Bok
So i seemed to be confused to what blog response are assigned to which days of the week. On the class website it says we are supposed to do a blog response on Gladman, but in my syllabus i had written down that the blog response is supposed to be on Bok. And i completely missed where on the class blog it was posted to do a blog response on the fiction packet or packets. So i decided to do a blog response on Bok and the Fiction packets and hope that the one for Gladman is due this upcoming week.
The fiction packets we received in class seemed to me not all that dissimilar from the poetry packets in both content and in form. I felt that the content in all of the packet have been kind of subjective. That all of the content is a type of writing that is a little obscure and leaves you thinking about what the writing really meant. I felt that in the fiction packets there was a lack of story, in the traditional sense. Like the Colonel, I wasn't sure if it was an excerpt of a larger story, it left me guessing and not in a good way. I felt that many of the stories in from and in poetic language were absolutely amazing, all of the stories displayed this unbelievable information giving way to such vivid pictures. I felt that you could really imagine the places and the people and the things around you. I really disliked that the stories lacked a certain plot, many of them left me angry with wanting some kind of explanation of what was really going on. I felt that in many of the stories there was much effort spent in the detail in the stories to put you there right next to the character, but most of the time i hadn't any idea what was going on, ie Point and Line. I wasn't sure if it was part of a bigger works and if reading that would help me understand the authors point a little more. I have to say all in all i had initially disliked to fiction packets, but being in class and talking about them help me to like them more for their form as opposed to their content.
Eunoia I believe is the title of one of Boks poems. I have to say that is was much more than a poem, it was a series of poems that display what i think is Boks biggest attribute in this poetry, which is his amazing vocabulary. When i was reading these poems i noticed a few things. Many of the words in the poems were of a different language, I also noticed that there were a lot of works that i had to look up and were astonishingly awesome in the series. And the most important thing i noticed was that all of the words in all of the series were spelled with the letter e, it wasn't just the spelling but it seemed as if all of the words flowed together so well with the e sound. Kind of like music. And the style with which the poem were presented were were really neat and modern. I enjoyed them very much. After listening to the audio clips Bok has just grown on me immensely. I found his words to be phonetically pleasing, and his content was often very humorous. I have to say that Mushroom Cloud was by far my favorite.
The fiction packets we received in class seemed to me not all that dissimilar from the poetry packets in both content and in form. I felt that the content in all of the packet have been kind of subjective. That all of the content is a type of writing that is a little obscure and leaves you thinking about what the writing really meant. I felt that in the fiction packets there was a lack of story, in the traditional sense. Like the Colonel, I wasn't sure if it was an excerpt of a larger story, it left me guessing and not in a good way. I felt that many of the stories in from and in poetic language were absolutely amazing, all of the stories displayed this unbelievable information giving way to such vivid pictures. I felt that you could really imagine the places and the people and the things around you. I really disliked that the stories lacked a certain plot, many of them left me angry with wanting some kind of explanation of what was really going on. I felt that in many of the stories there was much effort spent in the detail in the stories to put you there right next to the character, but most of the time i hadn't any idea what was going on, ie Point and Line. I wasn't sure if it was part of a bigger works and if reading that would help me understand the authors point a little more. I have to say all in all i had initially disliked to fiction packets, but being in class and talking about them help me to like them more for their form as opposed to their content.
Eunoia I believe is the title of one of Boks poems. I have to say that is was much more than a poem, it was a series of poems that display what i think is Boks biggest attribute in this poetry, which is his amazing vocabulary. When i was reading these poems i noticed a few things. Many of the words in the poems were of a different language, I also noticed that there were a lot of works that i had to look up and were astonishingly awesome in the series. And the most important thing i noticed was that all of the words in all of the series were spelled with the letter e, it wasn't just the spelling but it seemed as if all of the words flowed together so well with the e sound. Kind of like music. And the style with which the poem were presented were were really neat and modern. I enjoyed them very much. After listening to the audio clips Bok has just grown on me immensely. I found his words to be phonetically pleasing, and his content was often very humorous. I have to say that Mushroom Cloud was by far my favorite.
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