2019
Me, the Writer
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what have you improved in as a writer?
genres: I have explored a few genres this year; from fiction to non-fiction, romance to an attempt of horror. Whenever I would write before this course, I would either do what was assigned, or I would pretend that I am Dostoyevsky or some other talented writer and do my best. I have never written such a vast variety before.
ideas: my ideas generally come from a single word, prompt, or something stupid that has happened in my life. A lot of the times I would see or hear something that has inspired me and write it in my phone. I have really enjoyed writing about ‘creepy,’ ‘unusual’ stuff this year.
details: throughout my entire life, I would be criticized about my lack of detail and attention to small factors that matter in a story. I would always assume that people would catch on and will understand what was going in my head. I am a very impulsive person and that could be depicted in my writing since I would just let it all loose, and see what happens. I tried very hard to pay attention to small details for my writing to be able to hit home for someone since they got that small piece of information that could be interpreted differently by each person.
structure: I have experimented a bit with my structure, but I generally stuck with the basics. My poems are basic, free verse; my other pieces also don’t have anything too special structure-wise in my opinion. I did experiment a lot in my piece, Lost and I am actually very proud of it.
voice and style: my voice and style is a serious tone with a sarcastic glint. I try – and sometimes I don’t even have to – to incorporate my sarcasm into my pieces, even if it’s a bit in my explanation. I really like the idea of creating something absurd, but then adding a little of my truth to it. It is especially funny when people find that out and freak out over where my truth is.
GUMPS: I probably have so many GUMPS in this first part. Already. It is something that I have been dealing with my entire life. I would say that I am not too bad at punctuation, etc., but I definitely have a lot of room for improvement. This year, my grammar has definitely improved. Like, I sort of know what a semi-colon is for.
How would you explain your voice? what is stylistic of you?
I would say that my voice is a big mix of different things. I believe that I definitely have a ‘poetic’ side to me. Obviously, I’m not that great at actual poetry, but I believe that there is always something lyrical in my writing. Especially in Lost. I enjoy writing a lot of metaphors for my stylistic choices. I really think that figurative language is beautiful and adds colour to any piece. I would love to work on my imagery in the future.
As a mentor writer, what advice would you give to future creative writers?
If you think that you are an amazing writer, look at the blogs and be humbled. I know that sounds harsh but, I thought I was a pretty good writer since everyone always told me that, then I heard what people could write, I was very humbled and I gained a lot of respect for my peers. I tried to become better since I am already a competitive person and I honestly need to be the worst to work hard to be the best. Also give credit where credit’s due. It is so important to acknowledge the fact that you were inspired because it is okay. You don’t have to always be 100% original every time. Breadcrumbs are so important.
Future goals and plans regarding writing?
I want to step out of my comfort zone. Period. I was always taught growing up to hide everything I am feeling because that will prevent me from stupid decisions and feelings getting hurt. False and false. I have a difficult time opening up and writing on my blog even though no one knows what is the truth anyways. I know that if I include more of my real emotions, my writing will get so much better. I also want to get better at GUMPS, but that’s just practice.
Me, the blogger
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what do you think about your blog?
positive: I really like my themes and featured images. I honestly just like how my blog looks in general. I really like how I am able to do everything on time and complete all of the assignments to the best of my ability. My blog is something that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to show my family and friends … well maybe a bit.
negative: I don’t like how I am not able to think of ideas without given something to feed off of. I know that it’s normal, that it’s okay, and that I am still growing, but I would like to broaden my creativity. Also, the GUMPS just have to go. But once again, practice.
which student blogs impress you the most?
Cindy – http://deardream.edublogs.org
Hefseeba – http://theshipwesail.edublogs.org
Tolu – http://thelotusleaves.edublogs.org
♡ These are the people that made me go woah, that’s beautiful ♡
what professional bloggers have you explored?
I actually have not explored any professional bloggers this year, simply because I am still so new to this world and I don’t know how to look for them. This is definitely something that I definitely want to look into during the summer.
Me, the student
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discuss an “aha” from creative writing class.
I’ve had a few aha moments:
– When we did the activity in class where Mrs. Hunnisett read out a poem about a forest and other factors. We had to interpret it and write what we see. What made it so interesting was the ending; when we had to connect each detail to our life and how we feel about/see it. It genuinely was so interesting for me.
– Reading everyday was also so amazing. I completely gave up reading before I came into creative writing (and English) simply because I would get distracted with other things or I would make the excuse of “I’m busy”. I would also pull the, there’s nothing interesting card. I would genuinely look forward to reading everyday in creative writing class and I finally got my love for reading back.
– Writing for the elders was very good as well. My person is a manly man who doesn’t show any emotion and when my partner and I managed to make him smile with our poem, my ego shot up. That was such a wonderful experience and I had such a great time being creative and putting a story into poetic form.
what have you accomplished as a reader? what is your plan to read next?
Like I’ve said before, I have genuinely never read this much in such a short period of time in my entire life (besides when I was in elementary/middle school). I am so proud of myself for finally reading more and more, especially so much outside of school.
This year, my favourite book has to be Frankenstein by Mary Shelley even though The One by John Marrs is a close one. 
Many people don’t like Frankenstein, it is simply because they don’t open their mind to see the bigger picture. If you look past the surface, you see the the true message behind it with human condition! screaming at you. I can’t wait to study and analyze it further.
I am planning on reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini of the summer along with a few others. I have a whole list to get through, both that I need and that I want.
Through reading, I was able to collect so many breadcrumbs that helped me so much with writing.
what are your next steps to improve as a writer?
Like I have mentioned before, I would like to keep practicing and fixing my GUMPS because it will help me throughout my entire life. I also want to focus on writing more outside of school which I have already started doing a while ago, but I want to do it more.
Me, the fan
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I was so inspired to read all of my peer’s work. There are some people in my class that I never expected to be such talented writers. I absolutely love Nazeefa as Ed Sheeran, it was genuinely one of my favourite moments in class this year. I loved everyone coming in as guests this year, it was honestly so amazing to see such a vast amount of worldview’s. From someone who travels the world and lives in right now, to someone who is a musician and is making a living out of it. The best part is is that each one of the guests are alumni.
Marge Piercy really opened up my mind when I was studying her for writers seminar. She is such a strong woman who is considered one of the most successful writers. Like if you search up famous writers, she pops up. Especially the fact that as a non-poem lover, to read what she has created was fascinating. I got hooked and ended up reading practically all of her poems. I am very glad that I chose her as my writer since she really broadened my perspective on poetry and I wouldn’t do anyone different.
All of the times that people would include tips and tricks from all of the wonderful, successful writers during the writer seminars, it was really helpful and I took note of all of them.
me, the critic of my work
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Lost is by far my favourite piece that I ever wrote. I had a prompt of “I will never forget…” and this piece took me a few tries. The first day, I just wrote a bunch of crap on my page, then the next day I started developing that vomit on the page, which then lead to a few revisions, and now we’re here. This piece is about a mother and daughter who got into a fight causing the mother to leave in a hurry, she ended up getting hit by a drunk driver which affected the daughter a lot. I took a creative turn to this and I left a lot of questions unanswered on purpose. I wanted the reader to interpret it in their own way. I felt like it would be more powerful that way? The biggest problem that I faced is that this was initially an assignment for my English class. My teacher didn’t like this piece at all and didn’t understand it whatsoever. It really threw me off since everyone that I gave this to to read before and after really enjoyed it. It was funny because my friend was looking over my now marked page and she was so angry as to why the teacher did not like it. I had to get over that and still posted it because I personally really enjoyed it.
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I also really liked my post, Feral Child. This was also an assignment for my English class, we had to write a short story. We were given a picture as a source of a house in a field, with the prompt, abandonment, I believe. I had this idea right away where it would be about an abandoned child, a feral child. I worked really hard on this piece, I believe it took me a bit less than a week. Unfortunately, my teacher also didn’t like this piece at all and ended up giving me a really bad mark as well. I was very disappointed and showed my friend outside of my class, and she said that she really like it. I look passed the letdown and still posted it because I worked hard on it and really liked it.
