2019/20
PART A: You, the Writer
My improvement as a writer this year was actually pretty astronomical, in my own opinion. Once again, I feel like this is the class that I get to really let my soul fly and learn from it: whether it be from writing poetry on the board, or from writing a romance series, I know that this is the class that I can just let go and let my true heart out after a long day at school.
This year, I would say my largest improvement came in the genres I write in. Last year, I made it my goal to try and write more emotionally, and I definitely did that this year. A five-part romance series? Got it. A deeply emotional non-fiction? Right here.
In terms of details, I would say that I also totally had a huge improvement this year. One of my favourite pieces to write this year was my romance series “Entrancing and Romancing” because of the immense detail and flowery language. Really, the work is totally plotless: it’s actually just taking one single moment in time and then slowing and freezing it and looking inwards for the character development. This was a fun way to write, and I’m looking to continue that.
I liked to think that I had pretty decent structure last year, and even now I think that it was one of the few things I did right year. However, my structure wasn’t varied because my writing wasn’t varied. I remedied this by writing all sorts of things this year: non-fiction, poetry, and prose. This allowed me to experiment with the sentence and paragraph structure and style, which I think was critical in allowing me to develop into the writer I am now – much better than last year.
Voice and style I made a very big point of improving on. Even at the beginning of this school year, I had just come off of reading mostly AP novels in the summer, and so I was actually more suited to writing critical essays than poetry and such, but thankfully that was soon remedied by this class. Anyways, this year I made it a point to focus on a sort of “hopeless” and “out of control” style of my writing, and I really think this paid its dividends in my writing. At the beginning of the year, I would’ve described myself as a direct writer: I focussed on sounding confident and direct to essentially cover up my shortcomings as a writer. However, now I would say that I actively find those shortcomings and essentially throw them out there and try and get feedback on how to improve it. This technique’s been working, so I guess I’ll stick with it. Overall, my writing style is flowery and punctual; I like to use descriptive language but always like to bring it back to a central theme and then move forward.
GUMPS hasn’t actually been an issue for me this year, thankfully. This is probably because I’ve suffered through NoRedInk twice at this point, so it makes sense that I feel pretty confident with my grammar skills. I guess I’m lucky that it just comes naturally to me and I can learn it relatively quickly.
Like I established earlier, my voice could be described as flowery and punctual. I use description when I want to, and raise my writing so high up in terms of a dreamlike quality, and then ground it again with a direct statement. Exploring this makes for very interesting writing, in my opinion, so I guess I’m actually pretty happy with it.
Once again, I don’t know if I should be described as a mentor writer, but I guess that some people *might* actually be able to learn a few things from me. My biggest advice is to, honestly, find a good audience. The creative writing class and my own personal friends provided this audience of love and support. The reason this audience is so important is that they inspire you to keep on going. The support of these people is what allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and start to slowly write literature that made me feel more vulnerable, which was ultimately very important in my development.
My goal for writing in the future is to always write longer pieces. Doing things on the blog is nice because it’s a short snippet of work most of the time, but I would like to translate my skills into a longer work like a play or a novella. I will begin this shortly after exams end, and hopefully have at least one longer work to show off. The biggest problem with this is that I always suck at keeping a common goal and sticking to it. I did remedy this a little this year with my romance series, so I know I have the ability to write longer, I just need to stay focused.
PART B: You, the Blogger
I really enjoy the overall aesthetic of my blog. The green and white colours took ages to code into the site, but I really think they look fantastic. All my stuff is pretty organized and easy to find, which is good. Also, I didn’t have severe aesthetic problems like I did last year, so there’s definitely a lot of positive to take away from here.
The best thing about my blog is the fact that it’s my blog. It’s really a window into my soul and not just my writing. I can technically put anything I want on here, and so it’s one of my most prized possesions.
I really need to work on making my blog greater that just personal stuff. At the moment, I barely have any links, which are vital to providing something more than just my writing, so I definitely need to add links and work on my inspirations as well as adding on things like my social medias.
My favourite student blogs are some that I constantly read and re-read for emulation and inspiration purposes.
Alyna‘s blog is really something special because I find her voice to be something that I really try to emulate. It’s poetic and quaint, and yet hold so much beauty and striking force inside the lines.
Tolu‘s blog is honestly one of my favourite blogs starting from the aesthetic looks. It honestly looks so amazing and the common theme of “once upon a” works so amazingly. She incorporates this theme into all of her work, which is truly magnificent to read.
Abhay‘s blog is one that I only found this year, but I really do enjoy it to another level. He is an extremely varied writer: he can write critically and analyze, or wow you with his descriptive language.
This year, I looked at one professional travel blogger specifically: Karl Rock. Karl is a New Zealander who set his goal to visit every district territory and state in India, which he just accomplished a few weeks ago. He talks about his life as a traveller on this blog: https://blog.karlrock.com/author/karlos/
PART C: You, the Student
There were many epiphanies I had this year in creative writing class; however, it is possible for me to narrow it down to one major one that really had a seriously profound impact on me. I’m talking about Toni Morrison’s quote:
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
This quote made me realize that there actually was a lot of reading I wanted to do – I just didn’t know where to find it. I realized that I needed to write where I saw there was an opportunity. I needed to hunt and be a scavenger; look for little scraps and shavings of meat to fatten me up. I didn’t want to just wait around for good readings to come to me – I went out actively and wrote what I wanted to read.
Also, getting to meet Mr. Jim Jones at the senior home was also an eye-opening experience. As a past teacher, he had a lot of experience as an instructor and someone who is responsible for changing someone’s life, which he totally did for me.
This year, my reading was honestly pretty average at most times, and below-average during the months of October and November. However, this year was the first time I started looking deeper into books. This may have been more so due to the fact that I’m in AP as well, but I found myself reading the novels and comparing them to other novels, or critically analyzing them. Also, I read a play for the first time this year, but still no poetry books, so I guess that should be my goal for the future: reading more variety, specifically more plays and poetry.
My favourite book that I read this semester has to be Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. It had a great dynamic, interesting plot and character, and is my top choice to write about come essay time.
Reading is honestly critical to becoming a writer. Close to around 80% of my writing skills today are based on what I’ve learned indirectly from simply reading other work. Whether it be my classmates, or professional writers, emulation and leading by example is the whole point of ‘reading like a writer’ and now writing like a reader.
My next steps to improve as a writer are to remember my roots. I feel like I have a lot of stories within me relating to culture and my own personal experiences that I don’t allow to just flow out of me, but I know that this type of writing has a truly strong narrative and works very well.
PART D: You, the Fan
I feel like the writer’s seminar project was an amazing addition to the curriculum for however long we’ve been doing it. In my opinion, there’s no better way to get your writing to a professional level than by studying people who are already there. And that’s my goal: to become a professional writer at some point in my life, and hopefully sooner rather than later.
Originally, I was going to go with doing a singer or songwriter for my writer’s seminar project, but Hunnisett encouraged us to do a Pakistani poet, which is what we eventually ended up doing. I’m actually really glad I did it, because it provided me with a lot of knowledge about my country and people that I didn’t know before, and just helped me understand how language and poetry vary from country to country.
I originally wanted to do a rapper like Post Malone or Drake, because I find there to be a truly deep meaning to be found within their words that we normally discount. Most people who aren’t interested in rap think it’s just all mindless garbage about drugs and sex, but that is seriously not the case and I wanted to change a lot of peoples’ minds. That said, I still think it was a better personal learning experience that I opted with Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
The most important thing I learned from all the writer’s seminars was honestly to be your own person. Don’t let your creative soul be squashed by anyone else who doubts you; if you are willing to work towards success, you will eventually feel content and produce some true art. This was a common theme I noticed across all the presentations and it really hit me hard, as I aspire to be a maverick and do my own thing.
I intend to read more of two specific writers: Robert Drake and Rupi Kaur. I feel like Drake is interesting because I’ve only seen a glimmer of his work, and I really want to read Beautiful Chaos, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere. I’ll probably just end up buying it at some point since I really want to read it so badly.
Rupi Kaur was recently crowned the writer of the decade, and I haven’t even read a single one of her works, so I think it would be a good idea to do that now.
PART E: You, the Critic of your Work
The first piece I’d like to take a look at is titled “Deathbed” which is technically my January Free Choice. The inspiration for this piece was my realization that I can be an insensitive person. Sometimes I accidentally trivialize someone’s trauma and sadness or make a joke out of it, which is disrespectful and I need to move away from it. In this piece, I talk about how when I die, I don’t want to be remembered as a harsh person, and instead as someone who had love and respected others.
As this was a rhyming piece, it was challenging to adhere to the rhyme scheme at all times. Oftentimes, I would want to say something but would have to change some of the words to make it be as best a rhyme as possible. However, I feel like without the rhyme scheme, the piece loses a lot of its charm and style, so I’m glad I decided to stick with it.
If my laughs induced in you a tear,
then I could not reconcile my fear
of spilling the fruits of the tree
that your love nurtured in me.
These lines are a perfect example of what I was referring to: I feel like using rhyme and shorter lines really added to a lot of power. Enjambment is also really important here, as it keeps it brief and quickly moving.
I think this was a critical piece for me to write as I move into the future, where I do want to pursue writing more poetically and emotionally.
The second piece I’d like to look at was my non-fiction piece: Offensive Humour. This piece was actually probably my most passionate one, considering I started writing it after a heated debate in which I was told that I wasn’t qualified to talk about a certain situation because I had never experienced it firsthand. This really angered me, so I wrote a piece about how oftentimes we use humour to trivialize and sort of cushion hard realities we don’t want to face. Oftentimes this a reality that we ourselves have never faced, and we may feel uncomfortable talking about it for this reason. However, I feel like if I have words that need to be spoken about a certain issue of some sort, I need to speak them if no one else is; whether if it’s women’s rights, treatment of Uighurs in China, or underpayment of labourers, if I have a voice, I will speak out.
The decisions I made were to be direct and to get my point across clearly, but also make it interesting to read by using descriptive and stylistic choices, like this:
This is the horrific magic of humour: taking something unfamiliar and dark and evil, and trying to understand it in a way that doesn’t make us dwell on the suffering and pain that is basis of that humour.
I did this so that I could pack a really big “punch” into my writing and get my point across and still make it interesting to read.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This year was incredible in terms of my growth as a writer. Being in both AP and Creative Writing, I spent nearly half of my day learning about literature, which was truly a lot of fun. This year, I experimented with new styles, genres, and style; and overall just polished my craft a bit more. None of this would’ve been possible without the overwhelming support of my peers and friends, and so I am grateful for all of you who comment, enjoy, or even just read my work.
This was a true awakening for me, and I am sad that it is about to end for this year, although as a writer, I will never truly stop; for a true Luigi continues on after the lights of the mansion have gone out.
2018/19
PART A: You, the Writer
I have definitely improved a lot as a writer since the beginning of this year, and even the semester. Creative writing is like a sleeper subject: you don’t really ever feel a HUGE workload pile up, such as in art class or drama class. You just steadily improve through consistent practice reading and writing.
I’d say I’ve seen a shift in the genres that I like to write. Before, I was only comfortable with writing fiction. It got quite boring, but I was too scared to do anything else. As time passed, however, I become more and more inspired by beautiful poetry, lyrics, and other new forms of writing. Overall, I’d say I improved my poetry skills and non-fiction writing skills.
Although my ideas have essentially stayed the same, I am now actually writing them down, so they are actually ideas with substance and not just passing thoughts.
I have gotten a lot better at writing in detail. This is probably mostly due to listening to other magnificent writers share in class and watching writer’s seminar projects. Typically, the writers chosen for the project were very good at description, such as Ray Bradbury or H.P. Lovecraft. I feel much comfortable now writing in elaborative detail whilst not repeating myself or getting stagnant.
I’d say my structure has improved a lot. I never used to know how or when to introduce new characters or ideas in my ideas, so I sort of piled up all of it near the beginning and tried to keep that going throughout. However now, as demonstrated through a lot of the pieces we read in class, introducing a new idea at a critical moment can change the story completely. The best example of this would be a one-line plot twist in a story, but even paragraph and line and colour of one’s writing can change a lot.
My voice and style have definitely improved as well over the course of this semester. By taking a look at my ‘About Me’ post, it is apparent that I really tried to have a sarcastic voice and tone, which didn’t work and wasn’t even funny about 90% of the time. After getting properly inspired by my classmates, I started to realize that my writing was pretty distasteful at times and that I should try to emulate the work of my betters whilst also maintaining my own personality in my writing. I’d like to think my current writing style embodies myself in a more mature way than before.
GUMPS has also been a definite improvement for me in regards to this year. Obviously, this was almost exclusively through NoRedInk practice, which, although I sometimes find irksome, has made my grammar and usage skills a lot better. I’d like to bring up a specific example regarding to conjunctions and how to use punctuation with coordinating and subordination conjunctions. This has caused me to have much a more varied sentence structure in my writing, which enhances it and makes it more mature.
I would explain my current writing voice as confident and direct. I don’t feel too comfortable writing about imagery or really anything with a poetic nature. For that reason, I try to write with confidence in my ability and hope that it shows on the page. I’d like to use more symbolism and beauty in my writing, but I feel like at the moment I should try to write more confidently. Yes, I recognize I am basically hiding in my shell, but I still try things like poetry and ‘romantic’ writing from time to time in my writing journal. I just feel like when I try to write in a mysterious or rhythmical way it comes off as goofy and immature in voice, and not powerful and hard-hitting yet subtle like how other people manage to do it. I’d honestly just like to have an open writer’s voice where I feel comfortable writing anything. I don’t want to have typicality, although I understand that I can’t be great at everything. I’d like to explore the world of writing and not just write the same thing over and over again.
Although I think in that way, my blog shows a different image of me. If I look at what the viewer and not the creator sees, I guess my blog still has an air of childlikeness to it, what with all the writing about video games and the time I stupidly broke my toe. I don’t feel like I have a problem with that. I honestly don’t see the point in trying to force myself to write about mature themes if I don’t want to. I’m not trashing you if you write about that kind of stuff, obviously, it’s just that I don’t think that I can write about that right now and have people actually approve of it. I get the feeling that it would be disrespectful and demeaning.
However, I don’t think that writing about what I like (video games, sports, stupid stories) is actually what’s making my blog seem immature. I feel like I can still write about these things in an adult way, which I will be trying.
Apparently, I’m a mentor writer now and am supposed to give advice to other creative writers. Even in English class, it is quite unnerving to give people advice when they ask me for it. In all honesty, I’m pretty scattered. I always think my writing is gonna be so amazing until someone else raises their hand and reads their piece and I’m in a hurry to erase a million things and add two million more. And of course Ms. Hunnisett has to pick on me in those moments, so I basically have to share whatever garbage I managed to get on the page. Yeah, I know I shouldn’t be trash-talking myself since I am still happy with the effort that comes in. And I don’t like to consider my classmates as competition but instead as goals. I should try to be like them and emulate off them.
That said, I’d say the number one tip I can give to someone who wants to write is to force yourself to write. Even though I am not accomplished in any sense of the word, I feel as though it is critical for new writers to force yourself to write. Personally, I don’t think that “writer’s block” is a huge problem. I have days where I just don’t want to write. This could be because I am having a bad day, I am tired, overly energetic, or I want to eat ice cream instead of writing about the river. But the thing is, even if I think I wrote something horrible, I still write it. Sometimes I just write about an object sitting in front of me.
Another tip I would give is to know the value of prompts. I think it can be beneficial to write about prompts obviously, especially when you are stuck and can’t think of anything. However, a prompt is just an idea that hasn’t yet blossomed, and such buds exist everywhere. You can use any object in the world as a ‘prompt’ because you can write about absolutely anything. I’d say my best ideas have come to me as epiphanies: my fiction piece for June was when a random man blew his vape right in front of me.
Future goals and plans surrounding this blog are to, first of all, get some more work done. I have the minimum amount of posts on my blog at the moment, which I don’t feel too hot about. Summertime should be a good opportunity for me to get more work done. Another goal I have is to write more mature themes and more poetry on my blog. Although I don’t think it fits with my overall blog theme, I don’t really want that to hinder me trying out more genres. I don’t want to be as limited in my confidence in writing as I am right now.
PART B: You, the Blogger
My blog. Quite literally, the closest thing I have ever had to my own child. I love the way you expose all of my writing to the world for everyone to make fun of. I love your stupid theme and equally stupid title. I love how the fonts you use are so disgusting and barely possible to read on the equally nauseating background. I love how the title of the blog doesn’t even match the URL.
Nah, but seriously, my blog is pretty cool. It has captured my writing. I have loved every single thing I have put up on this blog. I love my immature themes and mismatched URL as much as I love opposing the conventional and basing my entire blog off of a video game taken out of context. But I’d say the best thing about this blog is the feedback. I know this isn’t personal to me, but I have never met a writer who I couldn’t learn something from. Thanks to everyone who has ever read my post, and commented or talked to me about my writing. I have improved so much as a writer just because of the suggestions that people give me.
I think my blog needs to improve in the writing department. I honestly don’t care if people think my blog looks bad or whatever, but I’d like to have more variety in my writing. I’ve talked about this before but my poetry was very, very short, whereas my non-fiction writing piece was over three thousand words. I want to write more poetry and writing with mature themes.
The following student blogs impress me the most:
http://atticsalt.edublogs.org/
This is Tony’s blog, which I find absolutely amazing. Even the title and URL are so cool that you just want to read everything he puts up, which I have. Then again, Tony just impresses me in daily life. Tony, if you’re reading this, I think you are a great writer and your blog and books show it.
http://claireisinspace.edublogs.org/
Next up is Claire’s blog. I have been a fan of Claire’s blog ever since I first signed up to this site. I didn’t know what to name my blog so I was going through the list of other blogs and I found one that had the word “space” in it, and since I am a bit of an astronomy nerd, I clicked on it. This is the type of blog that I referenced before by saying how people can write about mature themes in a poetic way and make it seem beautifully written. Claire, please keep writing even after you graduate, and continue to inspire people such as myself.
http://hiddeninplainsight.edublogs.org/
Last but not least we have Unas’ blog. Since I know him personally, his blog really showed me what a ‘sleeping writer’ can do. Most people who have great blogs also participate a lot in class so we already know what they can be capable of. Unas, I never thought you could be such an accomplished writer, but I know you take a lot of pride in your writing skills, evidenced by your blog. Keep writing, brother.
I haven’t really explored any ‘professional bloggers’ but I’d like to think that some of our classmates’ work could be considered as something that a professional would create.
PART C: You, the Student
One of the biggest epiphanies that I had this year was when we were in class and Ms. Hunnisett called on me to read my piece. I declined amid pressure but felt like trash afterward. When someone else was reading, I looked up at the board and saw the word “cigarette”. And then for some reason, I thought about people who still rolled cigarettes and what a person who did that would be like in real life. That is what lead me to have the idea for my May Free Choice: Hidden Assassin.
Another ‘aha’ I had was when we went to the river to stalk random people. I saw a man on a bike with a Sulley sticker from “Monsters Inc.” which I very much liked. This got me thinking about the movie and other Disney movies, and so I began to work on something unreleased at the moment that will likely be on my blog in a few weeks.
I’d say going to the elderly home was a very interesting moment for me. After we had finished our piece and went to read it to our partner, we found out that he was asleep, so we just walked in on someone else’s discussion. That man was a traveler and could tell us about basically any country he had been to, which was almost all of them. He had a very interesting life, and even if I didn’t write anything about him yet, I still found that conversation to be very interesting.
In regards to reading, I’d say my biggest accomplishments came in regards to my reading numbers. Aside from April, I had pretty consistent numbers that I am proud of.
For improvement, I think it would be beneficial for me to read more varied books. At the moment, I only pretty much read mystery and spy-fiction with occasional science fiction. I should try to read more romance, poetry, and scripts.
My plan to read next is to keep my pages per day above twenty and diversify my reading, as I mentioned above. I don’t want to make a detailed plan, because I know that I won’t end up following it anyways.
The best book I read for the first time this semester was “I am the Messenger” by Markus Zusak. In this novel, local deadbeat Ed who has a lack of purpose in his life is suddenly pushed into a life of service and delivery once he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. He delivers messages to people, good and bad, and ultimately realizes that he is not the messenger: he is the message to basically do things with your life.
Reading has definitely improved my writing, especially in writing fiction. Since I pretty much exclusively read fiction, I gained a lot of new skills especially in writing an action scene.
To improve as a writer, I will try to write more pieces and read more. I’ve already outlined my reading habits for this summer, but for writing, I’d like to have at least three more posts on my blog by September.
PART D: You, the Fan
Studying published authors is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to become a better writer. There’s a difficulty in finding the credibility of suggestions. If the worst writer in the class gives you a suggestion, are you going to follow it? Probably not, because you are proud of your writing, and you don’t think what they say can improve your writing if you know you are better than them. However, with published authors, you know that they know what they are talking about, because someone thought that they were good enough to be published. If you read a published author’s writing, you know that they are better than you, so there is so much to learn and emulate from. This is especially easy since the presenters did a great job of showcasing some of the best lines by these authors for us to emulate from.
I am glad I did my writer, Ray Bradbury. It provided an excuse for me to (finally) read Fahrenheit 451, which I found enjoyable. If the songwriter wasn’t taken, I would’ve liked to do a rapper such as Kendrick Lamar or Meek Mill, because they write their own music. This is because people have a bad idea of rappers in their mind, but if you think about it, rapping is just poetry with a less strict form and more strict rhythm. It’s crucial that the lines make sense and sound nice, which really limits an individual’s creativity. They might not use the most complicated vocabulary, but I am inspired by rap songs that convey so much in their simple words and still are nice to listen to.
The genre that I found most interesting was the fantasy genre as done by J. R. R. Tolkien. This is because emulating from him really taught me how to write in detail about a certain place or person when there is no action going on. Reading his work really puts a clear picture in one’s mind of where the characters are, what they are doing, and what they can see and can’t see. It sets a great stage for the action and dialogue that is to come. Also, fantasy is just really interesting, because it basically plays off of the dreams and random ideas that we have in our heads. Fantasy is basically an argument to anyone who ever said that something is impossible. It might be in real life, but nothing is impossible in fantasy literature, so there are no limits of what great authors can accomplish.
Overall, the biggest thing I learned was what the standard of excellence is. What we should strive to be like. If we want to be published authors, we should emulate off of our betters who we know are better.
The following is an emulation I would like to include. This was done on Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Take a look:
https://justdont.edublogs.org/writers-seminar/
I intend to read more Marge Piercy because I find her poetry to be excellent, and something that provides me with a lot of inspiration. I struggle to write poetry, so hopefully, I can get better if I read more of her work.
PART E: You, the Critic of your Work
So now I have to take a look at my work and explain it.
The first piece is “The Wispy One” which is a short story on my blog.
The title references a character in the piece. This character is actually a hallucination by the main character Jacob when he gets high on weed. This character represents his addiction because he wants it to comfort him, but in actuality, it causes him harm. Also, the title quite literally gives off the vibe of a marijuana or vape cloud, relating back to drugs.
This piece is about a weed-smoker, Jacob, whose sister gets killed because of his drug addiction.
On the surface, it seems like my purpose of writing this was basically to say “don’t do drugs.” But the real meaning is more than that. It talks about how finding comfort in something that is damaging, like drugs, does not actually help an individual because the short-term benefits outweigh the long-term ones. You need to find balance in your life to live healthily, and not basically be controlled by something, in this case, a drug.
The audience for this piece is anyone mature enough to read it. Essentially anyone over the age of like twelve. I feel like this is a problem that a lot of teens and young adults face, so that’s why I wrote it in language that I think is accessible to most people.
The main influence of this piece came from a man blowing a vape cloud in front of me. The cloud went up and sorta framed his head like it was his hair, and I thought about how it made him look so mysterious. I thought about how I could use that mystery in my writing, and so I based a character off of him. Then I realized that the man was still there, and he only looked different because of the vape cloud. This got me to think about how drugs can change a person. Maybe this man was taking a vape to comfort himself.
One of the main things I tried to do was portray the drug in a good and bad light. I did this by describing the process of rolling and smoking as beautiful. I used a lot of detail here:
It was a pleasure to roll: the stresses of normal life being replaced every time he so intricately pulled out the paper and the drug. Beautiful, it was, when he placed it perfectly within the paper and slowly began to create the form of the joint. To the onlookers, it seemed impossible for him to continue to roll so faithfully, hands steady, the joint impossibly tight, until it was done.
And when it was lit, the charred black marred the edges of the pure white roll. And then when one looked closely at the end, they noticed that this was no tobacco cigarette; rather, a cannabis joint. But it was still a beautiful process to behold: the smoke swirling up out of the joint at first, and then out of the mouths and noses of the partakers.
However, I also wanted to show the confusing side of drugs that begins to alter one’s mind. Drugs alter things and create an air of mystery.
And as the smoke found its way upwards and curled around and someone passed around a bong and someone coughed in the corner and someone lit another joint, it seemed as though somehow this moment was much longer than a moment. It shouldn’t have been any more than a moment. The moment lasted irregularly long, illegally long. The only passing of time was the smoke curling until someone coughed again, and time grudgingly moved its horses forward.
Finally, I showed drugs in a bad way, but not in the long and flowy sentences as before, instead opting for short and curt ones, to show the disorder and unnaturality of the effects of intoxication.
Fifty meters from the house and the speedometer showed fifty. It shot up to fifty-five, then sixty.
Ten meters from the house. The boy still drove, somehow miraculously avoiding crashing into anything. But then again, he knew where he was going, right?
Not a meter from the house. The speedometer was flat.
Not a meter off the front door. The car had halted.
Not a meter from the car.
The body.
Another style choice I made was to have the last sentence on its own line. This last sentence portrays a little bit of hope after the tragedy that has struck.
Jacob knew he (The Wispy One) wasn’t coming back.
In my interpretation, this is a way of saying that Jacob knows that his comfort from drugs is not coming back, which could lead him to stop his habits. It leaves a sense of hope in the story.
My process of experimentation for this piece was essentially my writing a piece and then reading it out loud a few times, and then checking out the rest of the story to make sure it stayed consistent with everything else I wrote. The revision process was just me putting the piece through Grammarly and then reading it out loud to make sure I liked it. So far, I haven’t had anyone read this one, so I’m not sure what feedback could be given, but I welcome everyone to read it and leave your feedback.
Next, we’ll be taking a look at my April Free Choice, “Donkey Kong Country: Artistic Analysis“.
This title is extremely simple and direct. I conducted an analysis of the 1994 game Donkey Kong Country, where I looked at the graphics and audio of the game, which I consider to be art.
This piece is about how game developers at the time used primitive tools to create amazing games.
I wrote this piece purely because I wanted to. I had recently finished the game and wondered why it was so much more different compared to all the others made around its time. This game was like a gifted child amidst a group of average children; it is unjust to compare the average ones to the special one because they are so different.
The audience for this piece was anyone who finds interest in games. Since it is quite lengthy, I accepted the fact that it would likely be boring to anyone except for people like me. I did try to explain in great detail, but at times that made it difficult to read due to a large amount of elaboration necessary.
As stated before, the main inspiration for this piece was the game: Donkey Kong Country. I enjoyed it a large amount. It was challenging, charming, rewarding, and at times just plain fun. It was the kind of game anyone can beat, but a master can still find difficult due to all the hidden levels and options that give the game so much more replayability.
The style I tried to go with was direct and punctual. I didn’t think it would be appropriate for me to use such long and twisty sentences when stating facts.
Indirect colouring is how most SNES graphics are produced, and it takes up less room on the cartridge. Using indirect colour involves every pixel colour corresponding to a number, and then using a list of numbers as a reference. For example, all red would be one, and all green would be two. We need to keep track of exactly which colour corresponds to each number and move it aside. Another benefit to using this method is that you can switch the colour palette and and still have the exact same image with different colors.
However, once I reveal my emotions and move away from the technical, I try to use more flowy sentences that sound nicer.
Having never played this game until only last week, and having never lived in the time of the 90s, and having never owned or even touched a real SNES, this song is oddly nostalgic. There is absolutely no possible reason that I should be connected in this way to this song; it should just be another track to me.
But somehow, I am.
My process of revision and research was extremely difficult for this piece because, first of all, it was extremely long. Also, I needed to fact-check virtually everything, and this was extremely dense with information that required hours of research in total. The feedback I got was wonderful. People had said that the original piece was too long, so I managed to cut out around two hundred words. Also, someone advised me to explain only the minimum and not go into detail as much, which I tried to edit.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
It was a difficult decision for me to take creative writing class this year. I was set to take drama but changed my mind in the middle of the year, which is probably the best decision I’ve ever made. This class has made me a more consistent and avid reader and has improved my writing consistency, which was my goal at the beginning of the year. I am absolutely grateful for everyone who has read my work, left feedback, tolerated my stupid humour, or even shared their work in class to provide inspiration.
I am hungry for more.
Luigi is hungry for more.
