Week 8 Writing Review

Looking back over my storytelling posts, I can definitely pick out some that are stronger than others, but I think my favorite so far might be from week 5, titled The Betrayal. I picked this one because the comments on it helped assure me that i'd achieved my goal of surprising people and making them think about things from a different point of view. Often it is very difficult for people to see all sides of a story, so I like writing my storytelling posts from the perspectives of different characters, apart from the protagonist/narrator. Going into the second part of the semester my goals are to continue writing stories that I would find fun to read, to continue having fun writing the stories and doing most of the readings, and stick to my routine of getting reading diaries done over the weekend or by Monday so I can get a little ahead by doing the storytelling and the Wednesday assignments on Tuesday while i'm at my practicum.

King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway with their regalia.

Found on Wikipedia 

Photo taken from The Betrayal (link in previous paragraph)

Other students have really given me some cool ideas about types of stories to write, styles to use, and how I could take something they did and fit it to my style. They have also given me good feedback and helped me see how these stories could be perceived by others. This is especially true because I dig macabre, dark humor and old stories from writers like the Brothers Grimm and Edgar Allen Poe so I get really into the darker writings and some people might not be into that or might be able to help me relate those to a larger audience. They've helped me spot grammar errors and question my motives or execution of my motives so that I can connect better with more people. Their comments and the ability to write creative stories has helped me be more creative in my writing for other classes and for all of my applications that I have to do (for Tanzania, Grad School, Scholarships, etc.).

I think my biggest challenges as a writer are trying to keep grammar, sentence structure, etc. in mind when i'm "stream of thought" writing. This is when i'm really inspired and am thinking really quickly about what I want to write, so I just type it as fast as I can so I don't lose it. The problem with this is that I don't think about all of the technical stuff and so I have to edit a lot and I just really don't like editing. However, when i'm inspired, I feel like I can really get some good stuff going. This doesn't just relate to fun, creative writing but also to my professional and/or academic writing. For instance, i'm writing a research paper about the use of art therapy with dementia patients and i'm really interested in it, so it doesn't feel as intimidating or monotonous as when i'm researching or writing about something i'm not particularly connected with or aligned with.