A: You, the Writer…

What have you improved as a writer?

Through creative writing, I improved in expanding my horizon of genres. At the beginning I stuck to one genre, dark things, dark genres, concepts that only reflected the dark and negative aspects of reality and while many aspects of reality fall true to this, that isn’t life, life doesn’t necessarily have to be negative, it is in the hands of a person to chose the life they want to lead. In my writing, I have been incorporating many aspects of reality, and I have been switching between genres from time to time, sometimes I will write in a dark genre, a calming genre, a light-hearted genre, a gruesome genre, and a humorous genre.

Would you Explain your Voice?

I always switch between what voice I am writing my piece in, when I was a child in elementary school I would always write in the third person, but my pieces were not good at all whatsoever, as a writer at the time I felt as though I couldn’t connect with my readers through writing in the third person. After that, I switched to writing in the first person, I envisioned myself as speaking to a person, and through that, I would write as if I speak. Later on, through creative writing I learned that a person could still connect with their readers in the third person, they would just have to do it; differently, they would have to connect with their reader. It’s as if a person were trying to tell someone something, but they couldn’t directly tell them so they would have to tell them that differently, they could project that to them through a friend and that would be different from going to them in person, but that is exactly how writing in the first or third person is in creative writing.

Advice to Future Writers?

One important thing that I felt I learned through my writing that I could give as advice to other writers is, being authentic. The best pieces in all of not just English literature but any kind of literature is writing from the heart, writing with passion. That does not mean that your writing has to be a reflection of your life, but you can put yourself in other people’s shoes and look at things from their perspective and feel what they are feeling, experience what they are experiencing and that is how you convey multiple messages to your readers. Don’t be afraid, to tell the truth even if it hurts because the truth will eventually unravel, instead of living with that burden of eventually telling the truth it is better to rip off the band-aid as quick and sincerely as you can.

Future Goals?

I want to try different styles of writing, such as poetry because that isn’t something I have really played with in the past. I do want to get more hands-on experience with poetry, but at this point, I have found a few things that resonate with me, things that aren’t too “mushy” or “touchy-feely.” I don’t exactly want to take the using similies to overexaggerate about someone, route.

 

B:You, the Blogger

Positive’s:

I take pride in specific pieces of my writing, such as “The Sharp Knife of Reality.” I really felt that I was able to pour my heart out onto the page like no other piece I wrote. Negative’s: I had quite a few technical difficulties with my Blog, and some things about my Blog were not as organized as I would have liked them to be. This was because I didn’t familiarize myself with the software of edublogs.com.

I was absolutely amazed by three blogs in particular which happen to be…

Liza’s Blog (http://curtaincall.edublogs.org) Liza can connect with her viewers so well through her writing, and she is incredibly diverse in her writing style, which not everyone is very good at. Usually, the case is that a writer is amazing at their style but very average at writing in other styles. Other writers are decent at many styles but don’t have one exact style. Liza was able to show that she had the best of both worlds through her Blog.

Claire (http://claireisinspace.edublogs.org/reflections-2019/)I get so much inspiration from Claire’s Blog. She does such a beautiful job of describing things through her precise and detailed imagery, her Blog is incredibly unique and different, through her Blog she can take simple everyday concepts and do wonders with it, and that is a sign of brilliance.

Reegan (http://landofinsanity.edublogs.org),

Reegan’s Blog is very interesting in the sense that its contents are very whimsical. Her content gives off a very Alice in Wonderland vibe. What I also love about her Blog is how she used film study in so many aspects of her stories, that to me is pure talent in embracing so many perspectives.

A professional blogger I like to read goes by the name “Larry Ferlazzo.” Larry Ferlazzo makes posts about the world in general, facts, Social Studies, Science, etc. Larry Ferlazzo is a blogger that uploads facts like the ones you would see on Buzzfeed except Ferlazzo’s facts are credible and a lot of research goes into Ferlazzo’s work.

 

C: You, the Student

Your “Aha!” moment?

The SSR quotation was the real “Aha’s” for me. A quote on the board would spark an idea and at that point, I would pour all the ideas I had onto the page and write like crazy so I wouldn’t forget the idea. The quotations really clicked with me. These quotes would have a lightbulb light up in my head, and all my ideas would come to life, and I would pour them onto the page. It was great because in the end if I had an idea, I liked I could further tweak the writing and get some more information from that to make my Blog.

I read a lot of fiction which was not something I did a lot before, I wasn’t a huge fan of fiction. You could throw any non-fiction book regarding any subject, and I would read it with passion, fascination, and interest, but if you were to place a fictional novel in front of me I would look at it in disgust, and I would be ready to bore myself to death. Since I have accomplished my goal of accomplishing and reading fiction, I want to further extend that by reading poetry and increasing my understanding of poetic methodologies. Reading poetry is one of my biggest reading goals. The reading of fiction has really allowed me to see the truth in the unreal, to get the deeper meaning of even the simplest of metaphors and that is all my Blog is about, the truth and reality.

 

D: You, the Fan

The writer’s seminars were an amazing experience for me! I was able to explore so many styles of writing, and most importantly, I was able to explore different styles of thinking. I was so happy that I got a writer like Roald Dahl, who is completely different from mainstream, mediocre writers. When I read his writing, I don’t feel like I am just reading the words of an author, I am reading the actual, authentic well thought out words of a human being. The thing that fascinated me about Roald Dahl’s writing is the classic pieces but also the dark ones with deep, disturbing truths hiding underneath.

Emulation from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate FactoryThe area was lovely and heartwarming, the atmosphere made me feel as though I belonged, as though I felt welcome! Suddenly a rush of different smells filled my nose. The scent of dark roast coffee beans and creme brulee and peach cobbler and raspberry compote and cheesecake and melted white chocolate and the rinds of lemons, limes and several different kinds of tropical citrus fruit. Each scent was a separate experience, but they all were special, they all were unique; they all were unforgettable. Readers you intend to read? I plan to read more of Franz Kafka’s pieces because the way he uses metaphors is with such brilliance that words can not explain what he does, but Franz Kafka’s pieces are some of the pieces I want to read.

 

E: You, the Critic

The pieces of my writing that I take the most pride in are

“The Sharp Knife of Reality.” (on my Blog) and “Peeling” which is a journal entry I wrote at the beginning of the year about this mask of a person slowly peeling away, this mask was a barricade between the person and reality.”The Sharp Knife of Reality”I used this title to symbolize that reality is only ever learned through listening to and accepting the painful truth, it feels like a stab because it is so sudden and it hits a person hard. The theme of the piece is reality and loss of innocence. This was an experience that I and many other people in my face. My Aunt house was demolished by the government of the Azad Kashmir (A state/province of between Pakistan and India). I remember an army of police destroying the place, and I also remember the sorrow, agony, and pain my family members felt. It was utterly and absolutely traumatizing. I wanted to reflect the harsh truth and loss of innocence involved in this piece. My family was the influence in me writing this piece, and I couldn’t have done it without them. I really had to put myself back in the very situation my family and I were traumatized from. I was trying to escape the grief and sadness, but here I was, eventually writing about one of the most traumatizing experiences in my life. To do that, I had to experience this trauma again in my head, to pour out the actual words of authenticity onto my paper.

With “Peeling” as I like to call it. It was an interesting piece for me to write. The title symbolizes the removal of this “mask,” precisely a barricade that separated this anonymous person from reality, this “mask” was the illusion of happiness and a perfect life when in reality it wasn’t. The interesting part about this is that it wasn’t a personal experience, it was me stepping into another person’s shoes and saying that .”This is a mask I am wearing, and I am not happy, I am actually very depressed.” The peeling of the mask was used to symbolize the success that a person had in overcoming their depression and becoming their true authentic self. I want to be able to do the same for all my future pieces.

(Credit: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/229191068519879500/)