FYS 183
This is the main category for this course
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The Story Behind the Story
Since this week, we focused on our creative writing assignment; I thought it would be fun to do this week’s creative writing on what inspired my creative writing piece. For the longest time, I have been enamored by love stories! I watch Hallmark movies and read romance novels obsessively. My parents have an adorable love story. They were high school sweethearts who broke up in college and got back together after going to a wedding together; then, my dad showed up a few days after on my mom’s doorstep with yellow roses to confess his love. Also, my mother was an actress who taught me Shakespeare’s romances from a young…
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Last Love
Eleanor sat up in her bed. “Would you like more tea?” one of her maids asked. “No.” The word barely audible against her faint breath. “I want to write,” she mumbled, “get me my quill.” The maids rushed to her side with quill and parchment, fear in their eyes. They knew that Eleanor was in pain and that writing would only cause her more, but they would not deny the frail young women her wish. When she was healthy, Eleanor would write daily to her friend Fredrick. She would wait by the window for the postman to see if Frederick had written back yet, and twirl around in delight when…
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Solving my problems with Mind Mapping
One of the problems I constantly run into when doing assignments is that I feel like I have no good ideas. I end up staring at a blank google doc for over an hour just trying to come up with the perfect idea that is well thought-out and has significant proof. Even once I do have an idea, I have to worry about the possibility of me changing plans halfway through a paper. I once tried just making a bulleted list of all my ideas before I started and then just free-write, but that ended horribly with me having enough ideas for a book and the most hectic free writing…
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How To Tell A Story
I love literature! In my free time, when not onstage, you can often find me with a book in my hand or working on a novel that has been one of my passion projects for years. I have always known epistolary format existed, but I hadn’t had much experience with it until this week. I didn’t realize how much more I enjoyed reading in this format than I expected. Most of the books I read are romance novels, and my favorite author: Lauren Asher, always has both characters in the relationship narrator the book so you can understand what they are both feelings. Similar to the way the epistolary novels do…
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Everyone Needs Love
Although I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this week due to my hopeless romantic nature, the one thing that has stuck with me was the Ted Talk: Love Letters to Strangers. As someone who sends bi-weekly love letters to her boyfriend, I have always viewed love letters as very personal things that should just be shared between the people in the relationship. Even though my parents are known as the PDA couple of my friend group, I have yet to see the letters they wrote through college despite hearing numerous stories about them. It was like a secret that just the two of them shared, and although I knew my parents…
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The Anne Frank Dilemma
Due to letters, we have found a way to preserve people and their lives. Millions of letters were sent between families during WWII, and over time collections of them have been formed, both personal and private, that have an ornate effect on people. They expand both people’s knowledge of what it was like to be in the war, sparking a historical interest. Ones in museums and online collections have further shaped opinions on the war, allowing people to feel connected with the past. There is no question about the vitality of the letters, but when reading such personal letters feels unethical, why does one continue? The Dear Bessie letters raise…
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Why Songs Are Like Letters (Bear With Me Here)
When looking at the last letters of the Holocaust, there are some main similarities: most people will try to reassure their loved ones of their safety and positivity. However, this meant that most people didn’t get a “last goodbye”. This left me extremely upset, and as I began to look through the letters, I searched for anything that would ease my mind. In the first of my two letters, the mother says something I found to be extremely significant: “Do you still remember the songs? I also sing them.” This was precisely the heartfelt thing I was looking for. On my drive up to college, one of the most important…
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I’ve Decided To Write A Book!
This week in class, we read letters written by children in Japanese Internment camps. These kids had written letters to their librarian back home asking for books, supplies, and comfort. What surprised me most was how awful some conditions sounded, yet the kids still tried to focus on the positive. Alec read a letter in which a girl was trying to make sense of a riot that had happened at one of the camps, and she was trying to make sense of why what she heard at the camp was different than what she had heard on the radio. This is extremely important because it is a direct example of…
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Dear Expectations,
Late Wednesday night, as sleep flooded my thoughts and my lamp flickered, I looked down at my last assignment of the night: my letter to my future self. Although this same task was presented to me at orientation, the weight of this one felt heavier since I no longer had restrictions on space. My immediate thought was what I wanted to ask myself, yet this question is very daunting. I panicked as I began going through the list of things I wanted to accomplish. What if I fail? What if this letter reminds me of all of my failures? What if everything changes from now till then? One might think…
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Weekly Writing #1
My Writing Process If asked to describe my writing process, I would call it organized chaos. I am an intelligent person who is reasonably organized, has exciting ideas, and can typically articulate my point intelligently. However, when it comes to articulating other people’s points, I tend to fall short. During this class, I hope to gain the skills needed to better back up my claims and apply these skills towards research papers and argumentative essays. This being said I would like to keep my creative way of brainstorming using my theater orientated mind and my expansive knowledge of shows as a backdrop for my writing style, and my way of…
