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Sent Seductively
Of all the letter-writing topics we explored this year, I was most excited about love letters. However, I noticed something. The love shared always aligned with the traditional family values of the times. I read countless love letters from people in heterosexual relationships, traditional families, or love shared by friends. It’s not that homosexual relationships didn’t exist at the time; they just had to be better about hiding it. However, letters provide an intimate way to share private information, so there are homoromantic letters; we just didn’t read any this year. Therefore it’s time to take a deep dive into one of history’s homosexual love affairs, specifically those of famous…
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Written Words and Wishful Thinking
At the beginning of the year, I referred to my writing as “organized chaos.” Although I love showing off my eccentric side, I wanted my writing to sound less chaotic and more academic. However, I have always associated academic writing with being boring. Thankfully the blog format has helped me find duality and has turned me into a creative academic writer. Ironically, in my first weekly writing, I said I was “concerned about the blog format,” given that it has now become one of my favorite parts of this course. I also want to continue blogging after this class ends because it is a great way to practice writing and…
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The Circle of Crafting a Thesis
There is nothing more stressful than trying to draft the perfect thesis. It’s crazy that so much pressure is put on just one sentence, and most of the time, I don’t honestly know what my thesis is until I finish a paper. I usually start with a great idea, but it takes me writing the paper to realize what I am trying to prove. Yes, I could hypothetically write the paper first and decide on the thesis after, but so often, teachers ask for the thesis first, and doing things in reverse order will only make things more complicated for me. So I have often questioned: what is the perfect…
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Dual Submission Assignments
This week we completed our letter of note assignments, including a paper and a presentation. This is the second time this semester I have done an assignment like this in one of my classes, so I wanted to give my input on why I think it works brilliantly. However, before I talk about the functionality of dual submission assignments, I would like to preface by saying they must always be due project first, then paper. If the paper is due first, it defeats its entire purpose. The first part of a dual submission assignment is the project component. It usually is a presentation. However, I have seen posters, dioramas, and…
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Takeaways by a Young Writer
This week we read a series of letters written to young authors giving them advice about how to write their books, get published, etc. As a young writer myself, some points stuck with me, and I feel I will utilize in the future should I choose to go further with the book I am currently working on. So here are my top five takeaways from Letters to a Young Writer 5. Reading Time: The best time to read is at the beginning of a project, and then the amount you read should decrease as you reach the climax. This allows you to make sure the conclusion is all your own.…
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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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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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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…
