final blog

            Over the course of the semester I think my writing has greatly improved.  My poetry has come the farthest over the weeks.  I think that at first I was kind of nervous to open up and expand.  But reading some of the class work, especially Blood Dazzler, opened my eyes to writing with emotion.  The class assignment where we wrote a poem about one word that you said out loud also helped.  It made me forget what I think and just write.  Write what I felt and what was going on with me.  It really helped me turn my poems from boring into insightful and personal.

            I also think my essay and fiction writing improved.   My biggest trouble was with the ending.  I thought it was hard to just wrap things up.  I could not think of a creative way to end the story without it seeming sudden.  I do not think I am perfect at this yet, but I have gotten better.  It is one thing that I think I will try to keep working on.  Also, even though it should be elementary, I could not keep my verb tense the same when I was writing my rough drafts.   This made me realize that I need to slow down and think while I first write, and also to proof read better.

Mute Dancers

      I think that “Mute Dancers: How to Watch a Hummingbird” was an extremely interesting essay.  It was an informative essay.  It had lots of very interesting and very random facts and information about humming birds.  Like I had no idea that humming birds had to restart their hearts when they wake up.  And that sometimes it doesn’t restart and they can die in their sleep.  I also like the facts about how the Native American’s viewed the humming bird.  She made it very obvious to see that the humming bird was an important symbol.  She also provided reasons that showed how little humming birds could be used to motivate warriors.

            I think that the form of this essay was a more traditional essay form.  It follows a logical order and is divvied into nice concise paragraphs.  Each paragraph is its own mini story.  I think that it works very well because each story is interesting to keep my attention, but also full of information.  She did a very good job at keep me entertained, while teaching me at the same time.  The content was educational stories.

            I think that another reason that I liked this story so much was the language.  She talked very simply and was easy to understand.  Most informational essays try to load up on so many facts that they use long sentences and big confusing words.  She was able to get all of her points across using to the point sentences and words.  So even though I did not have any prior specific knowledge of humming birds I was able to understand everything she was teaching.

essay packet

I think that this essay packet was very eye opening to me.  In the past I have only ever written persuasive and informative essays for class.  This showed me a lot of good different styles of essays.  There was much more than just the basic five paragraph essay.  There were descriptive essays and lists, and stories.  It showed me much more than what I have been accustomed to writing in the past.

                Specifically I would like to talk about the essay “total eclipse.”  I personally think that it is more of a descriptive story than an essay.  But that might be good since I need to open up my definitions of essays and this is helping me to do it.  Even, the last paragraph of page 87, when the author talks about what they did on the side of the highway.  He definitely phrased it as a story, like a sequence of events.  It was also very descriptive and I like the simplicity of the writing.  I think that even though it is simple and easy to understand the author used great detail and helps me picture it easily.

Fiction books

Outside of class I have recently finished two books.  The first was The Last Patriot by Brad Thor.  It is a fiction book about other religions trying to subtly undermine the framework of the USA.  I really liked the book because it used true historical events from between the times of Thomas Jefferson and September 11, 2001.  The author made everything seem connected and was able to make it exciting and relevant.  There was also a lot of action and a very intricate fictional plot to go alone with the true events.

The book I more recently finished was Just After Sunset by Stephen King.  This book actually matched up with our class because it is a compilation of 13 of his short stories.  Most of the stories were published in previously in magazines and other places, and one story was brand new in this book.  I really liked that some stories were as short as 20 pages and some as long as 120.  So that means that his stories were written very differently.  The short ones had fewer characters and they were directly introduced.  The longer ones had more characters, which were described through their actions, and more complicated plots.  I think that the stories were very different from each other but still had the same basic principles, about expectations and perception.  I liked this book a lot.

To After That

Renee Gladman admitted that To After That was a eulogy to an unfinished book.  If this was just the eulogy I am very curious to how that first book started, or would have ended.  It also made this book very complex and distracting.  A book about an unfinished book just made my mind wander more, which I assume was one of her goals.  Just like all the other readings from this semester so far.

            Throughout the book I thought there was an internal conflict of whether she was proud of what she had done, or upset she had not finished it.  At points she seems like she is complaining about not finishing what she started.  Which I can relate to since I am a competitive person, I hate the feeling of starting something and not being able to finish it.  On the other hand she also seems to be happy which what she has written.  Proud of what she started and genuinely upset she didn’t finish it.

            I think that this story was more about the lesson then the words.  That no matter what you should write as much as you can.  She wasn’t able to finish her other book so she wrote this one instead.  And that even if you do not finish something it doesn’t mean that it’s not good or you need to give up.  I think that connects greatly to creative writing, not everything I write will be good or finished, but its no excuse for me to stop writing.   

Response 2

          I want to talk about the activity we did in class last Thursday.  I thought it helped me to open my mind to different subjects for my poetry.  Since I do not usually express my thoughts and feelings on paper I am no  to great at it.  But when the Professor was reading words, I easily had reactions to all of them, and was able to write about it easily.  I think now that i should be able to just name any of my feelings and be able to write about it.
         Also I think it was great that everyone was able to go around the circle and give their opinions on the poetry packet.  I read all the poems and only understood a couple.  The ones that I did get, everyone else had different opinions on.  Which in my opinion is the great thing about poetry.  Everyone can read the same poem, and see it in a different way.  With neither being more wrong or right.
         Lastly I really want to talk about the faculty reading last night.  It opened my eyes to many different forms of poetry, and presentation.  The first presentation was extremely interesting.  I think her use of background noise was more distracting then helpful.  It was nonsensical and just took away from the overall experience.  I really enjoyed the second reader.  She chose some very interesting pieces and was able to read them in her own voice, which was outstanding.

Dim Lady

I really like the poem Dim Lady by Mullen.  We always hear about how great Shakespeare is, especially his original sonnets.  Unfortunately his work is lost on me and many people in this age, because of the language.  I have to read the poems over and over before I start comprehending them.  Reading the sonnet in a modern text helped me to go back and read the Shakespeare one and understand it better.  The modern one, Dim Lady, was lacking all of the flow and rhythm that Shakespeare's sonnet was.  So to me Dim Lady was more of a tool to read the Shakespeare poem than as an equal modern replacement.