PART A: You, the Writer:
Over the course of this semester I have definitely learned many things and improved as a writer. The genre I have improved in the most as a writer this semester was poetry because I was exposed to it in a very different way in creative writing than I had been before. Being around other creative people also exposed me to new ideas and ways of writing. This, in general helped me come up with different ideas about things to write about given the diverse environment. In terms of details, structure and grammar, I don’t think I have improved in that a ton because its not something I payed very close attention to. As a writer, I feel like I’ve always liked writing in a manner that connects everything together so the ideas flow nicely together. I like writing about individuals and their struggles. But since I like to get into so much detail and context, I struggle with writing shorter pieces. As a developing writer, there isn’t much I can give advice on, but one thing I would recommend for future creative writers is that they should be familiar with a variety of authors and texts and many different styles of writing because this, I’ve noticed really helps with the creative flow of ideas that can eventually end up in their writing. My future goals for writing is to be more consistent and write everyday even if it is just a little but because I do enjoy writing, I just struggle a lot with consistency hence why I have started so many pieces of writing that I haven’t been able to complete.
PART B: You, the Blogger
I really like the idea behind my blog when I initially created it, it was supposed to be a place where I could easily express myself though my writing. I really like the quote on my homepage given that since I’m a very quite and introverted person, it speaks out to me a lot. It also aligns perfectly with what I intended to do with this blog; express myself as a writer. It didn’t take long for me to realize I am very uncomfortable with sharing my best work or sharing my writing at all. This is not because I’m afraid of judgement or criticism but because writing is something I do purely for my own joy and peace of mind and to bring in the idea of publishing and giving other people access to what is meant just for myself really didn’t work out for me. So, I have to admit, I am not impressed with my blog at all because it does not reflect who I am as a writer. It is also very neglected and therefore unimpressive. However some blogs that have impressed me from our class include the following:
Emily: http://soullessbeings.edublogs.org/
Maira: http://foreverwandering.edublogs.org/
Zainab.K http://mydisneydaze.edublogs.org/
The reason I love Emily’s and Zainab’s blogs so much is that they both manage to twist things that are so innocent into dark and gory things in such an elegant manner. I, myself love to do this in my writing and find a lot of inspiration in their writing style. I also feel like they are both great storytellers as they manage to connect their ideas and keep the flow of their writing going which is also something I love seeing when I’m reading. As for Maira I love just about everything about her blog; from the aesthetics to the poems, everything was very impressive. I see Maira as a very skilled poet that I can look up to given that I have just recently started to explore poetry.
As of right now I don’t follow any professional blogs, but perhaps in the future this is something I could consider.
PART C: You, the Student
My biggest “aha” moment from creative writing class has to be when we were introduced to Shane Koyczan. I just loved how he could tell entire stories and express emotions so strongly all the while maintaining a poetic vibe in his writing. It’s what inspired me to try writing poetry which I found I loved doing even though I could use a lot of improvement in my poetic style. I was exposed to a lot of new authors this semester, but the best book I read this semester was written by an author I was already familiar with which is, “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” by Khaled Hosseini. This has to be one of the best books I’ve ever read because it tells such an emotionally heart touching and unforgettable story in such a sophisticated style of writing. This book has helped me become a better writer because Khaled Hosseini’s writing flows very easily, so I had a lot to learn from him on how to make my own writing flow more easily. My next steps to improve as a writer is to become more consistent with my reading and writing. I plan on doing a little bit of each everyday.
PART D: You, the Fan
I was exposed to a variety of materials to read and be inspired from this semester hence I tried many new things this semester. One of the new things I tried this semester was script writing which was inspired by Ahad Raza Mir. I’ve been a huge fan of him since I saw him acting in a Pakistani drama called Yakeen Ka Safar and I was crazy about him coming to Calgary to perform for Hamlet. It’s fair to say I’ve been a fan of him and his acting for a long time, but I never saw him through the eyes of a writer until he came to our school to answer questions. Some of the things he spoke about when it came to character development and play writing really made me question whether it’s the writer that knows the character better or the actor. This was a unique experience I had when it comes to any guests speakers we’ve had. As for writer’s seminars, studying published authors has helped me because I was able to analyze their writing styles and adopt what I liked into my own writing. For my writer’s seminar, I did Roald Dahl. I would have preferred to do Khaled Hosseini because I am a huge fan of his books and writing style, but that doesn’t mean I’m not glad about doing Roald Dahl; I also love his stories and was happy about doing my writer’s seminar on him. In general I’m a huge fan of dystopian novels, but this semester I have just loved reading the stories of individuals in the real world. This is another reason as to why I love Khaled Hosseini’s work. Many of the writer’s people chose to do for their writer’s seminars gave two peices of advice that could serve me very well if I applied them. The first is to be consistent and patient and the second is to be genuine in your writing. In the future I want to read books by John Green; this is something I’ve been intending to do for a while now.
PART E: You the Critic of your work
https://wajeeham19.edublogs.org/2019/06/19/150/
The first piece I would like to reflect on is called, “Damp Ashes.” It’s a poem about a strong individual that eventually gave into negative external forces, but overcame their struggle. The purpose of writing this poem was to show two things. The first is that with consistency, anything can be achieved whether it be positive or negative. This can be seen in the quote,
“Wondering how water could possibly crack stone.”
The consistent pressure of the water was enough to break something as hard as stone. The second is to show that our hardships refine us in a way and make us our better selves as seen in the lines, “
That you, my dear are a Phoenix,
A creature strengthened by its critics.”
A phoenix rises from ash; something so beautiful and majestic rose from a pitiful pile of ash.
This piece was inspired from one of the river walks we did. In this particular river walk we were supposed to watch someone and the women I was watching was singing and a line she sang was, ” Phoenix in the Water.” And those words just so happened to stick with me. I did not have any specific process for writing this piece, I just thought of the idea of a phoenix in the water along with the two ideas behind my purpose and sat down and started writing and this is what was produced on my page. I did go back and change a few words here and there. In the future, I might play around some more with this piece and see what more I could do with it.
https://wajeeham19.edublogs.org/2019/06/19/two-worlds-apart/
The second piece I decided to reflect on is called, “Two Worlds Apart.” The tittle is very reflective of the main idea of the poem which is basically a small snippet from the lives of two people living very different lifestyles. The first perspective is of a girl living in a third world country and the second perspective is of a girl living in a first world country, that is where the tittle comes from. The purpose behind writing this piece was show the contrast between the lives of two individuals around the same age going about their day. Something that seems so small and mundane to us, as people living in the first world holds so much more importance to someone living in less fortunate conditions. The two following quotes will ourline this idea perfectly.
She pointed at the bucket sitting by the small tin stove and I rushed to pick it up. I no longer was angry about my sleep being ruined. In fact I felt happy about the fact that I was lucky enough to get TWO warm showers this week, usually I don’t even get one. I went back to bed with a good feeling in my heart. Today was going to be a good day even without electricity.
verses
I got up, took a shower and got ready for school.
The very act of taking a warm shower is regarded as blessing by one person whereas another person doesn’t have to put a second thought towards being able to take a warm shower.
There was no particular inspiration behind this piece. I just wanted to play around with dialogue and see what I would come up with so once again I sat down to write and this is what I came up with. I think in the future I could definitely do more with this piece and turn it into a multi perspective story perhaps.
