Part A: You, the Writer

Creative writing is a class either for those of us that wish to improve our writing, or those up us that have a passion for the art, though this doesn’t matter as we all end up the latter in the end. Prior to this course, I was one of the students with what you could call ‘unrealistic ambition’ to become a writer, all the while being a veterinarian. I felt as though I had to choose one or the other: raw, Lovecraftian horror, or the welfare of animals. Being a life long animal welfare advocate, this seemed like the appropriate choice, given my additional love of the sciences. Even before the last time I took this course, I only chose to do creative writing to limit the amount of fun I could have and focus myself entirely on academics and my career. How wrong I was. Not just with the creative writing not being fun, I mean it is my favourite class as of now, but it took me a year and a half to realize that everything doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Nothing really is that simple and black and white. Becoming involved with an amazing writer,(*cough*Lucas*cough*) and watching him juggle his life as an AP LA student as well as a biology student, seemingly with ease, is definitely one of the things that changed my opinion. Today, after completing two full semesters of creative writing, I look back and realize how silly I was. That was the true ‘unrealistic ambition’; expecting to focus entirely on one or the other. Before, I never put much merit into my writing. Sure, I enjoyed writing short stories, and my macabre fascinations were always there, but I didn’t have the confidence in myself to choose both; writing and animals. As months came and left, I watched myself evolve, both emotionally and skilfully. I became softer, and at the same time my writing became more complex. This was maybe caused by the former in the first place. My writing started to acknowledged the complexity of its characters, as seen in “The Trumpet Man” and my poetry, saturated with metaphors, became more understandable, comparing “Cattails and Entrails” to “Daydreams of the Damned.” Inspirations I had became more meaningful, maybe not to others, but at least to myself. My descriptiveness became more attentive to detail as I chose words that themselves added to the scene. Structure is a topic I still believe I need to work on, however, as my unstructured writing vomit is usually what ends up dictating the rest of the piece. As for grammar and punctuation errors, I did my best to keep them to a minimum. I feel as though my grammar has improved, though punctuation I do not know. The greatest improvement I have seen in myself, however, is the signature of my voice that is now more present than ever in all of my writing. To describe my voice as a writer, my writing is nightmarish. That’s as plainly as I can state it. Nightmares can be clam and cold, or hot and pumped full of adrenalin, but they all have something in common; something that latches onto your soul and sticks to you, something that drives the demons whispering in your head into a frenzy, something that taps its fingers along your bones until you shiver. Or at least I try. Stylistically, I support this voice by incorporating large unsettling words, much alike the piece, itself. I include a lot of metaphors, as I mentioned before, and I’m a sucker for symbolism. My themes almost always centre around madness or some other imperfection of the human condition. To all future writers that may stumble across this page, I advise you to find a topic you are supremely fascinated, or passionate about, and find way to incorporate you into all of your writing. This enthusiasm will be reflected in your writing, allowing the reader to be immersed int he idea as much as you are. In the future, I plan to pursue my writing, maybe not to its fullest extent as I still desire to become a veterinarian, but I will never let go of my passion for writing. In the meantime, I guess you can expect to see me back in class next year.

Part B: You, the Blogger

“Katherine- Ballad of Dwight Fry,” the name of my blog in which I have spent so much effort. As a blogger, I have become somewhat of an expert at choosing pictures. Oh yes, my skills as a writer have all but been channelled into my picture picking skills. I mean, have you seen that cursed clown that haunts the headboard of my page? He’s gorgeous. Anyway, as a blogger I feel as though I have developed quite a lot within this last semester. I’ve noticed my voice as a writer even come through in my stylistic choices; that being a great quantity of imagery with macabre or maddening themes. I pay far more attention to my blog now than I ever used to and I believe this helped others pay more attention to it as well. At the same time, I’ve begun to take inspiration from other bloggers, too. I’ve seen classmate’s blogs with beautiful imagery and attention to detail and customization, so much so, that I was motivated to do the same to my own. I believe my blog does a good job at targeting my audience, being those fascinated with these dark undertones just as I am, drawing them in with its images and themes. My blog excels within this category of aesthetic, however, I would drastically like to increase the frequency with which I post. No amount of pretty pictures can make up for a blog run dry. After this course, I will keep my blog open for anyone that wishes to visit, as well as continuing to post fragments of poems or stories that I have written in my spare time. As well as my own, there are a number of my peers blogs that I will continue to follow, being the blogs I frequently come back to for the great writing, or blogs that I have drawn inspiration from. One of these such blogs is “Jade-The Girl with the Purple Soul.” Jade’s short pieces or thoughts I find to hold great meaning behind their short length. Kaden’s “Well…this happened” is another one of these blogs. His sense of humour really appeals to me, as a member of his audience, so I’ll be sure to continue following this blog in the future. The last blog I will mention is Lucas’ “Vault of Faults.” How unexpected, I know. Lucas’ blog I believe combines the perfect amount of dark imagery with humour, as seen when comparing “Danse Macabre” to “Cheers To You, Drunkards!” He has a great sense of humour and shares it with charismatic style, yet parallels this with his darker works and skillful storytelling. Professional bloggers, I have yet to explore. Maybe that will change as soon as Cthulhu resurrects H.P. Lovecraft and he decides to substitute his excellent scripture with blog posts. Still waiting for that.

Part C: You, the Student

Creative writing has provided me with an outlet for my creative inclination and at the same time has proven to be a great motivation for my writing, providing me with a great multitude of ideas and inspirations. One of these such inspirations came from the entirety of the river writing idea. there’s something about writing in solitude besides a beautifully cold body of water that cultivates the perfect atmosphere for creativity. I will take this into my own hands as I explore the forest in search of the perfect place to not just write, but read as well. My reading identity has developed since entering this class, as well as my writing. As a reader I have become more diligent in reading consistently, rather than reading nothing for weeks, then reading a book in a few days. My new approach seems to take longer to finish a book, however it has noticeably improved my understanding of the piece in more than just plot. The best book I read this semester is definitely “American Psycho’’ by Bret Easton Ellis. This book takes you into the psychology of a serial killer. You get to experience the impulsiveness, the obsession, the narcissism, through the character, Patrick Bateman’s eyes. This character is objectively a terribly human being, although he is designed in such a perfect way, he becomes likeable. This book had me feeling sympathy for a person that is incapable of sympathy. With the entire novel told in first person, the symbolic description of the city in which he lives, and the lack of complexity in sentences, Ellis has encouraged me to incorporate his style into my own writing. Nothing I’ve written this semester plainly reflects this, however I have noticed, as I mentioned before, that my writing has become more concise and I know this has played a part in making that happen. Next I plan to read more classical books that have a deeper meaning to those that put thought into understanding the intentions of the author, much like this one. Books like “The Great Gatsby” by Fitzgerald are next on my list. Circling back to my progress as a writer, I have accomplished securing my voice and style. Next, I plan to focus more on short story writing as poetry was my main focus of this semester, and short story writing is what gave me such a passion to write in the first place. I hope to return to creative writing for my final go round in grade 12 so I can continue to be involved in such a wonderful community and have motivation to continue writing.

Part D: You, the Fan

Through our writer’s seminar this year, I got to learn more about Andy Weir, author of “The Martian.” I believe studying these published authors, either through my own research, or through my classmate’s presentations, has greatly improved my ability to appreciate more types and genres of work. For example, I didn’t think I was going to enjoy “The Martian” as much as I did, it being primarily a survival story/comedy, while I mainly only ever focus on the horror genre.  The studying of writers such as these helped me oped up my writing and mind to works of all types. I am glad that my partner, Lucas, and I chose to do Andy Weir, as until I researched him, I was not aware of his scientific background. Being a science enthusiast, this was a gold star in my book. I’m also glad that I got to learn so much about a comedy writer, as I hardly, if ever, include comedy in my works, as I’m too afraid I won’t be able to pull it off. I got the chance to analyze how Weir weaves in comedy, and have become inspired to do so in my work. If I were to choose a different author to feature my writer’s seminar around, it would be Bret Easton Ellis, author of “American Psycho,” to obtain a deeper understanding about the thorough characterization that Ellis displays in his work. As I mentioned before, it is primarily the horror and darker genres that interest me the most, but I am interested in trying new genres, one such being comedy. Out of all the writers I had the privilege to learn about over the course of this semester, I believe that they have all taught me that becoming a writer is obtainable if you have a true passion for the art. Learning about the vast childhoods that all resulted in them becoming a successful writer, I learned that no matter where you come from, through hard work, you too can become successful. (That was very cheesy) I’ve been inspired to give myself a chance at writing. After learning about these different writers, I have been further inspired to read authors of different genres, like Fitzgerald, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Jane Austen.

Link to my writer’s seminar:

https://1awayfromthez0mb13s.edublogs.org/2017/01/16/writers-seminar-andy-weir-by-lucas-and-katy/

Part E: You, the Critique of your own Work

First Piece:

The Trumpet man is a piece I wrote to mimic a twisted fairytale or folklore. The title represents this with its simplicity and mystery. In this work, a shy trumpeter, overcome with loneliness, that travels with a circus and freak-show, dies and haunts the living. This piece was heavily influenced and inspired by the polish artist, Zdzisław Beksiński, and his painting “The Trumpeter” While writing this piece, I decided to focus more on characterization to really make a three dimensional character that my audience could relate to, despite his peculiar-ness. Stylistically, I chose words that all revolved around a central themes of rejection, loneliness, and revenge. Examples of this include where I state, “He knew, the Trumpet Man, that their appetite would not last till morning, so he served meals of classical songs; composed songs that lingered in their guts to maybe appease them just enough for them to return for a second course.” Here, I chose words that all revolve around hunger, that being hunger for entertainment and attention. My process for this piece was quite linear. I created a plan of what I wanted to say, and let the Trumpet Man tell me where to go from there. Revision was minimal as it only included small grammar and punctuation errors. The only experimentation I included was attempting to write a story that revolves around the character, rather than the plot, however an epiphany came to me while I was sharing this piece with the class and people seemed to genuinely enjoy my character and the story. This told me, that I don’t necessarily need a complex plot, so long as I have well developed characters.

Second Piece:

Cattails and Entrails is a piece that I named for the contrast. The piece is comparing a pond to a killer, so I named the title accordingly. It tells the story of a serial killer that dumps bodies in a pond, with an innocent doe representing the victim. The purpose of this piece was to highlight the naivety of the innocent, as shown by the doe not realizing she was drinking from tainted water, and the lengths some will go to, to hide the truth, as seen in the line “And the entrails we fear show.” The main purpose, however, was to show the connection between good and evil, or at least the human perception of it. The killer’s sin was obviously murder, but at the same time, the doe’s sin was ignorance. Influences of his piece include my observations of innocent people putting others into harm’s way because of their naivety. The style of this poem is a great representation of my voice as a writer. It’s cynical, saturated with metaphors, with a hint of gore and the macabre. I used a fairly simple rhyme scheme that usually goes A,A,B,B,C,C and so on. I believe this helps represent the relationship between this good and evil as rhymes come in pairs. For example,  the lines “A man and doe, An innocent and thirsty crow” tells more of their relationship. In addition to this, I mentioned crows twice to add an extra layer of death and misfortune into this piece, as seen in “An innocent and thirsty crow” and “A hurt doctor crows will never sew.” The process that took place during the creation of this piece was relatively simple. I had a moment of inspiration and wrote most of it down on my arm in pen, lacking a better material. I later chose to include flashbacks and play with the contrast of cattails and entrails even further. This resulted in a longer more detailed piece with significant meaning.

Third Piece:

Daydreams of the Damned is a collection of shorter pieces I have written. The title relating to these short poems and ideas just being daydreams in my head, with the word “damned” warning of the darker content. This compilation is made up of stories of madness and tragedy that tell of the ‘damned’ and the misfortunes that befall them. The purpose of this piece was to explore the darker side of the human brain and all its quirks and flaws. The main influencer of this piece, I would have to say, is H. P. Lovecraft. While writing I took into consideration his similar themes and styles, and incorporated that into my own work. Stylistically, I generally chose to use a lot of figurative language like metaphors (“The concoction of humanly spores, which, if they choose, will occupy your pores”),  alliterations (“And the night, a skeleton secrecy”), and anaphora (“A creature stabbed through heart, poisoning rust, A creature summarizing its longing with a shrieking moan, A creature binded to roots encased in old mould”) I believe that these devices helped add some consistency in the face of madness which, again, is a main theme of these pieces. My process for creating these tales consisted mainly of brief moments of inspiration, similar to daydreams. Revision was minimal as almost all of these pieces are completely raw. However, through writing these works, I realized something similar to Sarah Kay when she wrote the poem a day challenge. I, too, realized that most of these works were trying to tell the same story, but through different points of view, characters, etcetera.