There was this exercise that helped me create the final story I selected to explore and develop to be workshopped. I worked from an original favorite line produced by another one of my peers. I found it incredibly beautiful and what I had created based on it was something I was extremely proud of. For me it is very hard to generate ideas as well as stick to and develop just one, it often doesn’t feel like the right one, so I appreciate and value all the idea-generating exercises we have done in class so far.
I felt that this week was very helpful in terms of getting ready to start thinking about my story since I’ve always tried to think of the whole story first and then thinking about the character. Doing it the other way around has helped me to start developing a richer story.
This week the focus on characters was very helpful in developing my story. I did actually include much of what I wrote for the 100 things about my character in my draft of the story. However, I found that when writing the dialogue and descriptions of what was happening in my story, it really informed the language I was going to use. I found that by knowing my character well, I didn’t have to outwardly state facts about him, but I rather could use language to portray him a certain way.
I struggled a bit this week with writing the first draft of my story for the fiction unit. Particularly, I knew where I wanted the story to begin and how I wanted it to end, but in order for the story to make sense something needed to happen in the middle to inspire the change in my character that I wanted. I found the character explorations particularly helpful in figuring out the direction my story would go in, and I often found myself turning back to the 100 facts exercise in order to let my character “tell” me what they would do and what would happen. One thing I particularly struggled with in my writing was dialogue, so I definitely plan on spending more time exploring writing dialogue.
The intense focus on character work in this unit has really helped me rethink my own writing process. Fiction is the majority of my creative writing, and a lot of my ideas begin with characters. A lot of the work I’ve done in fiction workshops is in finding a way to pursue a plot without completely jeopardizing the characters. However, starting where we have, it seems that the work of short stories often lies in letting characters guide a plot, and then editing to strengthen both.
I have really enjoyed beginning to explore the fiction genre. I have definitely felt more challenged by the writing exercises from this unit than I was by the nonfiction writing assignments, but I am looking forward to continuing to push myself as a writer. I have really been enjoying the variety of readings as well!
There was this exercise that helped me create the final story I selected to explore and develop to be workshopped. I worked from an original favorite line produced by another one of my peers. I found it incredibly beautiful and what I had created based on it was something I was extremely proud of. For me it is very hard to generate ideas as well as stick to and develop just one, it often doesn’t feel like the right one, so I appreciate and value all the idea-generating exercises we have done in class so far.
I felt that this week was very helpful in terms of getting ready to start thinking about my story since I’ve always tried to think of the whole story first and then thinking about the character. Doing it the other way around has helped me to start developing a richer story.
This week the focus on characters was very helpful in developing my story. I did actually include much of what I wrote for the 100 things about my character in my draft of the story. However, I found that when writing the dialogue and descriptions of what was happening in my story, it really informed the language I was going to use. I found that by knowing my character well, I didn’t have to outwardly state facts about him, but I rather could use language to portray him a certain way.
I struggled a bit this week with writing the first draft of my story for the fiction unit. Particularly, I knew where I wanted the story to begin and how I wanted it to end, but in order for the story to make sense something needed to happen in the middle to inspire the change in my character that I wanted. I found the character explorations particularly helpful in figuring out the direction my story would go in, and I often found myself turning back to the 100 facts exercise in order to let my character “tell” me what they would do and what would happen. One thing I particularly struggled with in my writing was dialogue, so I definitely plan on spending more time exploring writing dialogue.
The intense focus on character work in this unit has really helped me rethink my own writing process. Fiction is the majority of my creative writing, and a lot of my ideas begin with characters. A lot of the work I’ve done in fiction workshops is in finding a way to pursue a plot without completely jeopardizing the characters. However, starting where we have, it seems that the work of short stories often lies in letting characters guide a plot, and then editing to strengthen both.
I have really enjoyed beginning to explore the fiction genre. I have definitely felt more challenged by the writing exercises from this unit than I was by the nonfiction writing assignments, but I am looking forward to continuing to push myself as a writer. I have really been enjoying the variety of readings as well!