Looking Back and Moving Forward
Creative Non-fiction has helped me to explore myself, to take the stories from my life and tell them with a slant. Discussing the humor genre in class, I felt as if I had a great sense of humor and would be able to really understand this type of writing. Humor fiction can be a difficult task to complete. The rules I have taken with me about humor are; you don’t have to be funny; it’s easy to make a mockery of yourself; finally, a humor essay is a great place to write about the annoyances of life and or people.
Creative non-fiction isn’t supposed to be boring, it is supposed to be creative, it is supposed to grab the audience and capture them into your personal adventures. Literary Journalism was a difficult genre to understand but writing it was a completely different situation. I felt as if this genre is more like writing an account of history events along with researched material. For myself, I struggled writing my literary journalism piece. I felt as if I could write about an experience that I had a personal connection with. After I had researched and written the heart of the piece, putting it all together to be, more entertaining not a section from your 8th grade history book, was difficult. Once my literary piece was revised, criticized, ripped apart on multiple occasions I was able to fall in love with it. As with every English class, CNF teaches you it is okay to revise, take out passages, refocus on the main focus, and sometimes your work really does need to be gutted. All of these critiquing are more than enough to help with bringing out your works fullest potential, as it did with mine.
Creative-non-fiction taught me that you don’t have to write a novel for it to be a personal story and there are multiple ways to writing stories. Limited to a word count, such as, the Brevity pieces that were shared in the class. The creative-non-fiction pieces on Brevity are great examples of short stories. Stories that are interesting, that have deeper and truer meaning, they are brilliant stories, lessons, reflections and so forth. Brevity essays really opened my eyes to writing short powerful stories. I often tend to stray with my words and plots causing my stories to go on forever. This class has helped me to really focus on the story that I am trying to be heard, this class taught me how to be creative with my history.
What is my writers voice, who is it, where is it, and what does it have to say, how can my voice be heard? My writing is a glimpse into my past, a story into my Native American history. I am an ‘authentic’ Native American and I have been given the chances and opportunities in my life to write about and share them with the world. My writing is a road to my future. Through writing my creative-non-fiction story I can learn from my own words, to pave the road to my literary future. My past comprises my stories, my future is learned from past knowledge, and my present is being able to write the words that impact my audience. My writing tells stories that I have lived, as if I am a cat and have nine-lives and everyone needs to be attracted to my life. I have a lot of wisdom to share and I feel that I create a story that readers will be able to get lost in my words no matter the length. My writing is fun, exhausting, emotional, personal, and secretive, some stories that have been told are the ones that I promised to keep to myself forever, which makes for a perfect story. I have always been a fabulous listener which could have all lead up to my future in creative-non-fiction.
My writing is my reflection of the journey less traveled and my writing is fantasy. As I have explored my voice during this semester in class I have learned that my writing is like fantasy, some of my personal journeys have been so twisted they almost seem unreal, this is where I am able to add in fantasy, magical, and make believe moments. CNF does not have to be tragedy and trauma but if that is all you have to offer, such as myself, then offer in ways that aren’t so common.Traveling is a great story to write about. Creative non fiction has taught me to go out and be bold in the world, gain knowledge and stories from those you meet along the way. My writing is daring and bold such as my personally, I am able to be daring in my writing, possibly by making ‘YOU’ the main character of my work.
My writing is realistic, historical, stories from my ancestors. My writing is scary, sloppy at times, My writing is childish, wild, ridiculous, and exaggerated, most of all my writing and my voice are still in development. Ann Connor, author, and guest speaker in our class, talked about ways of stepping out of your personal bubble, going out into the world and sending your writing pieces to publishers, magazines, internet sites, start a blog, etc. She said, read and write every day, write at least 500 words, these are the words from an established writer and I have already began heeding to her advice.
The pieces I chose for my anthology were the works I felt could relate to any audience and I was able to really personalize these pieces. Tainted Love, I wrote this story about my first experiences with love around 12 years-young. I decided to adapt this piece into a comic because to myself this piece is very humorous. Although when some audience members read my comic they felt sorrow for my first experience with love. As a writer I did not expect people to read my comic and feel a sense of sadness but ‘that is seriously amazing on many different levels. As I wrote Tainted Love I was balling my eyes out as I was taken back to that 12 year old girl in love, thinking that that love was going to last a life-time and once I came to the conclusion it was a heartbreak from the beginning, I was brought back to reality; the reality that I was just a young, childish, immature girl, falling in love with the first boy that flashed me a smile. My six-box comic simplified this for me; love, heartbreak, and the reality of it all—blah blah to love—
My two revised pieces, my literary journal piece, The Battle Within, and I Could die, humor essay, I felt could really attract many readers and once I was able to revise these both, cut out passages, lines, and characters I was able to get my main focus across and hopefully can bring a smile or even a tear to my readers.
I couldn’t have asked for a better group. We put together, with our three creative minds a beautiful anthology. We are aesthetiCreatures and we were given the opportunity to create a website of our work, our hard individual work combined with each others ideas, criticism, and creative-non-fiction literature. The most important things that I have learned while working with a group are; you have to show your work to others and be open to their thoughts about your writing—doesn’t the reader have one of the most important things to say. Second, just like Indra's Web, we as students are connected in more ways than one. Our group was able to stick to a ‘faith, hope and love,’ theme, finding the connections that we had were not intentional but more like, the universe brought us together. Our page is amazing and defines why we are aesthetiCreatures.
During the summer you want to relax, sleep-in, and spend your days doing nothing—unless you are me. I want to indulge myself into education, expand my writings, readings, and [personal research]. This semester I was able to take two classes that seemed to be connected to each other. Creative Non Fiction opened up my eyes to writing, how to write different genres, whereas my Children’s Literature class taught me to understand why we write these ways and to better understand the meaning of each genre. These two classes honestly helped my overall learning experience in regard to the information attained from each class, learning about writing and reading only helps me to expand my literature desires. I will never ever read or write
I appreciated Ann Conner coming to class and sharing the words she chose to honor us with. My words to future writers come from the gathered mental notes that were taken from Ann Conner:
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Sharing your wiring with a large crowd is like walking around the room naked. This is very true, you become intimate with your work and letting others read it may be challenging, just like walking into a crowded room naked, everyone is reading or staring at you and your work, criticizing and judging your every imperfection.
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Anybody can write but only a certain few are ever read. Another amazing point, anyone can write and many go on writing and never sharing it with the world. I want my stories to be read, so I will take her advice. Anyone that writes and wants to read should take her advice as well; send out your work. Get a copy of the Writer’s Book, go down the list and mail your story.
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Don’t pass up opportunities because your afraid. Step out of you bubble, say yes and take opportunities-you never know where they may lead.
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Read and write every day. The only way to write is to actually write. Many say they write but aren’t actively writing. Writing 500 words a day can go a long way in the time of a single year. There are some that write and don't read, reading is important, it exercises your vocabulary and expands your possibilities.
