Blog # 8 - Final Reflections

I think as a writer I've gotten more comfortable writing stories and not being scared to tell it. I also became much better stepping outside of "I, me and my" style of writing. It was fun to write stories in the 3rd person and also past tense, which was a little hard. The experimental piece was a bit challenging because I did not know how to experiement with writing and make it sound nice but I did it and I enjoyed it. I have written, and I still continue to write poetry sometimes. Creative writing non-fiction is completely different because you are telling a story, with creativity and poetry can either be fake or real. When I write poetry it to to show the emotion that I am feeling at that moment but this writing you can explore things that happened a while ago or now. My favorite piece was the personal memoir. I liked that piece because it allowed me to talk about a part of my life that has greatly affected me and it made talking about it so much easier.

This is an excerpt from my Literary Journalism-Person Profile piece "Born in North, South Carolina in the 1930s, my grandmother is the youngest of six children. I asked her about her time spent in the south and she told me “I remember the Christmases. Daddy would cut a tree from the backyard and we would decorate it with what little we had. It was the 1940s, growing up in the South Carolina wasn’t good for blacks.” “What else do you remember?” I asked her. She said “When I was a little girl daddy put up this thing in the yard for us to play with and I wanted to be like my brothers and play on it also. I climbed on top it and stood up but I stood wrong and I fell and broke my arm. Daddy took me to the hospital and I got six stitches put in elbow.” I wanted to know what it was that she had fell off of and she told me she couldn’t remember."

I do not know how successful this piece was yet because it was my last piece but I love it. I love my grandmother even though she is sick but she makes for a great conversationalist. Currently, I do not plan on writing anymore on the subject I think this piece is good enough for me. I do not plan on publishing it either because I did not get my grandmother's permission but if I did maybe I would.

#ENG 274, #Blog Assignment 8, #Reflections

Blog Assignment #6 - Planning and Interview for a 'Personal Profile'

For my final assignment, I will be interviewing my grandmother. A little over 2 years ago she was diagnosed with dementia. My grandmother was the woman who raised everyone; she welcomed anyone in her home and never turned her back on anyone. I worked in a nursing home for 3 years so I had a little understanding of the disease and I knew she had it. My family however wouldn’t accept the fact that my grandmother was sick. Everyone kept on saying oh she is just forgetting because she is getting old. Everyday I told them she needed medical attention and every day they told she was fine. I love my grandmother and it hurts to see her like this but I still enjoy her. I wanted to use her because she is one the most interesting people I know. I find her stories amusing because she believes them to be true even though we know it isn’t true. She remembers her past more than her present.I  use laughter as a coping mechanism to deal with her sickness.

 

A few questions I am going to ask her is:

1.Do you know who I am and why I am asking you questions?

2.Tell me something about your childhood that you remember?

3.What do you remember about growing up in the south?

4.Tell me something about yourself that no one knows?

5.If you could change anything about your life, what would it be and why?

 

#Blog Assignment #6 #ENGH 274  #Dementia #My grandmother #family #i did it because its how I deal with pain.

Blog Assignment #7 Personal Memoir

          "Two hours later they were ready to push. At this point Rosalyn was in so much pain she asked for an epidural to help alleviate it. Once she had the epidural, she started to push again. Every time the baby slid down, he went right back up. This went on for an hour until the doctor said they had to cut the baby out because he was in distress. Rosalyn started crying because in her birth plan she specifically stated she did not want a C-section. She kept telling the doctor no, she wasn’t going to get cut she was adamant about it. Her boyfriend scared at this point took her hand into his and told her “our child is in distress babe, he needs to be cut out so he can live and so you can live. I do not want to lose either one of you, we have come too far and I promise I will be there with you.” She started to cry because she knew he was right. She said okay and they went to the operating room and he was with her the whole way."

           

              There are all these shows on television that seem to glorify teenage pregnancy and being a teen parent there is no glory. It is hard work and it takes a whole lot to become a parent at such a young age and I just wanted to tell my story. There isn’t anything to really know to understand the piece. I got pregnant my junior year of high school and had my son my senior year, it was a journey. When I was writing this piece I didn’t have anyone in mind I just wanted to get the story out of my head. My piece only has minor errors but nothing major needs to be done. I have tried to write journals but I get bored and I stop. I am a good story teller but then I am also my own worst critic so I do not write because I feel my writing isn’t adequate enough. I learned sometimes to tell your story you need to leave yourself and try to see your story from someone else’s perspective.

 

#Blog Assignment #7-Author's note on My Personal Memoir. #Eng 274 #Blog #7

 

 

 

Blog Assignment #5: Speaking on a Memoir

       "Keep pushing into the heart of the circle, toward the sound of taut leather pap-papping against bone, toward the odor of violence, and, as often as not, you'll find two men sparring, their fists stuffed into blue or red or black Everlast gloves, T-shirts matted down by hot per spiration, heavy breaths shushed through mouth pieces moving quick and staccato and with tangible tinges of fear as they bob and weave and flick and fake, searching for a taste of another man's blood." "Boxocracy? Fightocracy? Whatever. I can do whatever I want and be whoever I want to be. All fighters live until the day they die. That's not a thing all men can say. But while he's alive, a fighter lives." "No matter what," Toure said, looking directly at me, "I've got to fight, always fight, even in the face of sure defeat, because no one can hurt me as badly as I can." Toure is a man fighting with himself and its evident in his writing. He is constantly talking about fighting but you can tell by reading his story he is fighting with himself. Along with fighting himself he also has to fight against other people. From growing up and dealing with racism and being a grown up and dealing with racism, fighting is what he knows how to do. He may not be good at fighting but he does it anyway. As much as he fights people, he probably fights with himself the most. He didn't grow up in a predominately black area so he had to fight against being made fun of almost everyday. As he grew up he started to associate with white people until his subconscious started eating at him. Then he realized that no matter what anyone did to him, what he can do to himself is far worse.

#Blog#5,#ENG 274  #Response to a memoir, #my thoughts on Toure, #What's inside you, Brother?

Blog Assignment #4 - Writing on a Photo

      

In this photo taken by Sebastiao Salgado an elderly woman is sitting on her bed with her hands around her face. She looks a little somber and melancholic as if nothing has gone or is going her way.  I’m not quite sure what she is wearing but from the picture the only thing I can see is the blanket wrapped around her head. I can deduce that she is probably from the lower class because she looks as if she has been dealt a great hardship in her life. She seems to have been working her whole life just to get by and it’s seen on her face. From her wrinkly hands to her wrinkly face she seems to have faced a lot in her life.  However, by looking at this picture I can see that she doesn’t give up. Life may have been hard but it didn’t stop her or force her to give up. When we allow problems to overcome us we lose sight of things that are most important to us. She didn’t appear to have given up on life even when she should have. She looks like a fighter to me, and even though she is tough she is a human and she is allowed emotions. She appears to be crying or on the verge of crying and given her age she has a right to feel something and just let go of her pain.

#ENG 274 #Blog Assignement #4 #Sebastiao Salgado Gourma-Rharous Mali

Blog Assignment #3

“The sky’s blue was deepening but there was no darkness.” (p287).  Annie Dillard and her husband were traveling across the state of Washington to see a total eclipse. Not many people can say they have experienced an eclipse; I am one of those people. Yet, Dillard has and you can tell from her descriptions how emotional she was from seeing it. They sky is always a beautiful shade of blue. When it rains the sky turns grey and sometimes when it snows. Yet here you can see the sky’s blue is turning even bluer but it is not becoming dark, which I think is odd. You can tell that Dillard is quite scared even though she is not coming out and saying it. “The sun was going and the world was gone” (p287). As the moon was overtaking the sun slowly the world was becoming darker and darker. I don’t think Dillard was prepared for such a magnificent event. She was very emotional while the world was becoming engulfed in darkness. She knew what an eclipse was she just didn’t know what to expect from it and you can tell by her reaction to everything that was going on that she was not at all ready for it. “It is now that the temptation is strongest to leave these regions. We have seen enough; let’s go. Why burn our hands any more than we have to?” (p288). All she wants to do at this point is leave and she compares to burning one’s hand, if your hand is burnt why burn it some more? She doesn’t want to stay in the area anymore because the eclipse had done something to her and she wanted out.  Much like the clown from the motel, just from her descriptive writing you can tell that she will never forget her experience with the eclipse and just reading her story alone I feel as if I experience the phenomenon also.

#Blog Assignment #3, #ENG 274 #Writing on Annie Dillard, #Total Eclipse

Blog Assignment #2 Vignette piece

A piece from my vignette  "My coworkers and I enjoy a little downtime every Monday at a little spot called Brother Jimmy’s. It’s a bar/bbq restaurant with a Southern theme. It’s quite an intriguing place. They have TV’s all around so you can watch whatever game is playing. The walls are wood paneled and filled with license plates from the southern states. Right by the bar sits this skee-ball machine. I’m not quite sure if anyone actually plays it or if it’s just for show. I’d like to think someone actually plays with the machine. The bathrooms don’t look like most bathrooms. The men’s room is labeled “cocks’’ and the women’s is labeled “chicks”, I think that is quite funny and laugh every time. When we get together we always joke around, whether it’s about ourselves, someone we know or about work."

I wondered what to write for my vignette once I received the assignment but I did not know what to write about. I didn't want to get to personal because that would make it private and homework isn’t private. I think my piece is quite understandable and doesn’t need further explanation. Upon writing this piece I did not have a specific audience or person in mind. I was writing to everyone or rather anyone that would listen. I am not quite sure how I will revise this piece for my final portfolio but I am sure I will figure it out. I have written a few short stories before but it was mainly for English assignments in high school and not because I wanted to. The one thing I learned is writing vignettes are a little hard for me. I am not at all into non-fiction so it was a little hard for me to write non-fiction creatively and make it sound nice. I don't think creative writing is only about personal thoughts, I think it can be impersonal, given the right opportunity. I wrote and revised my piece on a word processor. I used Microsoft Word to assist me.


#Blog Assignment #2,#ENG 274,  #Excerpt of my vignette, #eating at brother jimmys #hanging with coworkers.