Part A: You, the Writer

What have you improved as a writer?

Some things I have improved as a writer are my vocabulary, ideas, details, and style. A lot of the classes had reading time in it. I sometimes used it really well and scanned for words I didn’t understand, searched up the meaning, and then remembered it. I also tried using words I wouldn’t usually use and sometimes it worked and other times it didn’t work. In class we looked at a bunch of other people’s writing. We did writer’s seminar, read stories, and watched videos and we always wrote down ideas and emulations to help improve our writing. We also went to a nursing home to talk to elders to get some ideas and to write down a story for them. During this journey I manged to fill a bunch of ideas into my journal and some ideas were so good I can now remember them in my head like some of the lines in Shane Koyczan poems. If I need ideas to write on, when my mind is blank, I go to my journal which gives me a bunch of ideas. In class we learned to practice describing an object using words. We were all aiming to make it like you yourself were holding the object. I practiced and got better but I am still not good enough at it. I somehow can’t make the image appear in other people’s head. I probably made them confused, but its a work in progress. And in class we also practiced how to do real poetry and not a bunch of lines. The type of poetry that rhymes and has all these confusing rules to make it better. We learned a lot of different types of poetry and we practiced writing those but I had trouble trying to write one on my own. Maybe it was a bad day, but it was okay because I was with my group and we made not so great and great poems. I am currently not that ready to try these different ways of poetry so I will stick with free verse poetry.

How would you explain your voice? What is stylistic of you?

My voice is my own every time I write. It’s like if I’m talking to you about how I feel right now. Most of the days in creative writing I wrote on based on what I was feeling that day. Even one of my posts is about how I felt about writing exams since the times for exams are here at my school. I used my past experience to write about why I can’t really do exams. The same thing actually happened to me this year in my last exam. It’s strange. I wrote that the day before my exam and that is what kind of happened. What is stylistic of me is that I write only short stories or poems. I mostly write poems and have loved it the day I found out about free verse poetry. Its easy and short. With free verse poetry, writing how I felt became easy.

As a mentor writer, what advice would you give to future creative writers?

Write whatever your feeling right now and if you want to you could expand on it later or I don’t remember who said this but “Write whatever the hell you want.” Every day in creative writing I always talk ,or sometimes write, about how I feel. If you can’t write on anything then open your journal or diaries for ideas and if that still doesn’t work then maybe write later. If you still want to write and have no ideas then talk about something like what headphones are amazing for the price. Also walk around and observe things to get ideas. You could observe nature or I observe the technology community to see what goodies they have got now.

Future goals and plans regarding writing?

Maybe. I am thinking about taking creative writing in grade 12 since times will probably be stressful. In creative writing I can talk about how amazing my life is at the moment. Writing also helps me calm down and the classes are really calm. Every single time I walked out of the creative writing class I felt more calm and relaxed then how I was before I entered class. For example, one time I entered class and I was really mad and sad, but when I left I was really happy. The power of this writing is sometimes crazy. Don’t underestimate it.

Part B: You, the Blogger

What do you think about your blog?

It needs to be improved. First of all I didn’t even post any of my writings until this month, June. I didn’t do the required items and my blog is kind of empty. The URL is https://theyoungaudiophile.edublogs.org and I called it that because I was kind of hoping I would talk about headphones, speakers, and earphones and that I could blog about my experience with certain items, but I never did. I also wanted to write a creative poem about how great my headphones and that I’m happy but also didn’t do that.

Which student blogs impressed you the most?

The paper says add them on the sidebar or footer but I don’t know how to do that so i’ll put some links below.

http://atticsalt.edublogs.org  . Tony has is an old friend from class and seeing his blogs makes me happy and want to say good job Tony. You did it.

http://thelotusleaves.edublogs.org

http://techandturbos.edublogs.org Amit has some funny stories on it.

What professional bloggers have you explored?

I have explored some blogs by random people who talked about their experience with a some tech that i’m researching about such as headphones or USB audio interface.

Part C: You, the Student

Discuss an “Aha” from Creative Writing Class.

One “Aha” moment in class was when we were doing poetry and my group was having trouble getting some ideas for a poem. I got kind of bored and then Amit, I, and someone else started having a conversation which then reminded me of another conversation, and then ideas started to come. One of the persons in my group mentioned an idea and then I used the ideas I got and added them on, so then we had a good plan for our poetry writing assignment.

What have you accomplished as a reader? What is your plan to read next?

One of the best books I have read this semester is Ready Player One. It gave me some ideas to think about and it also showed how the world can be cruel and how the beauty of it can be overlooked. So in my writing, I never mentioned the beauty of the world as it is overlooked by many people who think life is miserable which is kind of what I write about. Some things of life are really cool, but if your really unhappy, you don’t think that way and try to avoid accepting the truth because feelings that are in the way. So then in my writing I kind of show how feelings can hide the beauty of the world.

What are your next steps to improve as a writer?

Step 1: Publish my work and then get reviews on how to get better.

Step 2: Read more books, news, and articles

Step 3: Write ideas and then write more

Step 4: Repeat

Part D: You, the FAN

In this class we talked about many different popular writers and also had some guests come to school to explain their experiences in life. Having people talking about their experiences and learning about other writers experiences made me happy because I realized i’m not the only one who is struggling to become a good writer and that even if I don’t do that good at school there are plenty of other things to do in life.

WRITER SEMINARS: How has studying published authors changed/improved your writing?

I am glad I choose Markus Zusak for my writer seminar because I got to learn about him. Another writer I would consider is J. R. R. Tolkien because he has really interesting ideas in his novel. The genres I have interest in the most is adventure stories and science fiction novels. What I learned from Markus Zusak is that reading a lot can help you write novels because Markus Zusak read a lot of novels since he was a child. He has inspired me to read more novels. I am currently planning to buy Markus Zusak new novel Bridge of Clay.

Part E: You, the Critic of your work

I give up I’ll end it here. Thanks for the extra time to hand in my final.