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Hi Guys! Thanks for tuning in to my most recent (atm) blog post :) before writing this blog assignment I read the following texts to help me write my first narrative piece scene:
Not A Pity Party. Summer 15’; the summer right before going into high school. It was the summer of growing up, the summer of having my first love, and near the end, finding out my grandma had liver cancer. I first found out before going down to New Jersey for my cousin's birthday party. They rushed her down to the hospital because her skin became extremely yellow, but my grandma still wanted me to go down for the weekend. Going down I had one of my first break downs, it was honestly probably one of the first times my aunt and cousins had seen me cry since I was a kid, I was strong, probably too strong for my good. Fast forward a few days later, I was in the car on the way to see her with my mom and grandpa. The car ride there was quiet and unsettling, which represented all of our feelings at the time. As I walked down the sickly hospital hallways, all I could feel was dread.. This was the first time seeing my grandma after hearing about what happened, my heart was racing. We got closer to the door of the room she was in, “She might act a little different, she’s on a lot of medicine right now,” my mother started to warn me. I started to slow down, and peeked into the room, I felt like a deer in headlights, I was terrified, that- I was not expecting. That was not my grandma there. She was laying on an uncomfortable-looking hospital bed, hooked up to a machine with a breathing tube in, breathing long and slow. She wasn’t all dolled up like she usually was, she was sick, I had to calm down before I totally broke down into tears. I entered the room, my throat beginning to close up and tears in my eyes, I struggled to say hello, she could very obviously already notice how upset I was. “Stop it now! this isn’t a pity party,” she exclaimed jokingly. There she was, even in a shit ton of pain, in this incredibly serious situation, there was my strong, jokester of a grandma. I climbed into bed next to her and laid with her, my head on her shoulder, enjoying just being in her presence. “I love you.” “I love you even more.” It was a short visit, leaving soon after the moment I had with her, which ended up being one of the last full conversations I had with her, she soon passed away a few weeks later. And that, was one of my first feelings of grief, one of the hardest moments in my life. Hello Everyone! In this blog assignment I will be composing a short (super short) story using quotes from three texts: Teach Writing as a Process Not a Product (Don Murray), Against Vanity: In Praise of Revision (Mary Karr), and Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (Anne Lamott). Writing this story was a bit hard for me because not gonna lie, I'm not crazy about writing stories, but I like what I came up with and I hope you do too! :)
What a night. As I was laying on my bed, struggling to finish a blog assignment- sleep starting to call my name, I decided I needed help. Going on to reddit I decided to post my unfinished draft to get some insight, some very much needed help. I began to type, “Really feeling the writer’s block with this English assignment, any advice?” I went back to look at my writing, waiting for a response as I got a notification from a user named Bob__Murray saying, “Don’t look back. Yes, the draft needs fixing. But first it needs writing.” Clearly confused, I asked what he meant and as fast as the first response he then replied with, “Be patient, listen quietly, the writing will come. The voice of the writing will tell you what to do.” Another user named MaryKarr55 responded to his comment, seeming to try to help me understand better with, “The idea is to get some scenes down. Let your mind roam down some alleys that may land in dead ends—that’s the nature of the process.” “Okay so I get that I need to start writing whatever comes into mind, but what's the point if later on it just gets thrown out, I end up not using it?” “You have to cheer yourself into cranking stuff out, even if it later lands on the cutting room floor. Each page takes you somewhere you need to travel before you can land in the next spot.” Wow. I sure am lucky to have such insightful writers responding to my questions, I wonder if they’re famous? (;)) Another user named AnneLammot10, I’m sure can see I’m stressing about this draft, very kindly says, “Say to yourself in the kindest possible way, Look, honey, all we’re going to do for now is to write a description of the river at sunrise, or the young child swimming in the pool at the club, or the first time the man sees the woman he will marry. That is all we are going to do for now.” As I begin to slowly write more to my draft, saying my version of that sentence, it starts to help, my draft starts to come together and looks much better than it was from the beginning. I respond to her and the others, thanking them for their help. She reassures me, “For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.” “But how do you keep going with it?” I ponder, “How do you get past writing that shitty first draft?” “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts.. What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head.” I completely get that, whenever I try to write it seems as though my mind keeps telling me ‘that sounds terrible, delete it!’ or, ‘what are you even talking about?’ Understanding now that writing is key, I ask, “But what about the revision after the writing, what process should I even follow?” After not answering for awhile, Bob__Murray comes back to say, “The writing process itself can be divided into three stages: prewriting, writing, and rewriting.” While MaryKarr55 answers my revision question, “In the long run, the revision process feels better if you approach it with curiosity..Remind yourself that revising proves your care for the reader and the nature of your ambition.” After all of this great advice, I end up finishing my draft for my blog assignment and submitting it, falling asleep, ready for my English class tomorrow. Hi friends/new readers! For this post, I read A Fable for the Living: a short story about people writing letters to the deceased; which brings us to the purpose of what I'll be writing in this blog post: a letter to my author's self. In the story, usually people writing letters to deceased family or friends made them feel better, which I could definitely relate to with this assignment, it felt inspiring writing this letter, and I hope when reading it you can hopefully can something out of it too :)
Dear Veronica, Wow.. it's been a minute since we last talked, months? A year? from all the past 'diary' entries- usually filled with bad events and sadness, it's honestly refreshing, writing this casual letter to you. I don't.. mind writing, I usually just get nervous my personal stories will sound boring or I'll have trouble putting it together, but I actually really need to do it sometimes. I love being able to get all my shit and thoughts down onto a piece of paper, it's almost therapeutic for me, but, I know I've been neglectful of doing it recently. Our relationship hasn't been too good.. it's been almost like a storm, every time when I write its dark, intense, and heavy, which I'm sorry, you don't deserve that.. But, it's a new year, which means a new start at your writing, you have had many positive things that have happened and are going to happen; finding out you have a sister, going on a cruise with your family and concerts with friends this summer, events that you are able to write about and be able to experience those happy moments again, you don't have to make writing just a negative routine for you. In order to keep up with you this year Veronica, my first step will be sure to start working on my blogs a few days in advance before it's due (starting with the next one ;) ) procrastination is absolutely our worst trait, as a writer and student, but getting all of our thoughts and ideas down beforehand will help fix that. My next step is just writing a few times a week, if it's just something that made your day or something bad that happened, anything to get your mind thinking and having a pen onto a piece of paper,and of course to enjoy it as well! Writing shouldn’t seem like a chore for you as you’ve already done it in your free time. Lastly, this final step is to not overthink, I know it'll be hard but, stressing and doubting your writing isn't going to make any improvements of yourself as a writer Veronica, you already know you have the skill and determination, just be confident and do it, you got this. Sincerely, Crisa Krouse In this post, I read the following texts to frame my writing:
Hi! Welcome to my first blog post :) This first assignment is to answer The Proust Questionnaire, which is thirty five questions the person taking the questionnaire has to answer, showing their true nature/ true personality, I enjoyed taking the time to answer the questions so I hope you enjoy taking the time to read my answers! Here is the link to the questionnaire so you can take a look yourself- The Proust Questionnaire __1.__What is your idea of perfect happiness? My idea of perfect happiness is being surrounded by the people I love. __2.__What is your greatest fear? My greatest fear is loneliness, or the ocean, the dark emptiness of it, if you’ve ever seen pictures of people swimming in the ocean- how small they look and how it gets darker around them, terrifying. __3.__What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? The trait I most deplore in myself is my sympathy/empathy, I know at a glance it doesn’t seem bad but, I feel sorry or sympathy for people that don’t deserve it, people that have hurt me in the past or have done me wrong, having too much sympathy for someone isn’t a good thing. __4.__What is the trait you most deplore in others? The trait I most deplore in others is fakeness. Acting completely cool and happy with someone to their face and then talking the most crap behind their bad is gross. __6.__What is your greatest extravagance? My greatest extravagance is getting my nails done. __7.__What is your current state of mind? My current state of mind isn’t.. The best state of mind, I’m a little unsure of things, I’m nervous about school, about allowing myself to get behind, and just a little stressed about presentations and tests coming up. __9.__On what occasion do you lie? I know lying isn’t okay or right to do no matter what, but in the occasion to not have someone’s feelings get hurt regarding something I could say, I never want anyone feeling bad or hurt by something I say. __10.__What do you most dislike about your appearance? I most dislike my body, I’ve gained weight throughout the years because of my birth control and whenever I look back at old pictures it’s a little upsetting, I hate my new stretch marks I have, how I look in clothes, etc, and am trying to work on it. __12.__What is the quality you most like in a man? I most like a man that can make me laugh, I love laughing, smiling, messing around with someone else, in my friend group I’m sorta known as the goofball so, if you can make me laugh- you’re golden. __14.__Which words or phrases do you most overuse? I most overuse ‘lol,’ ‘lmao,’ ‘period,’ usually in text, or ‘literally’ and ‘like’ in person. __16.__When and where were you happiest? I have a specific moment for this question, I was the happiest when I visited my mom’s apartment with my grandma a couple of years ago. My mom and I haven’t had the greatest relationship in the past due to her drug abuse (I already know I’m going to get personal with this class so might as well get right into it) I would get into fights with her, my grandma and her would get into fights with each other, it was a lot. But, I remember, the three of us in my mom’s tiny apartment, squished into a tiny bed all together watching The Apprentice, just happy? There was no fighting, no episodes from my mom, at one point we had to wedge a chair under the doorknob on the apartment door because we heard screaming and fighting from a couple near our apartment because we were scared, but still we were just laughing about it because that’s how we all were, I’ll remember that moment forever, I no longer have the two of them, so just thinking of that memory makes me happy. __17.__Which talent would you most like to have? I wish I was able to sing well, I listen to myself sing sometimes and I’m just like oh loooord I am an awful singer. __18.__If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? If I could change one thing about myself, physically it’d be my eyes, my mom had the prettiest blue eyes and I got stuck with poop brown ones so- I’d definitely take hers over mine, and personality wise I wish I was more outgoing, I feel like I’m in the middle of being an extrovert and an introvert. __19.__What do you consider your greatest achievement? My greatest achievement is the scholarship I got for college, I get money each semester, it’s not a lot but the reason behind why I got it makes me happy. __20.__If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? If I were to die and come back I would come back as a dog, a pet, I have a dog and she gets so happy and excited whenever I come home and I just want to know how that would feel, even if I leave for 5 minutes she gets so happy, which is crazy to me! __21.__Where would you most like to live? Short-term I would love to live in California, so many things to do there, so much open-mindness, but it’s obviously not the cheapest place to live, but I'd love to unrealistically live there or New York. __22.__What is your most treasured possession? My most treasured possession is my grandmothers ring, its gold and has a band of hearts on it, my grandma wore it, and then my mom wore it, and now I wear it, if I ever lost it or it got damaged, I would be heartbroken- it’s what I have to remember them by. __23.__What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? My lowest depth of misery would have to be the beginning of freshman year of high school, and the beginning of senior year. Freshman year was when I lost my grandma, it was incredibly hard, going into high school without her, I was growing up, getting my braces off, becoming a woman, and she wasn't there to see it. A few years later, I lost my mom at the start of senior year, it was very unexpected, I ended up taking a week off from school, her not being there during my last year of high school killed me. Near the end of school I barely got by, I had no motivation to do anything, her not being there during prom, graduation.. it was hard. __24.__What is your favorite occupation? I’ve only worked at one job, so I guess I’d have to say that one- big lots, the thing I love most about it is my co-workers honestly, some days they really just make my day, I’ve built many amazing friendships with people there. __25.__What is your most marked characteristic? My most marked characteristic is my goofiness. __26.__What do you most value in your friends? I most value my friend’s loyalty, through thick and thin I know I have them. __31.__What are your favorite names? My favorite names are Rose, Oliver, Theo and Lily. __32.__What is it that you most dislike? I most dislike negativity, negativity just brings me and my mood down, especially if you are being negative about something right away, like a new class or a new job, if over time you still aren’t feeling it- I gotcha, but if you are being negative about it straight away? Come on now. __33.__What is your greatest regret? One of my regrets is not keeping up with soccer growing up, both of my cousins are absolutely amazing at soccer and listening to my uncle talk about it/them makes me miss it. __34.__How would you like to die? I would like to die surrounded by the people I love, let them know that I love and appreciate them so hopefully they don’t have any sort of guilt after I go. |
CrisaI use this blog to explore the messy processes of writing and to make meaning. ArchivesCategories |