The fiction writing has been my favorite so far. I enjoy writing stories in my spare time and I enjoyed how every exercise forced me to expand and try something new. All the different reading and writing assignments helped me in different ways to try and improve my writing style. I noticed a difference between how I wrote before we started and where I’m at now. I didn’t enjoy every assignment, and had to force myself to read through some of the readings, but each had a takeaway that has improved my style.
Two readings that greatly impacted me were The Fix and The Blue Girl. I loved both because of the details they bring to the story without awkwardly pointing out what’s going on. You can picture the world without having things expressly pointed out. Both authors, who are very different from each other, are able to immerse you in a world without giving a significant amount of background to the story. I’ve always enjoyed that kind of writing, and I’ve tried to copy that style as best I can.
The Fix was hands down one of my favorite stories. Not only for the descriptions as mentioned above, but because I greatly enjoyed Everett’s writing style. It’s the one that’s closest to my own as a writer and was a direct comparison of what I wanted to be able to do. I chose Everett for the presentation, and I’m glad I took the time to read up on him. It was really cool to see that it wasn’t just his one story that I liked, but his work overall.
Although I really enjoyed the talent the writer in The Blue Girl in her descriptions, I didn’t like the story itself. I didn’t like the style of the story and for me it was hard to follow what was going on. And I thanks to the descriptions of the moonpies, I cannot even think about marshmallows without feeling nauseous. A credit to the author for her descriptions and connecting the smell of marshmallows to shame induced secrets. All the same, I still can’t be around it.
For some reason, I had a harder time with the peer reviews for the fiction portion. With poetry, it felt like everyone was very helpful and even if it was clear they didn’t like it, were constructed in their criticisms. While this mostly held true, I had someone ask me what I was thinking when I wrote one of my stories, why he should care about my lead, and generally he felt the story was uninteresting and boring. Peer review had been one of my favorite parts of the poetry sections, because I believe the constructive criticism helped me with a unit that overall, I don’t enjoy. After that interaction, I was leery to share with others since it became hard to trust I wouldn’t have another interaction like that.
My writing style has evolved with the attempt to incorporate more details into my stories. The first one I wrote was the one with Rona and Mathias. It was from the writing exercise was based off 4 character traits. The traits were honorable, resolute, stubborn, and shrewd. The story takes place over 3 distinct time periods that confused some of the people who read it. There’s a lot I want to do with this story, but currently don’t have the time. I want to try and add more details about the world, try and explore the characters a bit more, and overall see where the story goes. However, with projects mounting and finals looming, I’ll have to wait and come back to it. Until I have the chance to spend more time on it, I’ve indicated with page breaks and a short explanation indicating the time lapse.
The next story turned out to be more personal than I expected. It was the one that had us choose 5 very different words and work them into the story. The words I choose were mostly antonyms: hope, despair, trust, doubt, and contentment. It was immediately after we had read The Fix, so I was attempting to incorporate that style with the story. I hate trying to force a story, since those never come out good, and the one that sprang to mind was of a father just trying to do what was best for his family. My husband came to mind and I started to write things from his point of view. He used to work shift work before only recently switching to days. Everything in the story has happened to us, with the exception of we don’t have a fence to fix. We have 3 girls and my oldest is a year younger than the boy in the story. All the same, the more I wrote it, the more personal it became.
The final story was the one I wrote for the presentation. I actually wrote it while at work. The rough draft of it was written on a notepad I use to take notes or scribble equations. The version I read in class is a bit different from the full version. I edited it a bit from what I read in class, mainly because I couldn’t bring myself to say ‘Piggly Wiggly’ or ‘Sweetie Pie Woman’ out loud, which is no kidding two of the nicknames I’ve heard a guy call his wife. Not sure how he’s still married, I’ve told my husband he ever calls me ‘Piggly Wiggly’ I’m divorcing him. Everything I wrote I overheard from one guy at work. I spread it out for the sake of the story, but they all came from one source. He speaks on his cellphone next to me throughout the day (in his badly faked Southern accent), and I’ve overheard some really crazy things. I did my best to describe the office environment I work as almost a snapshot of the things I’ve seen over the course of my time there.
Overall, what I enjoyed most about the fiction section taking even random stories I wouldn’t have written before thinking they were too plain and taking the time to write them out. Every story I wrote helped shaped my writing a little bit more in different ways.
Katee's Writing 