The Charles Sequence

It was definitely much more difficult to pick something to blog about this week, considering I was sick on Thursday so I missed a whole class.... So based on that what we did Tuesday that was most interesting to me was the activity we did when writing from certain point of views.

On Tuesday, Lacy gave the class a piece of paper with a short article on it about a 6 year old boy that wanted to see his dad at work so he got in the car and decided to drive to go see him. After we were given some time to read the short article we were instructed to pick a character and write from that person's point of view.
I chose to write from the point of view of the man who was driving behind the 6 year old boy.
This is what I wrote first....... I chose to write from the point of view of the mans mind
"What is this guy doing? I'm going to be late. BEEEEEPPPPPP!!!!! He has got to be drunk.

After we wrote for about 5 minutes Lacy told us to write as if the person were telling a story.
So this is what I wrote next...
"As I was driving behind this car I knew something wasnt right. The way the car would speed up then slowly decelerate was so unusual the only thought I had was that this guy must be drunk."

While I was doing this activity I only took it at face value, but then as I sat down to write my personal narrative I realized that the activity helped me more than I thought it would. I helped me figure out the way that I wanted to write my paper.. I chose to write it from my point of view.. As if the reader was in my mind, seeing what I was seeing...
I hope I did that efficiently.


Peace

P.S. Can someone let me know what the plan is with the Mid-term assignment.. That would be awesome!

Foucault and a Pencil Response

In our last class, Lacy gave the class a copy of "Foucault and a Pencil" by Lydia Davis in order show us alternative ways of writing in the hope that it would make writing our Personal Narrative stories easier. I really enjoyed reading "Foucault and a Pencil" because it was cool to listen to a story strictly from the authors thoughts. No background info, just plain, unaltered thoughts.

So for the sake of inspiration, Lacy had the class write in the same style that Lydia Davis did in "Foucault and a Pencil". This is what I wrote.........

Going to Vespers. Walked up mountain. Look for Finley group. Find Finley group. Sit down. Get comfortable. Relax. Look out over mountains. Music begins. New song never heard before. Listen. Think. Listen to chorus. Fall in love. Take words to heart. Think. Close eyes. Reflect. Open Eyes. Song ends. Listen to quote. Reflect. Wait for next song. Repeat

 I really enjoyed doing this activity because I feel like it put me back into the moment that I am going to try to be writing about. It allowed me to re-see all that I saw and re-feel all that I felt. I also think that this form of writing really allows the reader to be in the mindset of the author. This from of writing really brings the reader and author closer. It allows the reader to feel what the author is feeling.

WDYDWYD

On September 13 for our Writing into the Day assignment we were shown the website "why do you do what you do" or http://wdydwyd.com/ . At first look I wasn't really all that intrigued by it but then after class when I went back to it I realized just how cool the website actually is. The website gives you the option to look at digital pictures of people answering the question of why they do what they do, or you can read blog posts about it, or you can watch videos.....

I just find it really interesting that there is a website solely dedicated to finding out why people do what they do. I was also really intrigued when we were asked the question of Why You Do What You Do? At first I was confused and didn't really have an answer..... I'd never really thought about what it is that makes me do the things I do, whether it be influences from people around me, environmental influences, or just me doing whatever the heck I wanted for no reason..... But when I actually took the time to think about an answer, this is what I came up with.

Why Do You Do What You Do?
-because its who I am.
-because I react

So after thinking about my answers a little deeper I realized that sometimes I do the things I do because I am simply reacting to my surroundings and also because what I do as a person defines who I am......
I really enjoyed this Writing into the Day discussion because I got to learn a little bit more about myself. I find that I'm doing that more and more as I spend more time at college.. I cant wait to find out more about the complex person that is... Cory Stewart!

Peace

Timeline Reflection

Woah! Looking back on it I've written a lot of stuff. Whether it was papers, vocab words, spelling words, or short stories, all the things I've written have, in some way or another, helped to shape who I am today as a writer. Now I didn't realize this until the other night when i was creating my Writing Timeline and found it hard to pick specific assignments in which I became more developed as a writer.

This is what my Timeline looks like.......
One thing I found interesting while doing my timeline was that 3 of the 5 assignments I chose were when I had to write a research paper. Freshman year of High School my paper was on "Night" by Elie Wiesel and how children were treated during the Holocaust. Junior year my paper was on "Macbeth" and the theme of Appearance vs. Reality, lastly Senior year my research paper was on "Othello" and the relationship between Desdemona and Othello.

The reason I chose these 3 papers I'd written was because I was given a topic and then I was allowed to choose how I wanted to go about developing the topic as well as picking an angle to research, specific to that topic I had chosen.... This opportunity really allowed me to develop my writing skills as well as gave me a chance to have an opinion on an issue, stand by that opinion, and find research and studies that supported my viewpoint.


Being allowed to stand by my viewpoint in a way coincides with what Taylor Mali says when he states that this generation lacks conviction..... I was allowed, in the form of a paper, to stand by my opinion and argue it! I was given a chance to have that conviction, which Mali states in his poem no longer exists in this generation,  through my writing. Writing these papers helped me realize that my opinion on certain issues matters and that everyone deserves a chance to provide evidence to argue their opinion.....

It probably sounds like I just said the same thing over and over again. But I feel that repetition really drives the point home. Keep your conviction!

Peace