Opinion on the World of Creative Writing 332...Let's Wow the Masses hahaha

The good thing about Advanced Creative Writing was that we did more than just write fiction papers. From what I’ve learned as an education major, every chance a teacher or professor gets, they should incorporate technology into their lessons. Professor Quinlan did exactly that! On top of technology, we had weekly meetings where all we did was edit and discuss each other’s work. It didn’t have to be anything that was for the class. It could have been part of a novel or a book of poems that we could have been working on. Not only did we explore as writers, we explored and analyzed the works of James Joyce’s The Dead. Not all of us enjoyed his works, but in the end, we did have a good time talking about it.
As for technology and education, there couldn’t be a better match. As an education major, I’m supposed to know how to work a smart board, and LCD screen, a projector, and whatever other snazzy things are on the market today. The one thing I never thought I would use, or benefit from, is blogging. This class opened up a whole new part of the internet to me. I was always aware that blogs existed, but I always thought they were cliché like have a diary. The thing is that’s not the only thing they’re used for. There are blogs for everything; whether it be cooking, advice, lovers of literature, etc. We were asked for blog each week about something that either had to do with the class, something we were writing, or anything out in the literary world. Commenting back and forth and getting feedback from each other was fun. I’m surprised that another professor didn’t come up with this idea first. I think it’s pretty awesome. At first I was skeptical, but it was a great idea. At times it did get tedious, but what on the internet doesn’t. I’m beyond sick of instant messaging, so there you go!
Now, about this work shopping business! We all did complain about doing it, but it the end it did benefit each and every one of us. My first paper was on the bad side and it probably got better because of the input that I was given while work shopping. My second paper, in my opinion, totally rocked because I remembered the ideas that were given to me the first time around and tried to incorporate them into that paper. I walked away feeling accomplished and pleased with what I had written. Besides just doing work at our work shops, I think we came together as a class and got to know each other pretty well. It’s easier to understand a person’s work, if you know who they are. We also had a lot of fun and some good talks during those sessions. I particularly enjoyed the time we passed that paper around the room and we each added two lines to it and it became this out of control poem. We all definitely got a kick out of it.
The one thing I was never good at is poetry. Everyone always says this about themselves, unless they have a real knack for it. The great thing about poetry is that it doesn’t always have to be rhyming and/or in meter. Thank god for prose! By going onto the blog each week and having to go look at other literary sites on the blog, I found a new way to write poetry without having to think too hard and write clichés all the time. Being that I’m awful at poetry, I tend to bump into clichés a lot! On the Big Window blog, the class and I found different prompts that can be used for poetry writing. I think every ones particular favorite was the blackout poem. I will be handing that in as my poetry piece for my portfolio, since the one I did write this semester was absolutely awful. For all those people out there that come up with or find poetry prompts, they have probably saved a lot of students from not having an idea what to write about when writing poetry.
One more side note on poetry is about abstraction. It sounds really cool and when done the right way, probably comes out awesome. When you have no idea what you’re doing, like me, things tend to get a little messy. For those students in our class who did great on the abstraction assignment, I’m very proud of them. For those who had a hard time, I’m right there with them!
Now, about James Joyce! I always found him hard to read and never enjoyed anything that I’ve ever read by him. It was in the first part of American Literature that I first heard about James Joyce. I do have to admit that I was nervous when I saw his name on the syllabus. Unless you have some insight onto what he’s really about, it’s hard to like him. It was fun to read him in class and analyze what the story was about. Doing it with a class is so much better than sitting and reading it alone. Maybe another author would be better for next semester!
Advanced Creative Writing is a great class. It was definitely different from what I thought it was going to be and that made it better! I really did enjoy this class and I hope that you teach it again and do everything exactly the same. Maybe just take out Joyce!

Blair's Top Ten Best Writers...

As a teacher, I have a lot of children's authors that are my favorite. As a regular reader, I have a few that are my favorites as well. Lets get cracking shall we :-) I love this blog business. It's to the point where I'm comfortable now and I have no problem being an idiot on it.

1. J.K. Rowling: http://www.jkrowling.com/ I've had her listed as a favorite before so I'm not going to go into detail why I like her so much. Why do it again when previous entries already tell about it. :-)

2. James Patterson: http://www.jamespatterson.com/index2.html James Patterson is another author that I also wrote about. I believe it was my first blog entry ever. So go check back on that one to read about it.

3. Dr. Seuss: http://www.seussville.com/main.php?section=home&isbn=&catalogID=&eventID= Dr. Seuss is one of the greatest children book writers of all time in my opinion. All of his thoughts and stories are so out of the box. It makes a child really use their imagination and a lot of chilren these days are lacking that. With television and video games, they don't feel the need to use it as much. That's why reading Dr. Seuss books is good to read to children. It lets them explore that side of their brain.

4. Shel Silverstein: http://www.shelsilverstein.com/indexSite.html The poems are stories of Shel Silverstein are fantastic. Not many people are fans but I definitely am. I would sit in the basement or by the pool as a child and just read his book of poems. They were entertaining and well written. A child can easily get lost in his books.

5. Stephenie Meyer: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/index.html As a new author, Stephenie Meyer has really proven herself. Having a whole series out in less than a year and having the whole word captivated by her novels is like another J.K. Rowling phenomenan. It was instant fame over night. The movie did really well in the box office, but it was nothing compared to the book. It kept you on your toes and wanting more. We're going to see great things from her.

6. C.S. Lewis: http://www.cslewis.org/ C. S. Lewis is a great author. I loved reading and re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia. I just find it odd that it took some movie producer all this time to decide to do a movie based on the books. The writing and the descriptions are absolutely fantastic. Someone should read these books at some point in their life.

Since I didn't blog last week...here's is the make up!

So, last class we went over what we need to fulfill our blog requirement. I found myself laughing as I said that. Which is silly, because I really did enjoy coming on here every week and doing just that. Part of our requirement was to go see a poetry reading or other reading of some sort. Due to the fact that I was student teaching this semester and working every other chance I could, I did not have time to go to a reading this semester. I have made it to others in the past, but this semester I found it hard to get to one. Its particularlly interesting to go to readings at WPU. Sometimes they have guest speakers and you can even hear the work of students that you walk campus with everyday. I definitely won't be getting it done this semester, but hopefully I'll get a chance when all is said and done.

Atleast I didn't lie and make it up! :-)