- What role has writing played in your life? Describe your relationship to writing and language.
- How would you describe your previous writing experiences, overall? Whether good or bad, in what ways have your writing experiences prepared you for, or led you to, this course?
- What do you hope to do with writing in the future? How might you draw upon prior writing experiences in order to achieve those goals? What do you need to practice in order to be a more successful writer?
- What do you hope to gain from this writing course and its members? What are your expectations for yourself in this course? What are your expectations for the other members of the course?
Writing has always been an outlet for me, but one that I struggled with. I can be very self-conscious and judgmental of my own work, often throwing away pieces that I didn't approve of. But I dream of being a good writer, I dream of being able to freely express myself and let the words and sentences be perfectly chosen and structured. But I don't know who I am inside, and I don't know how I feel or how to express it. Perhaps I'm setting a very high, impossible bar for myself to compensate for my lack of any skill in writing.
Most writing experiences I have had in the past have not been good ones. Essays I've written for schools were often times rushed and of crude make. I think I've only received a handful of good grades in my life, and even then they were never full marks. It's always been sub par performance from me. When it comes to my more creative works, things are even worse. Most scripts I write are a jumbled mess of ideas, and that doesn't even count for the amount of ideas that never amount to anything. I have filled books with useless thoughts, and they upset me when I look at them; failure that they represent often leads me to just throwing them away. But from the things I've learned inside and outside of school have prepared me in a way. I feel like I know when something is well written when I read it, so I have this sense built up. Coupled with my desire, I feel like I'm at a place in my life where I'm finally ready to learn how to improve my writing.
I hope to write many things in the future. I would love to leave my mark on this world with some form of my writing. Whether it be through the screenplays that I dreamed of writing as a young child, or through essays that inspire one person's life, whatever it may be I would love to do because I believe the things in my heart and wish only to express them properly. Which means I must begin learning conventions of the different genres that exist out there and using proper rhetoric form to be a persuasive writer. Perhaps I can build off of the shame, failure, and deep sense of sadness and emptiness in my past to give something fulfilling to someone else.
My expectations from this writing course is to put my foot in the door of learning how to write. I hope a passion is inspired that never dies out. That's a lot to put on a course and it's members, but I also know that the passion must also come from within me. But I want to write, and I hope to not only receive help, but return it as well, as much as I can. I can say without a doubt that even though I'm rushing through most of these journals I have thoroughly enjoyed it and something inside of me makes me happy to write and I don't want to stop writing so as to keep the flame in my heart going.
Works cited:
"Messy Pale Chalkboard Texture." DesignTrends. Design Trends, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.
"Messy Pale Chalkboard Texture." DesignTrends. Design Trends, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.