Writing Fiction

   I've recently learned that writing fiction isn't as simple as it may seem. While writing fiction, you have to have a lot of things in mind. You have to consider imagery, details, and you have to try to evoke certain feelings and emotions from your readers. When you write fiction, you want your audience to feel what you are trying to get them to feel. When people are reading and they aren't interested, they often don't feel emotion. A good piece of fiction makes you feel emotion.
   While discussing the "Writing Fiction" packet in class, my group and I came to the conclusion that a good fiction writer must truly evoke and make you feel several different types of emotions all in one story. We also discovered that fiction writers need to use active voice and they must show significant details.
   While reading the story "Polaroids", we discovered that writing some fiction is is watching a Polaroid develop. It just says how you can ficus your attention on a certain outcome but it doesn't mean that that goal is going to be attainable. This packet helped me see writing fiction in a different light and it makes me realize that it isn't as simple as it seems.

Fiction Packet

    The story that touched me most in the packet was the one on the first page titled "Survivors". To me, it was the easiest to relate to and understand. The story was about two homo-sexuals lovers who both were dying of HIV/AIDS. I came to such a conclusion because they talked about T Cells and that's mostly related to the disease. The lover was talking about how he didn't want to die first because he didn't want to have to take care his lovers bird and hear from his lovers family. He just felt that it would be way simpler if he died first. This story was very sad, I feel like it played at our emotions.
    This story also talked about how the lovers family would blame him for the death of his lover and how they would disgrace his home. Towards the end of the story, the narrator talks about freeing the bird, I think that he feels as if it would help him get rid of the the pain quicker, just in case he doesn't die first. I feel as if the author of this story has had experience with this situation, or has seen it happen in some type of way or another.
    When they mentioned the Parrot in this story, that alone provoked a lot of emotions. The first thing I thought was "Why is this bird so important?". Then I thought about the fact that parrots are colorful and one of the symbols for gay pride is the colors of the rainbow. This may or may not have had anything to do with it but it's  just something that I thought of. The parrot was a small symbol in this story that carried a lot more weight than it may appear.

This week we talked a lot about poems in the book "City Eclogue". One poem that stood out to me was the poem on page 113 titled The"State as Body" Aspect of Eunuch Rule. The first thing that I noticed about this poem was that it talked about death very openly. A lot of the words used like kill,bodily, scalped, and sex provoke some very vivid imagery. It makes me think of a very turbulent crime scene. All in all, I was impressed by the intensity of this poem.

Dream Boogie

"The boogie woogie rumble of a dream deferred" makes me think that the author is thinking of something that has happened or that they wish will happen. A dream deferred means that it no longer matters. "Listen Closely, ain't you heard" puts me in the mind of a child who is speaking to someone because of the way they used the word "ain't". When they say that we will hear their feet, it actually helps me get the image of feet beating in my head. I also get the image of a group of people marching. All in all, this was a very interesting poem for me to read. It was a little hard for me to understand it at first but I understand better now.

While comparing these sonnets in class, I noticed that they all have something in common. They all talk about or refer to women. Along with them talking about and referring to women, they are all very descriptive. Mullen's poem is very similar to Shakespeare's and they describe women in the same way and order. Shakespeare uses older English of course but Mullen doesn't so hers is easier to understand. Mullen and Berrigan both mention Marilyn Monroe in their sonnets which I found very interesting. Berrigan's sonnets isn't as closely related as Shakespeare and Mullen's but I definitely noticed some similarities. all in all, these sonnets were very interesting!

Geology of Water

I like this poem but it took me a minute to understand it. When I did read it and get an understanding of it, I realized that the imagery is very vivid and that this poem uses several metaphors. I also saw that there was a lot of concrete language that was used. in the first part of the poem the author describes the water as making warm layers. Warm kind of gives us a feeling of the water and how it may be hitting the sand. The author also said that "the sea grew old in me", I think that this line is meant to make us feel a certain way towards the sea and how it can make one feel. In the second part of the poem when the author said "a man made out of water whose words arise like bubbles to the surface" set a good stage for imagery in my head. Even though they weren't talking about a real man, I still got the image of a man made out of water in my head. The line "fossils compacted in the bluff's rush hour say things change" say to me that fossils can tell a story even though they don't talk. There was some very complex vocabulary in this poem as well. the complex vocab just makes it all the more interesting to read. 

my writing relationship

     





    My writing relationship is very complicated. I love to write but yet I find little time to do it. Writing helps to relieve stress and successful get your ideas out. writing helps me express things that i never could in person. for me, writing creates a place that i can escape to and a place where I won't be judged. in the past, I've done a lot of writing in a personal journal and I have even attempted to begin writing a book (that didn't go very well). When it comes to writing, I prefer to free write rather than write papers for class and gather information. 
   I want to practice getting my thoughts down better on paper and being more organized with my thoughts. When I write, my mind goes a mile a minute so everything that I'm thinking just flies on the paper without any type of organization. Even though I want to get more organized with my writing, writing what comes to my mind works for me, I feel like I could go for hours!