Best of Week: The Short Story Writing Process

This week in class, Mr. Allen talked about the process of writing a short story. I was very nervous that we were going to be expected to just sit down and write a whole short story very quickly. However, I really liked the process he that explained to us. I thought that it was very helpful and reasonable. We were not expected to write a whole story just off the top of our heads. We were going to take steps that would help us fully develop our idea for our story. I especially liked the Story Fragment step. As Mr. Allen called it, it was a "brain dump". We just wrote down all our thoughts for our story so that it helped us dig deeper into the story. Sometimes when I have to write a story, I can get writer's block because it seems so overwhelming to write a whole story at once. The story fragment helped me focus in on a couple of ideas so that it wasn't too overwhelming. Now that I see that we will be taking this project in steps, I am much less overwhelmed. I think this process will help me with future writing assignments, especially now that I have done it once. The idea of breaking up a large assignment/project into smaller steps is very useful and will help me create a better story than if I had felt the pressure to do the whole, large project at once. I am in full support of this idea, and am glad that we will be able to work on these stories and perfect them until May. I get writer's block when I am stressed about finding the perfect idea because I think that none of my ideas are good enough. This long period of time will help me perfect my story, and I believe that the steps along the way will guide my classmates and me to writing a great short story!

What If?: Writing My Own Short Story

This week in class we started our short story unit. I am very excited for this new unit because I love writing and especially writing short stories. We have not done this type of writing since junior high school and I have missed it. However, I feel like this type of short story writing is going to be a lot harder and more intense than when we wrote short stories in junior high. What if I am incapable of creating a story that has a deep enough meaning to please my teacher and fellow academites? I often fear that I do not see the deep meaning behind some of the stories we read in Academy. If I doubt myself when it comes to finding the deepness and underlying messages in someone else's writing, how can I write a story that is complex and deep? I love writing when I don't feel like I am under any pressure. An example of this type of writing would be these blogs. I can just write. I wonder if I'll write a short story, only to be told that it's junior high style writing. To dig deeper. To add more hidden meanings. Those two things, digging deeper and hidden meanings, often make me doubt myself and my capabilites. However, for this assignment in English class, I am not going to be intimidated. I am going to take everything we talk about this week regarding the short stories and the style that they are written in, and attempt to write my own short story. Our teacher said we are not trying to teach our readers any lessons. That is very comforting to me. I still feel as though other classmates may have more intense stories, but I am not going to doubt myself. I can be my worst critic. What if I write a short story and succeed? That would be great. So I am going to write my own short story. And I am not going to doubt myself.

It Matters: Ignorance in the World

As we discussed the ending of Heart of Darkness in class today, I came to see the irony of when Marlow said that Kurtz's last words had been his Intended's name, when really they were "The horror...the horror". I then realized that his Intended's ignorance was representing "the horror". This really got me thinking about the ignorance in this world, especially when it comes to the poor and less fortunate. Heart of Darkness focuses on the ignorance in Africa, but there is ignorance right here in America. Because we live in Northbrook, we are very rarely exposed to the poor, except for maybe on a service project. I have to come to realize that I am very ignorant of the sufferage occuring only 30 minutes away from me, in downtown Chicago. To take that on a much larger scale, like in Africa (the place where Heart of Darkness is set), I have found that I am ignorant when it comes to all of the problems that are facing that continent. For example, I am told every year about the AIDS epidemic in Africa, but have I ever really witnessed it? Have I done anything to help? The answer to both these questions is no. I am sure there are many things occuring in Africa as well as Chicago that I have no idea about. That's the main idea of ignorance. Heart of Darkness has reinstated my desire to decrease my ignorance. One my new year's revolutions was to become less ignorant of my surroundings and to get out there and help. However, while living in Northbrook and being caught up in all of my daily activities, I have not done much to acheive this resolution. However, in January, I did sign up for my church's youth mission trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan this summer. I am hoping that I will become less ignorant and help people. Heart of Darkness matters because it demonstrates the ignorance that people have, especially regarding the problems in Africa, but it also demonstrates it a very interesting way by having Kurtz's intended be ignorant of what Kurtz was doing in Africa. The New York Times published an article titled THE WORLD; An Ignorance of Africa As Vast as the Continent (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502E0DB1131F933A15752C1A962958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1). This article discusses the ignorance Americans have regarding Africa. Basically, the ignorance that was described in Heart of Darkness matters because it still occurs today. Heart of Darkness has re-opened my mind about what I am going to do to become less ignorant and a more aware citizen of this world.

Blogging Around

The following comment is in response to Daniel's blog regarding partisan voting. He talks about having considering the candidate more than the party they represent.
"Daniel,
Great post! I found this very interesting because my family had this debate at the dinner table as well. My family also tends to vote for democrats, but one night my dad said he thought that some of the more moderate republicans would win his vote this year. I agree with you that we really don't need any more politicans fighting. We need them to "reach across the aisle" and fix some of the horrible things going on. Great job!"

This next comment is in response to Mitchell B.'s blog about faith and atheism. He talks about religion serving as a connection to other people.
"Mitchell,
Wow, what an interesting post! Although I am Christian, I found it really interesting to see Christianity and God through an atheist's eyes. There are many ways to look at Christianity and people take many different approaches to their faith. While I don't necessarily agree with you on some of the things, I still really enjoyed reading your post!

Metacognition: "On the Corner" Poem

To be honest, I was not looking forward to the poetry assignment at all. I had never written a poem before, and I am just not a natural poem writer. However, I decided to give it a try. That night, I sat down at my computer and tried to write a poem on soul mates, based off of Kate's blog post. I tried to add imagery, alliteration, and all of the writing components of poetry that we had learned about in class. I thought it was pretty good for being my first poem. I had a couple of classmates read it so I could get peer feedback. I made the adjustments that my classmates had suggested and turned it in. The next week when we got our poems back, I conferenced with my teacher. We decided that this poem really had no where else it could go, and I started from scratch with a new poem. This one was about homeless boys that I had seen on a corner of Chicago when I had gone downtown to work at a soup kitchen. I liked my new use of imagery, details, and words. I felt like I had gotten more into the mind set of poetry. I liked this poem a lot more than my first poem. Although I'm still not crazy about writing poetry, I am surprised to find that I actually enjoyed my final draft of my poem. Poetry writing really expanded my writing capabilities, styles, and my view of poetry.

Best of Week: Revolutions

I think this week's best idea (or concept) that we discussed was the use of revolutions (or full 180 degree rotations) in certain characters and situations in King Lear. I hadn't been noticing these in the reading until they were first pointed out in class about a week ago; however, as we were reading specific scenes in class this week, the concept came to the forefront of my mind. I had always been taught to look for character development and change, but the fact that a character could do a full revolution was astonishing. For example, King Lear went from being the most powerful man in the land to a man who had to rely on his daughter (who he had previously put into exile). Another example of a revolution is on page 95, when Kent says, "Fortune, good night. Smile once more; turn thy wheel." I thought this quote was especially interesting because the revolution isn't taking place within a person, but appears in a man's plead for his luck to be changed. I hope to use the concept of revolutions in my writing. I think this concept gives more depth to the character (or scene) and adds complexity to a person's writing. It also allows the reader to see a character or scene from multiple angles and perspectives. I will definitely be looking out for revolutions in future reading!

Connection: Cordelia and the Lost Son

When we were introduced to Cordial in the novel King Lear, I immediately thought that she had many similarities to the Lost Son from "The Parable of the Lost Son" in the Bible (Luke 15: 11-31). Just like the Lost Son, Cordial had a father who was dividing up his wealth among his children. In these stories, Cordelia and the Lost Son are the youngest children in the family. The older children in both of the families do exactly what the fathers want. Goneril and Regan tell their father that they love him with all their hearts. This is exactly what he wanted to hear. The Lost Son's older brother graciously takes the money from his father, but he stays with his father, works the land, and saves his new money. Cordelia and the Lost Son, on the other hand, do not do the same things as their older siblings. They do not take full advantage of the help that their fathers offer them, and they do as they please. They do this in different ways, but they both do. In Cordelia's case, she doesn't tell her father that she loves him with all her heart. This does not make her father very happy, and therefore she does not receive wealth and land from her father. In the parable, the Lost Son does receive his money from his father. He just chooses to squander it and to use his new money for parties. He ends up losing all of the money he inherited from his father. Both Cordelia and the Lost Son choose not to follow their fathers, and do what they please. I found this very insightful because I believe completely in the Bible and by making a connection to something that plays such a significant role in my life, I could connect better to this novel and specifically, to Cordelia. I found myself a little bit more interested in Cordelia than the other characters in the novel because I had connected her to another character that I knew well, and I also wanted to see if she would turn out like the Lost Son.