Semester Reflection

Question 1
Look back at your mid-term story. Compare it to your final story. How have you improved?
Support your answers with evidence from your work. (Or, to put it another way, point to the
differences.)
- The two biggest things that I worked on between writing the second paper and the final
paper are the dialogue and the conciseness of the story. Firstly, I think the dialogue is
better, but still needs work. I tried to write the dialogue as if none of the parties were
really listening to each other. Instead, each character is pushing their own agenda, and
only vaguely listening to the other person. I imagine that each character is sitting back
and thinking, “Yeah, yeah, finish talking so I can talk.” To help with this process, I tried to
get into each character’s position and think, “What would I say if someone said this to
me?” instead of what do I need this character to say.

The other goal was to try saying more with less. As a reader, I have always loved authors
who give all the details needed to have a good story, but not so much detail that the
book gets bogged down. I am an over writer when I do my first drafts of a story. I don’t
have too many ideas, but I use too many words to get my idea across. It was my goal to
make an extreme effort to really make sure each sentence was as efficient as possible,
without losing any of its value. It is hard to provide an exact example of what I did
before and after. However, my first draft of the final essay was 3634 words. At the end
of the first revision the paper was 3239 words, meaning that I cut almost 400 words
from during the first revision before I started adding in new material.

Question 2
What moves did you steal from stories that you read this semester? Point to some moves you
made in your final story and tell me what story they came from. 
- One of my favorite essays that I have ever read is, “Bullet in the Brain,” by Tobias Wolff.
The story is structured in a way that most of the story takes place in the span of 1
second or less. It was my goal to use a similar technique. My final story takes place in a
span of a few hours but attempts to cover the highlights of the protagonist’s entire adult
life.

My other goal in the revised final paper was to have the main character feel mixed
emotions about war. He truly believes that fighting for his cause is the right thing to do
but is terrified and has so much to live for. It was my goal to create a story that was not
an anti-war piece, but also did not glorify war. I was hoping to create a piece that fell
somewhere in the moral grey area. My two references for this were Game of Thrones,
and the essays in “The Things They Carried.” I absolutely loved reading both pieces
because the characters are complicated and have mixed emotions on complex issues. I
believe that having a complex take on a complex issue, would show development in my
skills as a writer. In my final draft, I try to develop the idea that the protagonist has a
new and growing family and has a growing farm. At the same time, the American Civil
 War is raging, and he feels obligated to fight for the North because he wants his children
to live in a united and morally justified country. So, he feels the need to fight, but is
terrified to do so.

Question 3
Tell me about your self-concept as a writer. How do you feel about writing? How has this
changed from the beginning of the semester?
- Even going into this semester, I thought of myself as a pretty good writer. I was
especially comfortable with my abilities as a business professional writer. However, I
have grown as a writer, even more than expected. I think my most important
development is the establishment of an in-depth revision process. Going into this class I
was lacking an effective method. As I was going through the revision regimen in this
class, I knew that I would need to continue using the outlined process. I had never seen
greater improvement in one of my stories from start to finish.

I also am more confident in my ability to add detail and nuance to a story. Before the
semester, I often struggled to write a story over 1000 words, unless it was a very robust
concept. However, during this semester, when I forced myself to consistently sit down
and write, I noticed that my pieces naturally started to get longer and longer. I realized I
was adding more details and developing more structures for my stories. The stories that
I was producing at the end of the semester didn’t use better language or more complex
sentences. In fact, most of the sentences at the end were shorter and more direct.
However, the stories overall were much more diverse and interesting to read.

Question 4
How (and where and when) do you work best on creative projects? Describe your ideal process
& routine. Any changes or discoveries since the beginning of the semester? 
- I learned that my best writing comes late at night in my room. By around 11 or 12 at
night most people are asleep, or at least not actively communicating, and all the major
sporting events have ended. I have no distractions and no obligations, so I am able to
just sit down in my bed, turn on some music, and write for as long as I want. Ideally, I
write a whole first draft in one or two sessions depending on the length of the piece. I
make no changes and get as much written down as possible. Then I dedicate two whole
sessions solely to the revision process. After that, I send it to my mom or the writing
group so that I can get some feedback and criticism of the piece. Then, I do one final
review and revision of the piece before calling it complete.

The general process and when I am most effective at writing has not changed this
semester. As a business student, I have gotten used to writing very long documents, so
have a very solid grasp the writing process that suits me best. However, the one major
change that was made, is what I do during the revision sections of my process. Those
changes were covered in the previous section.
Question 5
How do you think a "good writer" goes about writing? What does it look like for that person?
(And how has your answer changed since you thought about this at the beginning of the
semester?)
- After this semester, I can confidently say that there is not one way that a good writer
goes about writing. However, there are some consistent traits that all good writers seem
to share. Firstly, just taking the time to consistently write multiple times throughout is a
huge aspect of developing writing skills. Additionally good writers are never satisfied
with the first version of their work. Often the final draft doesn’t even seem like the same
story as the first draft. Finally, it seems that all good writers read way more than they
write. Reading is to writing what watching film is to football players. Its critical to use
other great writers as inspiration. This semester has really shown me how important all
these traits are to being a good writer.

My definition of what makes a good writer has changed throughout this semester. At
the beginning of the semester, I didn’t realize how important it was to force yourself to
write almost every day. I knew how important reading and revision were but taking the
time to write everyday seemed to eventually make both other processes easier. I
attribute most of my growth as a writer this semester, to my commitment to writing at
least three times per week.

Question 6
What's next for you—as a writer, a storyteller, a creative individual? How will you apply what
you've learned in this class?
- Currently my goal is to continue to develop as a creative writer. While I believe that my
talents as a writer significantly grew this semester, I also realized how much more room
I have to grow. I will continue to take English classes to finish the requirements for my
minor. However, I simply want to be able to continue the process of developing the
ability to take stories from my mind and put them on paper. I will likely never use
creative writing as a core part of my day-to-day life. Yet, it is something I will continue to
do as a hobby and passion for the foreseeable future.