As a writer and rhetor, I love to embellish details and create a story. I'm a lover of the arts, so any type of story that paints a visual in my mind sparks my interest. Therefore, one of my strengths is adding a catchy opening with sensory details from the start and continuing them through the entire story. Another strength of mine is writing with emotion. Not only do I like to write how I’m feeling; I like to share my feelings and therefore cause the reader to feel the same way. If I can give my audience an emotional reaction, then I know I have completely moved them with my writing. In contrast, my weaknesses relate to the concept of writing for a topic out of my comfort zone. Research papers usually cause more stress for me because I am unfamiliar with the information, and the format is much stricter. Finally, my other weakness is staying away from cliché’s. I admire happy-endings, so I constantly want to write about two characters falling in love and living happily ever after, despite how unrealistic this truly is. I would like to improve to become a more confident writer, being able to better assess my own work. Currently, I love to write but I constantly feel the need for someone else to give one’s opinion before I feel as though it’s complete. I would also love to broaden my range and step out of my comfort zone, writing different genres and staying away from clichés. I make these improvements by seeking help and finding another type of writing that I am good at. I feel as though English 15 will greatly improve the areas I wish upon because the topics of our upcoming papers are all extremely different, interesting, and my professor can help build my confidence by helping me as I write. An inspiring source for me recently has been the lyricism of Adele, her words spark emotions and relate to many members of her audience. She’s a brilliant writer and when music is added to her words, it creates a passionate form of art. Also, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has always been a favorite novel of mine. The meanings behind the symbolism are both clever and remarkable, and the setting he uses paints a perfect visual as it is being read.
Excellent post, Morgan! I too have a tendency to use cliches. I once had an editor say that cliches exist because they work. However, it is important to try and push ourselves to come up with our own phrasing. Sigh. I find the best thing to do is leave the cliches in until I'm editing and then go through my draft looking for them and then carefully replacing them. It works for me!
ReplyDeleteI am also stoked to hear you are creative writer! You will surely love this first assignment and I'll be showing you lots of techniques this semester for how to include creative writing in formal research papers! I highly suggest you think about taking Creative Writing 50 while you are here at Penn State!
Thanks for the thoughtful response. Look forward to being moved by your writing!