Creative Writing

My all-time favorite paper I wrote in college was a multi-genre one. It was a research paper (on influence, intertextuality, and literary periodization), but instead of writing it normally, we had to write in it different genres, like poems, journal entries, ads, conversations, etc. For this particular paper we had to write in at least five different genres to get our point across and they all had to flow into each other and make a coherent point. I got so excited about writing the paper this way that I kind of forgot to do the research for it. It wasn’t my best paper grade-wise (B+ ...my pride makes me include that), but it was my best creative one and the absolute most fun to write!

Yesterday I read an article on a girl who wanted more joy in her life so she decided to sew something new every day for a year. I’ve decided to do something similar. Creative writing brings me all kinds of joy...but it has to be short or I lose interest. Which is perfect for what I want to do: write one short piece of creativity a day for the next 30 days. (I’m too commitment-phobic to do a whole year.) So I’ll take the long list of possible genres from that multi-genre paper and chose whatever genre strikes my interest that day and write about whatever. Not only will it bring me a bit of joy, it will give me something to fill this blog with. (I won’t post everything I write up here, cause some of it’s a little too personal, but I'll put some of it up.)

Here is a small portion of that multi-genre paper:

Once upon a time,

In England far away,

Romantic women looked around,

And saw they had much to say.

The men had been the authors

For far too long it seemed;

It was time for women to write as well,

As Mary Wollstonecraft had deemed.

So pen to paper they put,

And wrote what they wanted to write,

But often they had to hide the strength

Of a female character - her might...

An Author’s Private Thoughts: 1780s

Here I sit, writing another story. It’s the same dilemma as always: do I give my female character the strength and personality I want her to have, and not get published, or do I give her the characteristics that society expects women to have, and in so doing get published and make money. Not much use in writing a story that no-one else will see. And the household funds are getting alarmingly low....Well, I guess that solves it...

“Adeline faints, again.”