part e — you, the critic

HER — a short story

  1. The title refers to the “Her,” depicted in the story, a god-like figure that is worshipped and prayed to in their world.
  2. In which Her word and wishes are law, everything seems to crumble at the (seemingly) smallest disruption.
  3. I wished to display the destruction that unmitigated worship of a figure or person can cause to both individuals and the world as a whole, and the intended audience is, truthfully, anyone and everyone willing to read the piece – so that my message can be conveyed to as wide of an audience as possible.
  4. The dystopian world and works of Ray Bradbury inspired this piece, mainly the elements of conformity and forced normality that I included in this piece.
  5. I focused mainly on imagery and repetition in this piece, shown through the following excerpts — “As all walked past their bright, green lawns and returned to their blank, white houses, you went to the back windowsill, to care for your Harvest. Lined with bright, green plants in blank, white pots, you smile and thank Her silently, fingers ghosting over the pristine leaves before you.” — “It will be Tuesday, the day of weeping, but nobody knew that. / It will be Tuesday, the day of weeping, but only you know that.”
  6. I wrote an early draft of this during spring break, and I built the story up and up from there. I added the repeated phrases and imagery until I reached a story I was content with.
  7. I really enjoyed writing this piece, and hope to continue exploring this sci-fi-like world I have created, and expand more upon my abilities regarding prosaic, short story writing.

OF LIGHTS THAT MAY FALL — a poem

  1. The title refers to the lights depicted both in the poem and in Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting.
  2. Following love in a time where gold and blues at night shift from being loved to feared.
  3. My purpose was to try to grasp and explore the emotions that might be felt at such a challenging time, and how love can or cannot persevere. My intended audience was all who are inspired by the perseverance of love, and those interested in placing themselves in a different time, experiencing vastly different emotions.
  4. The painting Starry Night by Van Gogh, as well as the ekphrastic poem The Starry Night by Anne Sexton, inspired this piece. The combination of visual inspiration and seeing an image being translated into a beautiful story inspired me to do similarly.
  5. I used repetition, imagery, and a haiku structure to construct my poem, and the following are examples of those specific style choices — “those bright, falling lights / are made of blues and golds and /the time we have shared. // our time is made of /blues and golds and running from / those bright, falling lights.” — “you distract me with / tales woven in gold and nights / filled with deep, deep blues.”
  6. I first started this poem during class after we read Anne Sexton’s ekphrastic poem, and I initially only had about 5 stanzas. From there, I used repetition and created imagery from my initial poem to build the piece up until it was one I was very pleased with.
  7. This is one of my personal favourite poems I have written, as it is longer and more drawn out than some of my other poetry pieces. It has allowed me to become more confident and comfortable with my writing.

ABOUT ME — a personal reflection

  1. The title of this piece is extremely straightforward, as it is a post that introduces and explains myself and my blog as a whole.
  2. A transitionary piece, comparing a girl that was unconfident once to a girl that is happy now.
  3. The purpose of this piece was to act as an introduction to myself and my blog but, more importantly, to reflect upon the massive change I have undergone in the past year alone. I hoped anyone who read this piece to see how different (how better) I am, and hopefully help them recognize that change and growth can be scary but beautiful and life-changing at the same time.
  4. The about me I created for this blog, last year, inspired this updated personal reflection. We were told to either directly rewrite or update our about me, and when I saw my old one and realized how drastically I had grew as a person, I knew I wanted to draw direct inspiration for my new about me.
  5. I used repetition and the idea of a “full circle” in this piece, as well as taking nearly direct quotes from my old about me. These style choices can be viewed in the following examples — “that post existed, once. / that girl existed, once.” and “this post exists, now. / this girl exists, now.”
  6. For this piece, I simply sat down and wrote out every thought and feeling I had regarding my drastic growth. I allowed the words I wanted to write come forward, and tried to present them in the most pure, raw draft possible.
  7. This was the first post I wrote for Creative Writing this year, and I appreciate it for its recognition of that massive growth I have experienced. Even from this post, I have grown, and to be able to look back throughout this entire blog and witness my journey as a writer and as a person has been a wonderful, humbling experience.

claire b.