Final Blog Post!

The end of this class is near but looking back on this semester I couldn't of asked for a better creative writing class. Fun assignments, expressive classmates, class discussions, everything was there and I got more than what I was asking for from this class. However, there were two readings that really stood out or challenged my writing skills in a new way that would help me in future writing. Those readings were "Tocqueville" by Khaled Mattawa and "Writing Down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg. Each reading expressed its own form of uniqueness and played a role in changing how I thought about my own writing.

"Tocqueville" was a personal favorite that I enjoyed reading because of the feeling I got when reading it. I felt as though it wasn't just poetry about abstract feelings or depression, but real life events and emotions. "Imagine not asking the questions. That's the trust you must begin to afford." I enjoyed this line more and more as I thought about it because to me it means that when you put all your trust into something you have to give up free thinking and not question any aspect of what you are trusting. As I read, I had a very strong sense of attachment and felt as this was real life poetry. By that I mean the writing here seemed to be simply experiences and thoughts that were written down for the reader to extract all the emotions and deeper meaning from on their own. Nothing was sugar coated which gave an even greater sense of connection. The events and thoughts were given and nothing was censored to remove the realness aspect of the writing. This affected my own writing because it showed me that your real experiences and emotions are the most powerful words you can put on paper.

"Writing Down the Bones" gave me a very strong sense of, maybe not breaking the rules, but making the rules what you want them to be. For the majority of our lives we are told how to write, how not to write, what is good, what is bad. However, at the same exact time we told that all the great writers of their time were the ones that did not write "by the rules" and chose to create their own. So as students we are told to stay confined within the box of rules if we want to be good, but to think outside the box and fail our classes if we want to be great. I enjoyed the chapter "Syntax" and the writing assignment that came along with it. This really got me to think about how I structured my writing and gave me a lighting on how to break down the box I was given, and create my own.

The combination of these two readings really did a number on me. When I reflect on these two writings I have a desire to write my own true experiences in a way that isn't so self centered and breaks the rules while inspiring whoever so reads it. After all, when it is all said and done the reader is truly the mastermind behind the whole operation. As a writer, there would be no point to my passion for writing without someone else to do the most important part of reading. These two readings gave a me a truly new perspective of what is to come of my future writing and I'm glad that they were chosen for the class to read.