Final

1. List/discuss several of the different pieces of writing you’ve done this quarter, including posts, comments, creative pieces, journals, in-class writings, and things you’ve written on your own.

Bohemian Girl - The first 'stanza' was definitely me exercising the stylistic part of my writing, hopefully reminiscent of the tone of some of the old radical works of poetry while maintaining my own beat and rhythm. I often feel like I'm drawn to pretentious writing, but I also write quite a bit more down to Earth than others. It often makes my style unapproachable, too pretentious and too pedestrian. All at once. So I often have to find a way to define my style's own value.

the power outage - Let me get this out of the way, first: I was very young when this happened, so I had to use my imagination. The first thing I thought of was the chaos of New York suddenly going dark, but when I thought about it, I also imagined the sky. It'd be one of the only times you could see stars in New York City. And that struck me as profound, I guess.

Object Piece - This will not be the last time I write about Shannon and her misadventures. But Shannon is part of a group of other characters - with colorful histories and mannerism. I always end up writing stories with groups of characters in it instead of a single protagonist. A part of my style, I guess.

             2. Name/discuss a couple of pieces you’ve read this quarter, including other classmates’ work and/or reading you’ve done in or out of class.

Cassie's Marionette Story - It really and genuinely sounds interesting and I hope she continues it. The best part is not being able to tell who is going to end up being the violent one, who is the 'bad guy'? The way she describes her world is striking - the mundane becomes grotesque.

City Lights Pocket Poets - I love the Beat Poets and a lot of 'pretentious' poetry that goes unappreciated by both literary communities and the public. If I lived in the city, I'd attend poetry slams as often as I could, because I love them. So many people and different styles, wild inflection and crazy descriptions. I distinctly remember being at a poetry reading and this woman was (somewhat drunkenly, for some reason) describing Isis, the goddess, avenging all of the marginalized women in the world. It struck me as crazy, but I also loved the craziness.

3. Write about setting up your blog and what you have gotten from that experience.  How did you come up with the name for your blog?  Who do you think read it or who would you want to read it?  Will you continue to use it on your own in the future?  What kinds of things will you post?

It definitely taught me something about the importance of keeping up with things on my own. I originally just called it 'Victoria Cook Writing 2016', but as I intend to keep it for later, I changed it to 'Victoria's Writing Corner'. It isn't very interesting as far as names go, but it tells you what's here. And as I said before, I plan on using it on my own, probably to post poetry/short stories with my name firmly attached to it.

4. Write about journaling.  What kinds of things are in your journal?  Who would you want to read it?  Will you continue to journal?  What will you write about? 

It was hard to keep up with the journal, one of the biggest reasons that I had a permanent journal of my own where I would write things in it whenever I got an idea. So a lot of things that could have gone into my notebook journal went into my real journal. And I've never, in the history of existing, kept up with notebooks. 

In journals it's usually a mixture of drawings and bits and blurbs of poetry and thoughts. Journaling is good for my depression, I think, because I can get my thoughts out on paper and clear my head.

5. Type an entry directly from your journal that you consider notable.  It could be a paragraph or a page or so.  You don’t have to explain it, but you could.

She had a defiant smile, a 'try me' glint in her eye. Sure, it was tragic someone died, but she had it figured out and was prepared to take the credit. "Like a bad penny-novel villain, Mr. Wainwright thought he was brilliant when he laced the victim's brush with cyanide. Some of us would have been stumped, fooled - but some of us are chemists." 

-end entry-

It's a terrible looking day. I'm currently hiding in a cozy corner in the library.

Away from the smell of food.

Labyrinth of Dreaming Books is going well! I love the grotesque but beautiful descriptions of the puppets. I love the idea of Bookholm and its wonderful, diverse inhabitants.

There's something soothing about the idea of a city obsessed with books.

-end entry-

Claude kept company with radicals - but he never struck me as overtly political. Maybe the occasional joke, his choice in poetry, the wink at his friends were clues to his leanings - unfortunately I'm far too dull to gather it.. Now, the did do a stint in jail, supposedly on suspicion of being a communist. But I had my own suspicions and they don't have anything to do with Karl Marx.

-end entry-

6. Type or copy/paste a passage or section directly from one of your pieces of writing that you consider notable or your favorite that you’ve written.  It could be a section or a page or so.

He pulled a ragged U turn, the pedestrians relieved to see the two leaving. Both ‘Randy’ and Shannon never bothered to use their seatbelts. You never know when you have to suddenly ditch a car, after all. “You wanna listen to music or something?” he asked awkwardly.

“...The fuck are you asking me for?” This was the man who said he would plant a bomb in her car, after all.

“I don’t know, I just wanted to be polite.”

“Sure, whatever.”

99.5 top 50 hits, all day everyday!

She groaned. Inwardly. 

7. What creative writing do you plan to do in the future, if any?  What do you get out of writing creatively?  How does this differ from the other writing you do, in school and in life?

I've been trying to get a healthier attitude towards my own talents and generally just things I associate with myself. I used to say I had no plans on involving myself with writing (and still I sometimes say this out of habit), but I think I've worked up the acceptance of it, and am willing to say I'll try to be published one day. There's no point in denying myself one of the things I've been good at since Middle School.

I'm hoping to publish novels, but for poetry seems like a modest goal for now. If I can get a poem published, it might give me enough confidence to move forward.

8. Some final words of encouragement, appreciation, inspiration, etc. for your fellow writers you’ve worked with this quarter...

We all mess up from time to time, and sometimes the ways we fail can be so spectacular that it's baffling. But I've come to realize that's part of what makes us human. If you failed, you failed. It's done. It's not happening anymore and is now in the past. Right now we're graduating and planning on going to college/join the workforce/etc, with plenty of more opportunities to succeed and fail.

To be honest, I imagine every mature adult feels like a child playacting as a grown up at some point in their life. Because no one person ever figures everything out, and that's kind of okay. You're okay. You're enough.