Monday, February 15, 2016

Journal Four: Kristen

Part One: Hugo

In Chapter Eight, "Ci Vediamo" I thought this was my favorite chapter because there story Hugo told was so real. As I was reading this chapter I could vision everything he was saying. On page 76, "The 1944 Italy I remembered brown and gray and lifeless." I really like the idea that he starts out by saying this because as a reader, we think of Italy being this amazing place to visit,full of life and color. I like how he begain to tell his story about why it is. I think it was important to share his stories that he had because one thing he did very well in this chapter was add detail. I also think he sparked a light in the readers mind. When he was talking about Italy I think he made the reader more interested in this place.

In Chapter Nine, "How Poets Make a Living", I thought the most valuable piece of information was on page 100, rule number two. "You much regulate your life as strict as a religious devotee." I thought this was very valuable because he proceeds to say, "You must keep a strict eye on your health. Live healthy." I think this is important because this is something that helps poets be the best writers they can be!

Part Two: Workshop

I have learned a lot from doing workshops in class. I really like how we take the time to read everyone's poem and all give feedback. It's nice to hear what other people think about my writing. I also liked how the writer read his/her own poem before we discussed it. I think it helped put the poems into a better perspective if we didn't know exactly what the speaker's feelings were. I think it can be sometimes hard to be a critic for other people's poem because I think that's what special about creative writing is the writer's creativity. I hate to be a critic  for someone else's work because obviously they wrote it for a reason. With that being said, I think it is helpful to read their work and give options on what the reader would do because that's who is either going to like it or not like it. I think it was very helpful though to have feedback because in my poem for example, I really didn't think about adding details in the first half of my letter poem. I learned that I should have put more details in my poem about my uncle and I should have made it clear that he was killed in an unexpected car accident. Those were important details I missed and I think if I would have added those details, my poem would have been even stronger than it was. I also like giving positive feedback because as a writer, it's very helpful to know what parts or stages of writing you're doing good at. I thought it was interesting how creative our class really was as far as language, the stanzas that were chosen and also the topics. I love reading everyone's poem because I think it betters me as a writer because maybe things I didn't think about before was in someone else's poem. Down the road if I ever think about writing, those are some ideas that can later on help me. I also loved how we got to choose our own poem we wanted to discuss. There were some poems over the couple weeks that we wrote and I were not happy with how they turned out. I think it was helpful that we were the ones who got to choose the poems we wanted to use. It was good to read all the poems over the weekend also because it gave me time to really think about the writer's poem more than just quickly pointing things out on the spot. I liked taking my time and actually being able to fully read their poem. I think that was an important part of our workshops because it's not useful to the writer when readers are quickly judging the poem. Since we had time, I could fully understand what the speaker was trying to say or also think of questions to ask. I'm really excited and looking forward to future workshops with the class because I feel like we really got a feel for what we are suppose to be doing and I think it will help because now I know what my readers are looking for or expecting to read when I write future writings. Thanks again for spending time and reading my letter poem! It really helped me out!

Word Count: 555

4 comments:

  1. I agree, it can be hard to be a critic of someone else's work. It is true that it helps the writer though, like you said. I liked reading your poem, I was happy to spend time on it. :)

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  2. There is still much to the world of writing that neither I nor any of us can see coming. That said when we do workshops in the future, it won't be quite as big a surprise as before. However, we will be working with things other than poems now. Food for thought.

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  3. Kristen, I really loved how you explained that most people think of Italy as this beautiful place that everyone wants to go to. I did not think of this when I first read Chapter 8. Looking back, I've never heard someone say that they would not love to go to Italy.
    It really is hard to picture what is now a beautiful place as a place that is so violent and undesirable.
    I also feel this way when I think about our own country, America, during times like the Civil War. Now, everyone can live free and has the same rights (almost) and I cannot imagine living in a country where I couldn't sit in the same seat on the bus as a person of a different color than I.

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  4. Kristen, I really loved how you explained that most people think of Italy as this beautiful place that everyone wants to go to. I did not think of this when I first read Chapter 8. Looking back, I've never heard someone say that they would not love to go to Italy.
    It really is hard to picture what is now a beautiful place as a place that is so violent and undesirable.
    I also feel this way when I think about our own country, America, during times like the Civil War. Now, everyone can live free and has the same rights (almost) and I cannot imagine living in a country where I couldn't sit in the same seat on the bus as a person of a different color than I.

    ReplyDelete

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