Week 6 (2/20-2/26)

Short Story

I apologize that this is a bit late, I was sick the last time we had class and I was sick all of break!

It was a red house more beautiful than he had ever seen. Beautiful red brick, amazing large trees swaying, and green grass as far as the eye could see. It was the house that he had always dreamed of while growing up in the slums of Detroit. A garage filled with sports cars and motorcycles. If only the people from his old neighborhood could see him now, they would never believe it.

He is a simple man, a hard worker from a small one parent home. He was beaten as a child and hated both of his parents. To get away from the place that he was born into has been his goal since the first time his dad struck his mother. He tried with all his strength to stop his father from hitting his mom, but he was just too weak. His youth was his worst enemy. When he was young his mother was murdered, right in front of his very eyes. This was a moment that scared Ryan for life. He was never the same man after the loss. When he was eighteen he left the bowels of Detroit and moved to this new house that he has finally built. 

He enters the house after staring at it for about an hour. He then realized that he was looking straight at a ghost. Freaked out immediately, he took off running and didn’t stop until he got to the door. He then realizes that there is an aura about the house that he had sensed before. It was a comforting voice from his childhood that he hadn’t heard in a very long time. He turned his head and standing in the dark doorway was his mother. (Her ghost) She smiled at him and softly said, “I’m so proud of you my son”. He was frozen is total shock, not able to mumble a word except, “I love you”. She disappeared and he finally realized that the last part of Detroit and his childhood was finally behind him. A year after his high school sweet heart moved in with him they decided to make things official and get married. They had two children named Mike and Mark. They then lived happily ever after.

The reading for this week was another fun week in the world of fiction. It seems that there is never really an end to the different ways you can structure and write a fiction story. Another great example of this is in our second fiction packet. The first story in it is called, Internal, and is written by Brian Evenson. While this story isn’t super unique in the way that it is written, it is still different then some of the stories that we have read so far. I actually enjoyed this story because it had good structure to it. It has a title, followed by a section that contains chapters in it. Each chapter or section is about a different part of him. For example some of the parts were his internship, instructions, record and journey, apartment, technique, furnishings, etc. Each chapter, within a section, tells another part of his journey. This may seem relatively boring because most books are written in this form, but it is actually nice to read a story with some structure to it. Maybe in the next few weeks we will see some more stories written like this, instead of so many that are written in an odd format like some of the weird ones in these packets that we keep reading.

Week 5 (2/13-2/19)

            Sorry this post is coming semi late due to the fact that we didnt have class last week.  I continued working on reading Bird by Bird.  This book has been an awesome change from poetry.  I learned a lot from all the poetry packets and books that we were reading for the first four or five weeks.  Poetry is just not my favorite thing to write about.  I have a really hard time not just analyzing the poems that I had to read, but I also had a hard time trying to express what i wanted to write in poetry form.  So while i did learn a lot from the poetry section, I am happy that we have finally moved on.

            Bird by Bird i think has been a great read for me and for everyone else in this class.  It not only shows us tips and pointers on writing and the writing process, but it also shows us what is wrong with people in writing today.  No one wants to take the time to earn how to do all of the necessary things to make sure there work is right.  People just want to skip all the hard stuff and get there things published.  The class that she is teaching in this book is unbelievable.  I get that some of these people think that they are accomplished writers and dont need any help, they just want to find an agent.  but when a published writter is explaining that you have work to do and trying to teach you what she knows, I think it would be wise to listen.  This book has taught me a lot and im really happy that we got the chance to read it in this class.

            I also got started on reading the first fiction packet.  This was definately a good change from learning how to write, like we did when reading Bird by Bird.  The first fiction packet had a couple of things in it that I enjoyed reading and that I found rather interesting.  A section called, Mystery Stories, written by Sharon Krinsky, stuck out to me.  I enjoyed reading these because they are example, in my opinion, of the shortest a story can really be but still went into a decent amount of detail in what they were describing.  Some of the small sotries names were, The Indian, The Talking Cat, The Red Coat, and poetry, just to name a few.  All this page was filled with the titles of the story and four to five lines under it to explain the title.  in my opinion, this isn't a very good way to write stories or descriptions because they are simply to short.  Even though it isn't the best way to write short stories, in my opinion, it deffinately is a unique way to write them. 

            Another story that I liked from the first fiction packet was called, Ungulated, by Walter Bargen.  This is another story that isn't very long.  It is only half a page long but is a great short story.  It is about a woman named Stella who has a garden.  The garden is great but some deer decide to eat the peas and other things in the garden.  To solve this problem Stella decides to drive some posts in the ground around the garden and wrap some wire fense around the posts, this way deer can't get in her garden anymore.  This is a great example of a short story that has a main character, a problem involving that character, and a solution.  It isn't very complexed or special but it is a great format to writing a story.  I also enjoyed the way that this story was written because in the short amount of writing that the author used, he went into extreme detail about what was going on and about the surrounding.  It is almost like he paints a picture in your head with the words that he uses.  It was a fun short story to read.  Fiction is a great way to explore many different types of writing and I look forward to learning more as we press on into other different types of readings and stories.

Week 4 (2/6-2/12)

Bird by Bird

                This week I was extremely happy to shift gears away from poetry and get to read and write about a book that is about writing and life.  While reading poetry and writing my own poetry has been extremely enlightening, it feels good to change pace and read something different.  I was going to touch on the packets that we also read this week, but I decided it was better to just stick to one main topic.  With this said, we will stick with writing about the novel we read called Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott.  It is a book that is mainly about instructions on writing and on life.  After reading the first half of the book, I have learned a great deal.  I find myself very enlightened about the everyday thoughts and actions of a writer.  The reading really opened my eyes to the struggles of being a full time author/writer, and writing novels for a living.

                I found that the Introduction at the beginning of the book was very important and a great way to start the book.  Anne Lamott essentially describes her entire childhood all the way up to writing this book.  She writes about the struggles that her father had as a writer, along with the struggles that she faced.  She also writes about the successes they had writing and publishing their own books.  I thought this was excellent.  Not only did this section make Anne Lamott seem much more human, but seeing the struggles she faced and overcame makes her seem that much more credible.  How in depth she was in the introduction about her own life was very enlightening as well.  She spoke about how all her dad’s friends were also writers and they would all do heroin and smoke weed all the time.  Then a couple pages later she discusses how all her dad’s friends that were writers ended up committing suicide.  I also learned that many writers face these problems.  I got the impression that writing for a living drives people crazy.  I also enjoyed when she talked about how publishing a book won’t make a writer happy, that it is the process of writing the book that makes a writer feel like he or she is living up to something.  Writing and working on a book makes the writer feel better and more alive than anything else.

                A little deeper into the story in the section called short assignments, she talks about one of her favorite quotes.  On page 18, she quotes, “Writing a novel is like driving your car at night.  You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”  She then says you don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way.  You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you.  She then says that this is some of the best advice about writing or life that she has ever received.  I couldn’t agree with her more.  This is a great quote and excellent advice.  A little later in the book she talks about perfectionism.  On page 32 she writes, “Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist’s true friend.”  I totally agree with this statement.  Being a perfectionist will only lead to being very lonely.  If you expect everything and everyone to be perfect then you and others will never meet your expectations.  Nothing will ever be complete or good enough.  The world is filled with imperfection.  So even if a perfectionist was given the entire world, it wouldn’t be enough. 

                Finally, I found another section of the book hit home with me.  It is on page 93 and is called, “How Do I Know When I’m Done”.  This section appealed to me because I find myself asking this same question when I write.  The section is only two pages long but gives a lot of insight into when to call it quits.  On page 93, Anne Lamott writes, “I don’t quite know how to answer it”.  It shows us that even published writers are never done correcting their work.  She goes on to write, “There will always be more you can do, but you have to remind yourself that perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor”.  I also have this problem when writing.  I’m not a perfectionist and am normally happy with my writing in the end, but I always think there is something more I can correct or fix.  This section, while short, has shown me that you have to finish things and move on to the next part.  If you stay stuck on one section you will never get anything done.  Reading the first half of Bird by Bird has taught me a lot about writing and how to help myself write better.  Hopefully the second half is as insightful as the first half.

Week 3 (1/30-2/5)

City Eclogue

This week was even harder for me then previous weeks.  Not in terms of writing my own poems, but trying to understand the poems that others write.  I got used to one type of poetry from Shakespeare and other sonnet poem writers, but when I had to read City Eclogue I had to get used to reading and understanding a totally different type of poetry all together.  The way that Ed Roberson, who is the writer of City Eclogue, writes his poetry is something that you have to get used to when reading.  The way that he writes is very unique in that he puts large spaces and gaps between words that sometimes make it hard to understand where the pauses are.  Also he seems to hide the real meaning behind what he writes.  This leaves room for different interpretations, depending on the person reading it. 

What you may think the writer means from initially reading it may not be what he or she really wants to convey.  Reading the poems two or three times and also really thinking about what the meaning behind the words are before guessing at what the poet is trying to convey.  This proved very hard for me at trying to paint a picture of what the poet wants me to see.  City Eclogue opened a new view of poetry for me that I didn’t understand and had never really worked with before.  A great example of this is on page 76.  The poem is called Engine.  It is fairly short so it doesn’t drag out.  It wastes no time getting to the point and has strong meaning behind the words that are written.  For example, “You can experience the need to leave     as noise in an otherwise harmonious system     the blues     the leaving and not sets up     as a physical chatter tear you apart”.  This line/section not only started the poem, but it also had a strong message behind it.  I think this is because it taps into the mind of a person and kind of shows how broken or in pieces it is.  While I think that the spaces in lines and sections are to try and make you pause and slow down what you are reading, I also think it adds to the drama behind what he is writing.

One of the poems in City Eclogue that I found really interesting was The Open.  The way that it is written can be very confusing at first, but once you read a few of the poems that he writes, you start to understand why he writes the poems the way that he does.  With these things being said, I found that Roberson used very strong words that helped get the meaning of his writing across.  For example, in the poem, The Open, he used words like strangled, lynched, impossible, segregation and unremittingly to help the reader understand the picture that he is trying to paint with his poem.  Some quotes that I really liked were, “as if it were the strangled neck      of the hourglass that was going up”, and also “God’s strange rope spinning things open out of sky,   up in smoke     our tornado     our lynched black pillar of light.”  I thought that this was referring to Civil Rights or The Civil Rights Movement, along with a lot of the rest of the book.  It is also extremely graphic when you think about it.  I believe he wants you to picture the black pillar being lynched.  This could refer to the death of either Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr.  These topics really hit a soft spot with most people and because so, it helps the reader understand what the writer is trying to say.

After reading the entire book two times and some poems three times, you finally start to understand why the poet writes the way that he does.  I believe that Roberson writes a little cryptic because he wants you to think about what the meaning is behind his words.  I also have realized that the large spaces that he puts in the middle of sections, sentences and thoughts are to try and make us pause for a short time to take in what he is saying.  I also think it was to try and add a dramatic effect to what is about to be said in the next line or next section.  At first I didn’t find this technique effective, but after analyzing his writing it actually makes a lot of sense as to why he wrote the poems the way that he did.  I have learned a lot from reading Ed Roberson’s, City Eclogue.  I will take what I have learned from this reading and use it when reading and trying to understand future poetry.

Week 2 (1/22-1/25)

This week was definately a long a long one for me personally.  While I enjoy the art and emotion behind poetry, I personally get very aggrevated with trying to figure out exactly what the writer means all the time.  Also what he or she is thinking when writing the poem, and is the poem actually what they mean or is it just one big metaphore.  It was definately a learning experience from the readings this week.

The sonnet poems in our packet were a very interesting read.  I enjoy how there isn't very many rules or guidelines with them.  This makes every poets different styles very noticeable when reading but also makes the meanings of what the poet is writing about hard to discover.  For example with Shakespeare, you might think he is writing about how his wife is not making him happy, when he is actually writing a love poem.  For example, number 130 on page 189 of the packet.  He says, "No such roses see I in her cheeks".  This seemed like he was being mean or negetive about his wife, yet some people in class thought it was a love poem.  The crazy part is that it could be either.  You can guess at the meaning behind the words of a poem, but only the poet really knows what it really means.  After writing two myself, i realized that i actually kind of liked expressing myself through a sonnet.  I still don't really like reading them all that much, because they are hard tpo understand sometimes, but writing a few definately helped me understand them better.

Later in the readings from the packet there are a couple of poems writen by Susan Howe, from Singularities.  It really caught my interest because of how it is writen.  It describes what the poet is feeling or writing about with absolutely no order.  There are a few sentences, some phrases and sometimes just words.  Also there is no order to where on the page and which direction the writing is in.  Some words, phrases, sentences are upside down, some are diagonal, and some have no starting or ending point.  It looks like a word bank only with all the words every where  and going in any direction.  It reminds me of raw emotion, feelings and thought. They are not organized and sometimes don't make any sense.  When writing a poem or even, or even sometimes just living life in general, this is exactly how i feel.  My thoughts, feelings and emotions are everywhere.  Then sometimes i got everything together, like the complete sentences in the middle of the page.  It starts to make sense, then gets crazy again.  It lets the reader into the mind of the writer, without structure or and order.  This was the first time i have seen a poem or anything writen like this and I think it is really unique.

Finally, I liked reading some of the poems by Langston Hughes.  One in particular that I really like is one called Preference on page 225.  I liked this poem for one becuase it is short and not to complicated.  He writes how he want a women that is older.  Young women are always asking for things all the time.  They never ask you if you need something.  Older women are the opposite, they ask if you ever need any thing.  They take care of you, instead of you always having to take care of them.  I thought this was hilarious because my mom is always asking me if I ever need anything, or if she can make me some food, or help me with something and I love it.  My last girlfriend didn't do this at all.  It was always, Jason help me with this, or Jason do that.  It was always about her.  Nothing is worse then someone that is selfish.  Expecially when you are so selfless.  As it says, "when she converstations you ain't forever, Gimme".  This type of poem is the kind that I like to read.  There is no mystery surrounding it.  The meaning is very clear, it is short and to the point, and makes me want to read another one.  The rest of the readings were alright.  I had to read everything twice to get an idea of what the poet means.  While i don't enjoy it, I didn't mind it all that much either.  I learned a great deal from this weeks readings and I hope we move onto something besides poetry very soon!

Creative Writing 201 Introduction

My name is Jason O'Guinn and this is my blog for our creative writing 201 class.  I am a junior here at Eastern Michigan, along with being a communications major and having a minor in business.  I am from Plymouth Michigan and i went to Plymouth High School.  I spent a year and a half at Eastern, then another year and a half at Central Michigan.  I moved back home and took a year off school for some family issues going on.  Once these issues were taken care of i decided to try and finish my schooling.  Thats how i ended up here.  I restarted school this semester and am taking this class partially because i want to, and partially because i need to for my communications major.  I'm looking to get a new prospective of writing out of this class, along with maybe learning a few things, and making a few new friends.