Self Reflection

When I signed up for this class, I had so many great ideas about what I was going to accomplish and how I was going to expand my writing and reading. I had high hopes that I would use this class as an excuse to actually be able to write down the ideas and stories that had been floating around in my head. To be honest though, I am a little disappointed with how little I have accomplished for this class. I had really hoped to really get the creative writing juices flowing, but I have lost my creative writing spark a bit. I had really hoped to be writing lots of short stories and expanding all of the little ideas I have. Yet I haven’t really done to much of that. 

I have however, completed three books; Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and Into the Wild by Jon Krakeuer. And I am almost done reading Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, with The Virgin Suicides the next stop on my list. This class has given me a real reason to read and explore these books, as well as delve into their film adaptations. I keep a notebook when reading and after every section of reading I reflect on and summarize what I have read and write down quotes I find interesting. I use this notebook as reference when I write the book reviews and when I write about the quotes. 

I have written a few short stories in the course of this class. But they are pretty dark and aren’t really the kind of writing that I would really want to share with many others. But I am happy with the little bit of writing I have done. I have a little notebook that I got for this class and I find myself writing in it  lot. Bits and pieces of stories, little snippets of dialogue I hear, random ideas, the writing prompts, and poems. I have been writing a lot more little poems, or just verse style writing. Not something I did too much of in the past. I am also very pleased with what I have filled this little notebook with. 

With the last month and a half remaining, I really hope to get myself together and just get things done. I really hope to stop using this class as a time to finish work, and more of a time to start work and create work. I want to end the year with a substantial amount of work accomplished. I really want to be able to have a folder full of the work that I have done and to be proud of what I have done.