In Class Revisions

I like what we have been doing in class. I feel as though my work has taken leaps and bounds from what it first was. Personally i like the revision process because its almost as if the story works itself out. You may look back and say this cant happen yet because it doesn't make sense. So then you create another scenario and the story has improved on its self. Half the stuff that happens in my stories i didn't originally think of. I just expanded on it and that's what it came to be. Also i feel that the groups I've been in were good criticizers. Though sometimes I disagree, I at least get a new view on my own work. To be honest i would be more scared and unsettled if i came in one day with a piece and everyone would be like "This is flawless." Then i would either have a real problem or a lot of money in the future. And both of those things can be bad.  

Blogging Vs Workshop-ing

I prefer workshops over blogging. While workshop-ing you're guaranteed a review by someone who has decided to take the came course as you, so you should be there for similar reasons. But with workshop-ing you have limited exposure and people might tend to hold "punches" since they need to see you once a week. Blogging is great for exposure but that may be bad or good. You can get responses but you don't know if its by someone who knows what they're talking about. That and they may lack the seriousness that you are looking for.

Point of my view

Last week we were to try and put our stories into different points of view. Now i saw how valuable doing this can be. The entire perspective of the story rests on the POV you determine. However, being a Comm student, we cant really do things like POV. I mean we could but its very hit or miss. And when the camera is the point of view the character turns out to be a mute since your suppose to be the character as the viewer. So when ever i think of a story i always start out thinking about it from the standard 3rd person view. I really haven't thought about trying to switch it up but now i see that it would be wise to do so. The perspective shows how close you want the audience to be during the impact points of the story, and i will keep this in mind with what ever stories, short or long, that i write next.  

The Pink Institution

At first i didn't really like "The Pink Institution" but then i noticed that i was halfway through the book. At first the form is weird and annoying but once you get use to the tabs in between every word you start to get the pacing and it becomes easier to read. I've thought about why Selah Saterstrom would write like that. This is what i thought. Either it was similar to what the confederate ball pamphlets and the text smears or that she chose to remove the excess wording and just give the bones of the sentences. While reading i though that there could have been more words as filler in between the open spaces. I also thought it might have something to do with the age of the narrator at that point and if they were a child they would take things slow and spaced out like that. Or there is a implication that the writing would be due to the result of trauma.

Overall I really enjoyed the book, though i feel it was due to the characters and more so the things that were happening. To me this is a weird place to be. Because i'm not really following because i like the character, being invested in them, but more so reading to see what happens next. To me it reminds me of one of those Animal SPCA commercials. They are designed to be sad and make you feel horrible, its not because you have and actual connection to what your seeing its just that they are playing very sad music and sad pictures... an unbeatable combo... and as to why they play these commercials on comedy central i'll never know..

So when you read about a family that is so broken and having rapes occur from grandfather to cousin its kind hard to walk away. So you don't and you read to see what happens next.

Another thing that is i didn't like was toward then end we lose our characters and it just becomes a bunch of one to two paged short stories about different scenarios. I would have liked it more if it stayed with the characters we were introduced to. Then we would have more opportunities to become invested in them. But out of these short stories i found two of them to be my favorite out of the entire book. The Repetition excerpt on page 95 was one of my favorites. I liked it because to me it seemed so real. It also made me laugh so i don't know what kind person that makes me but i'm not so sure its for the better. The other one was Eraser on page 100. I thought that it was brilliant and i cant come up with anything else. To me it was so pure in the expression of childhood and thinking that an eraser is God.        

Blog 4

In my creative writing class we were directed to a website where people could share their work. Brevitymag.com is an online magazine for creative non fiction. I've read a hand full of pieces and they were all very good. Every so often there is a new issue, meaning that they update the pieces that are shown. Its a pretty good site and i would recommend looking into it.

Blog 3

The story i read was "The Fireman's Wife" by Richard Bausch. Although the beginning to me was a little slow and confusing with some confusion in dialogue it turned out to be a great read. The actually writing isn't grand nor does it have a certain appeal, but that's not a bad thing. The writing focuses less on description and more on content. I don't mean that a lot of things happen but some significant events do take place. In a quick summary Its about the main character Jane. She figures out that she doesn't love her husband like she use to. Its not due to his or her fault its just how she feels. Certain things are revealed to us and i personally thought it was going to end with one of them cheating on the other but it didn't. It actually has a sweet ending, at least i think its sweet, maybe. The one line that i hated the most, not cause it was just a bad line but its content, "She knows she's going to leave him, but just for this moment, standing among these things, she feels almost peaceful about it."(50) this kinda makes Jane seem evil. But another line saves it for me, "she had been thinking in an abstract way, almost idly, as though it had nothing at all to do with her, about how people will go to such lengths leaving a room-wishing not to disturb, not to awaken, a loved one."(51) The ending was also very good. One of my favorites so far.

My Inspiration

Well, to me this is a kinda a touchy subject. I can't point to a specific author and say they are the reason i write. Though i should be able to. To be completely honest i never thought writing would be something that i enjoyed. I was always better at math and science rather then English. Because of this i had a sort of hatred for books and literature. And that may be one of my biggest regrets. Now, i wish i spent more time reading, searching for books and pieces of art that i enjoy. Reading to me was always an assignment, the same goes for writing.It was always "sate the facts" and to me that is just as boring and un-creative as it gets. Write the standard essay. I do understand the importance of essay's though. They relay a great deal of information. But i don't think they need to be as cut and dry, let alone boring as they are. The first time i started to see writing as entertainment or something that i might want to pursue was during my senior year of high school. I took an elective English class which covered graphic novels and dystopian worlds. The first part of the class we went over imperfect worlds and we read "A clockwork Orange" which is one of those must reads. But that didn't make me want to write.

Half way through the year it switch over to the graphic novel portion of the class. And that is what it sounds like. Comic books. We read comic books. We read batman and a bunch of others, one being "Watchmen" which is amazing. Then one of our assignments was to write our own. And i did. I wrote out the story, and even what the pages would look like. How many panels the pages would be. Whether or not the pages would be a splash page or have a mirror effect with the next page. It came out to be around 20 pages. I got an A+ on the paper and on the back my teacher wrote "This could be published." I was so ecstatic. I hand crafted this world, this universe with these characters and someone enjoyed it to the point of wanting to see it actually printed out. That to me was amazing.

I then thought about how i actually came up with the story. It was nothing brilliant, it was a basic revenge plot. But i could vividly see the characters in my head. I could see the actions unfolding, to the exact position and placement of miscellaneous items. To me it looked like a movie.

So now i'm currently stuck as to what i want to do with my stories. I don't know whether or not i want to turn them into novels, comics, scripts or cartoons. But what i do know, and for for a fact is that I want people to be entertained by my stories. If i can make you smile, cry or express any emotion through what ever from i decide to put my stories in, then i will have achieved my goal, as an entertainer.

I want to make people put down the book and say "Wow!"    

  

I just recently sent in some of my poetry and other writing to the campus's zestiest and one of my poems is going to be published in their next magazine!

 Here is the poem! 

Cliché

by

Rafael Gonzalez

Roses are red,

Violets are blue.

Once upon a time,

I cared about you.

But then I saw,

Who you really were.

And that's why I left you,

For Her. 

Story beginnings

           Personally I like stories that either start at some crucial point then explain certain things as the story progresses. Or they give you the background and setting up front then the story unfolds as you read. In the short story "A Temporary Matter" by Jhumpa Lahiri, the opening seemed kinda of standard. Just basics, setting the scene. There is no crucial matter or point made, just the fact that "The notice informed them that it was a temporary matter: for five days their electricity would be cut for one hour, beginning at eight p.m."(321,Lahiri) Now this alone doesn't really hook me. I don't have a hook until the bottom of the next page. "The baby was born dead."(322, Lahiri) Now, if that doesn't hook the reader then i don't know what will.
          The rest of the story is basically introducing you to the two characters: Shoba and Shukumar. Then all we have to go on is the fact that their baby is dead and that there is this unrest or awkward presence among-st the husband and wife now. They avoid each other. Then they have the talks in the dark about their flaws. Then we find out that Shoba wants to leave. And Shukumar says, "Our baby was a boy."(334,Lahiri) The story feels slow paced until we reach those two points the one hooking us into the story and the other being the outcome. Usually i don't like these kinds of stories but, this one was enjoyable. Then ending was something that i didn't see coming and it was a very emotional part. As opposed to the middle of the story which seemed bland.


     One of my favorite books has an intro that just tosses you into the story. The book is Halo: The Fall of Reach, by Eric Nylund. This is the intro: "Contact. All teams stand by: enemy contact, my position." The chief knew there were probably more than a hundred of them-- motion sensors were off the scale. He wanted to see them for himself, though; his training made that lesson clear: "Machines break. Eyes don't." Four Spartans the composed Blue team covered his back, standing absolutely silent and immobile in their MJOLNIR combat armor. Someone had once commented that they looked like Greek war gods in the armor... but his Spartans were far more effective and ruthless than Homer's gods had ever been.

    Now how could you not want to finish reading that?

Blog 1

One of my favorite books that I've read was "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers. It was a historical fiction book about Vietnam. The book is basically about a normal everyday 20 year old who goes to war. One of my favorite quotes is: “My father used to call all soldiers angel warriors,” he said. “Because 

usually they get boys to fight wars. Most of you aren't old enough to vote yet.” I really enjoyed they way it was written, it had details about the situations they were in tactically and also emotionally.  

  There was one point in the book that just shook my foundation. Three locals come into the compound to give thanks to the solders. Its a young mother and her two kids. One of the children runs up to a soldier and the solder goes to pick him up. The description of the scene is very heart harming. Then when the soldier hugs the child there is and explosion and limbs are sent flying. In a split second moment of chaos the remaining soldier open fire on the mother and the other boy. Upon them being shot they also explode. They were strapped with claymores. By then I was just glued to the book. 

Here are some links to the author. 

   http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/436609.Fallen_Angels

http://www.hbook.com/2013/11/authors-illustrators/walter-dean-myers-on-fallen-angels/

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/bookwizard/books-by/walter-dean-myers