Writing Review Week

I think that my greatest writing successes so far this semester have actually been my Storybook writings. Everyone really seems to like the way I am telling the story, as well as the characters that I have developed so far. Even Laura seems to like what I send her, and gives me enthusiastic support for the stories. Other than that, I found that my other greatest success was when I decided to use the diary method for one of my Storytelling posts. Everyone definitely seemed to like that one when I wrote it.

My writing goals for myself in the second half of the semester would be to work on my punctuation and proofreading. I need to work on proofreading my works much slower than I have done so far. Also, I am bad at making comma splices and can also get a little comma happy; which causes me to overuse them sometimes. I would also like to continue producing work that is of a good quality and not lose my momentum for my Storybook.

When coming up with stories to use in my Storytelling posts, the best strategy that I have found so far is to mark areas that I think would make a good story. As I take notes I mark pages and make a mental note if something will be good for me to write a story about. By doing so, I can come up with the stories faster and be developing them in my mind throughout the day before actually writing it.

It was by looking at other student's posts that made me realize that I wanted to write a diary post. I enjoyed every one that I had read and it had motivated me to write my own. I was really happy that I did try it since it was probably the Storytelling post that I had the greatest success with.

The feedback that I am receiving from Laura as well as other students is in fact helping me improve my writing. Laura's contribution definitely helps me take my punctuation and grammar into mind as I am writing. It has also taught me proper ways to use punctuation while writing stories. The feedback from other students is helping me become contentious of my word choice, as well as my character development. It is also helping me realize that I need to work on my proofreading more. So the best feedback for me is technical feedback that points out my errors in punctuation, grammar, word choice, etc.

I think that my biggest challenge as a writer is actually developing the story and writing it. I love writing, and I always have some kind of story in my mind. However, I am terrible at actually writing the stories down and completing them. When I have some kind of writer's block, I usually stop them for a while. It is hard not to do that in this class when I get stuck. But this class and the writing assignments that we have are helping me learn how to push through those blocks and preserver in my writing.

I definitely find it rewarding to finish a story and to get feedback on it. I love getting positive feedback from people who tell me that they like what I have done. It really makes the writing worthwhile and even gives me more confidence in my writing. It definitely makes me want to write more when I receive that positive feedback, and even when I receive negative feedback I feel it helps me improve myself as a writer.

Image Information: Bugsy Siegel Mugshot; Web Source: Wikimedia Commons.

This image came from one of the Storytelling posts that was the hardest for me to write, but it was also one of the most rewarding stories to finish. I made Rama and Lakshmana mobster mercenaries, and it was a fun story set in 1920s America.