Unfortunately, I haven’t been in this class for the entire year, so I don’t have reflection

upon the whole year, only this semester. However, even with this limited knowledge, I believe I

have improved as a writer. I have learned and expanded upon many different writing styles that

I’ve either never heard of before, or have never experimented with. It was really interesting to

me to learn about things like blackout poetry and to try writing fantasy and science fiction, which

I’ve never attempted to write before. This class has brought me out of my shell in many ways,

getting me to try all of these new writing styles and things that I would have never attempted had

I been by myself and not in this class. I am glad I joined this class and got a chance to try these

new things.

I have never really liked fantasy or science fiction, as I’m much more into

reading/writing realistic fiction. I like reading/writing stories that have real-life problems and

realistic characters. However, though, I really enjoyed experimenting with the science fiction. It

left room for me to be able to make up my own things. I could invent things and not have to

worry about them being practical or making a whole lot of sense because that’s the type of

stories they are. Also, I really enjoyed doing the blackout poetry. I had seen a few examples at

some point, but never knew the name for the style. I have a deep appreciation for people that can

do blackout poetry. Anyone can black out words on a page, but it takes a real knowledge and

understanding of words and poetry to figure out which ones to black out and which ones to leave.

I also really like the freedom of blackout poetry; there are basically no rules. You can design the

pages however you want as long as you leave some words to read and they make some kind of

sense.
 In the future, I would like to continue experimenting with blackout poetry. I’d like to get

a better understanding of it and learn more tricks to it. I really enjoyed working on the blackout

poetry, so I plan on pursuing that in the future, and doing more pieces of it. Also, as much as I’m

not really a fan of reading science fiction, I think I’d like to write it some more in the future.

There’s a lot of space in science fiction for imagination. You can basically think of any device or

machine, no matter how ridiculous, and base a sci-fi story around it. That has a large appeal to

me. Also I love a tone of suspense in a story, and I love when a story uses an ominous take on

narrating. Science fiction can take these basic ideas and form them into a good, well thought out

story. So, in the future, if I want to write with more suspense, and/or I think of a new device I

could use in a story, I’ll definitely write more science fiction.

I’m sure that creative writing will continue to assist me through my future. First of all,

creative writing has opened my mind and my eyes to types of writing that I most likely would

have never experimented with or tried. That means, in the future, if I want to write any more of

these types of stories, or have a need to, I can, as I now have an understanding of them. Not only

have I been opened up to other types of writings, but creative writing will continue to help me in

other ways as well. Creative writing will assist me with all types of writing in the future. Even

though we didn’t do any non-fiction pieces while I was here, which is most likely what I’ll be

writing in college, I still think that the experience I got writing in this class will help me in the

future. I worked with many words, prompts, and styles that I’ve never used before, which will

help me in the future with anything I may want to write. Even if I never want to expand upon the

types of writing that I practiced in creative writing, I still have the experience of working with

words.
 Nobody is perfect. That’s true in every case, especially this one. I’m definitely not

perfect. I’m not a perfect writer in any case. There are absolutely things that I, as a writer, need

to improve upon. I need to work on my word choice in certain situations. Sometimes, I use

language that is too professional for the type of writing I’m working on; other times it isn’t

formal enough. Another thing I really need to work on is detail. One thing that I have a bad

tendency to do is to use way too much detail. I’ll be writing a simple story, such as the flash

fiction stories, and wind up spending far too much time explaining one thing. I’ll spend a whole

paragraph explaining an outfit, or an entire page solely on what a character looks/acts like. It’s a

problem I undoubtedly need to work on. In average conversation, I tend to speak for a long time

about something that could be short because I always want to over explain every part of the story

I’m telling. I like to live my life with a lot of detail, and I appreciate when writers use good detail

in their story. I’m a very visual person when I read, so I like to be able to imagine what’s

happening while I read it. So, I tend to use a lot of detail in my stories in the hope that people

that read them feel the same way about being able to imagine what’s happening that I feel about

other books. Finally, I have a big problem with being very repetitive in my writing. I usually

gravitate towards repeating what I’m saying in different ways, which, when I reread it after,

tends to be really annoying, so I need to work on that for sure.

Creative writing has been helpful in many ways to me. Unexpectedly, I’ve made a lot of

friends in this class. I’ve come out of my shell a lot more and I feel much more comfortable

around others. This is without a doubt my favorite class and I look forward to coming to it every

day to find out what we’ll be working on and to see everyone. But of course, the social aspect

isn’t the only good part of this class. As I’ve stated earlier, I’ve really enjoyed getting the
opportunity to join this class late and participate in all of the different types of writing I’ve never

attempted before. Before taking creative writing, I had never even heard of flash fiction before,

but now I’m an avid fan of the style of writing and I really enjoy the freedom and creativity

behind it. Same with blackout poetry- I had never even heard of it, but looking further into it has

shown me that it’s a very beautiful form of expression and writing. In conclusion, this class has

helped me in many different ways to learn to write much better.