My Writing Journey - Reflective Blog Post 2

            Everyone’s journey with writing exists, no matter how small of an adventure this is. Most receive what excitement they can obtain through school whether this is through essays, plays, or fictional stories we write for projects. We all gather our beginning through school and through, most of the time, English. However, only a small amount of students continue their writing outside the walls of school. This could circle around songs, poems, stories, writing on the internet, or a mix of some or all of the above. This is my adventure – my Indiana Jones moments. 

Writing Timeline in Daybook page 1

Writing Timeline in Daybook page 2

What one can gather through the information I obtain through the students in my class is that almost everyone starts to catch an interest with writing during middle school. This is also true with me. However before middle school, and what I remember as a stereotypical-high-school-scenario which seems to appear three years early, I recall staring at the clouds. To be frank, I’m a 24-hour daydreamer. That is not an exaggeration – I did and still do so 24/7.

Consider this, years and years of pent-up ideas roam your mind every second of the day as well as while you sleep. Add to this more and more dreams, which could last from a few minutes to even a few days, a creative mind imagines. Isn’t that going to start taking a toll on one’s brain capacity? I sure reach this issue, constantly. However, I only realize this in my high school years. There’s seems to be a gap in my timeline. Fixing issue now, please hold.

During my middle school years, two main events ripple waves into my life even today. The first event is my introduction to fan fiction. This is what I consider my big bang, the love of my life! However, what most aspiring writers don’t realize is that fan fiction can either be their downfall or their strength. I find that a respectable explanation for the previous sentence would take a whole post to write about; but, in summary, one has to watch themselves when using fan fiction as a writing experience. Fan fiction is both dangerous to a writer’s skill as well as a realization that the style can open one’s mind.

Still, this wisdom I now know was, at the time, not available to me during my seventh year. The choice to travel down this road on to my next experience during this year has me writing a fictional story for the first time. However at the time, I decide to write in the style of fan fiction and as some, or possibly many, can guess the effect was disastrous. I soon suffer a serious failure which crumbles my confidence. Hard. This event leads me to the decision to never pick up a pencil for fiction again. Thankfully, the ideas in my head continue, even today, to scream at me until the dreams I create reach a heaviness almost too much to bear. At the time, I feel like I can empathize with the god Atlas – world on your shoulders and such.

Even though this process takes almost four years, I still receive the same outcome because of that insanity in my head: signing up for a Creative Writing class. Out of all the experiences in my entire life, this became the greatest decision in my writing adventure. Do all of you aspiring writers have questions on how to make your writing better? Want to know how to get through the publishing process? Sign up for the amazing creative writing classes found all over the place! Almost all your questions receive answers.

Every single piece of information I use today I gather from my memories of that class. This is thanks to the my Creative Writing teacher because he knows exactly what he is discussing. All that he teaches is based off of his previous experiences as well as the knowledge he gains from other writers. In that classroom, he's a genius: Mister-Einstein-of-high-school-Creative-Writing-101 himself. Quick shout out, I bow down to you Mr. (Insert name here because I don’t know if you would like to be mentioned on a blog or not)!

Finally, the last event on my journey arrives. This is my Kingdom of the Crystal Skull although the fact’s debatable on whether or not this receives better ratings. For all of you curious minds, this moment actually takes a whole month to play out during the end of my 12^th year of high school. Also, should I mention that my 12^th grade English teacher is wise in her career choice? After a few years of struggle, she brilliantly thinks up the idea of an amazing project to give to all of her students at the end of the year. The project that more than a few teachers use today: the I-Search project. Thus, my chance arose to use this project for my own personal, writing gain.

In a previous project, my friend and I write a poem which has main idea focusing on the plot outline of The Canterbury Tales. I came to the decision to try to start the process of publishing this poem for my I-Search project. What occurs during this month is my greatest writing achievement so far. Without attempting to publish this poem (The Last Caravan) during the time limit I have, I choose to send the piece onto teenink.com (a website which has some surprising, and respectable, results for people who have luck on their side), expecting a reply after the month finishes. However, there seems to be an angel looking out for me for I soon receive a reply back the day before my project deadline. A miracle has occurred – my poem is now a part of teenink.com's archive.

Even though this isn’t the same as getting my poem into a magazine, this is a start in my writing career. This is something that I sometimes still believe in my head to be near impossible unless I gain more experience. Ah, lack of self-confidence: oh how I hate thee. Anyways, what I hope to give to all you readers is the hope that you aspiring writers can place your foot in the door. If a high school student achieves this, then so can everyone else. Now, go out there and kick some booty!

I hope you all enjoyed that.... well, I guess essay on my journey to the writer I am now. I just wanted to say that I won't write like this much. I just wanted to make sure I still could write an essay well enough :)
 Here's something I found that you guys might enjoy!
the CrEatiVe wirters bein cool :D