Writing Review Week

I think this class has been beneficial to me as a writer even more than it has been for me as a reader. There are a number of things that keep me from writing more often in my usual, day-to-day life: lack of time, inspiration, and confidence.

This course requires you to make time every week for writing, so now I write a new story every Wednesday whereas before I hardly ever wrote at all because there were too many other things taking precedent over writing (e.g. homework, housework, studying). There are also many stories to draw inspiration from each week. It's usually not hard to find a story that makes me think, "I want to change that part," or "I wonder what it would be like if it was set in this place instead of that," or some other idea that makes me want to write my own version of the story. Although I do sometimes think of ideas on my own that I'm really interested in exploring, my aforementioned lack of much leisure time usually keeps me from doing so. Finally, it has always been a dream of mine to be an author someday, but I've never been confident enough in my writing ability to pursue this passion seriously. Before this class, I wasn't used to sharing my stories with other people, but everyone who has commented on them has been very supportive and it's definitely helped my confidence a lot.

I personally feel like my greatest writing success so far has been my storybook introduction (I haven't received any comments yet on my first story, but hopefully the responses will be just as enthusiastic). It's extremely satisfying for a writer when a reader really loves your work and feels or responds to what you wrote exactly like you wanted them to. I've received a bunch of comments about how people were really drawn in by the introduction, how it made them want to read more, and that was exactly the point. It's sort of like a teaser trailer and, from what I'm hearing on my comment wall, it worked quite well. I really hope my stories can live up to the hype. I want to tell you stories about these women's lives that you never even imagined before.

The image I have chosen for this post is from one of my favorite story retellings. In Have Some Integrity, I change up the Brer Rabbit story of "Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear" because I didn't like the way the mischievous, but usually just, Brer Rabbit severely wrongs Brer Bear and gets away with it. I feel like I came up with an alternative plot that works well and is more in line with Brer Rabbit's character as it's established in the other stories.

Brer Rabbit caught in a trap
Illustrated by A.B. Frost