What have you improved on as a writer?
As a writer, I feel that I have made my works more authentic – not necessarily more simplistic but authentic. A few years ago when I first was introduced to the world of literature a lot of my writing was me sitting down, trying to think of words that sounded complex and intimidating. I realize how pointless that was. This year was great for experimentation in different genres and trying to build on my writing style. Also, things like GUMPS haven’t always been a major issue for me, but naturally we all improve the more we write. This is said all the time, but writing is not solely to impress people, its supposed to be you bleeding on paper all the significant and insignificant moments of your life. This year was great for me in terms of experimenting with genres that I was not so familiar with. Although many writers like to stick in a defined genre when they write, I feel that the only way to learn and grow is to look outside your scope of expertise. For example, this year we played with spoken-word poetry, which is something that I have never done, and I ended up writing something that I felt proud of even if it wasn’t at the expectation that others held of me. Intention. This one word changed my writing structure because now every line that I write, I have meaning behind why it is the way that it is.
How would you explain your voice? What is stylistic of you?
Its hard to define what my voice is because all I do is experiment with different writing styles and emulate what I like. This has always been a particularly hard question for me because I know that I love experimenting with the genre of tragedy and that all my pieces have something symbolic within them. I know that doesn’t answer the question, but my writing style has been changing so frequently that its hard for me to identify what it is. Last year I had very formal diction, and I had this rigid structure to each of my poems that ruined its flow, which is something that I have changed with the transition to this year. Actually after AP during the first semester, I had a desire to look at 19th century works and take certain aspects of their style that I found was interesting. This led me to accept ‘tragedy’ as my main go-to genre type for all my poems, short stories, or plays. My writing style will vary, and I think its lack of consistency is something that I have grown to appreciate and value.
As a mentor writer, what advice would you give to future creative writers? Future goals and plans regarding writing?
Write freely and be open to new writing experiences. So firstly, don’t be afraid to write down every single one of your ideas even if they make absolutely no sense because those are the ideas that end up becoming something better one day. For writing experiences, there is never something ‘too crazy’ that you can do and write about because honestly when else are you going to do it. It took me a lot to adjust my mindset to this this, but taking these chances can sometimes end up being the most memorable things you’ve ever done. For me, although I probably won’t be taking creative writing next year, I will hope to continue this blog and see what it develops into. A lot of my best ideas have come from reading novels and short stories that are in the particular genre and style that I write in. At the same time, however, I would recommend going out of your comfort zone to look at styles of writing that may seem strange to you. Trust me. For just one moment let go of that over-inflated ego that you may have and look at styles of writing that you may consider “not as good”.
