LITR 3731: Creative Writing
Sample Final Exam 2005

Jennifer Jones

As a result of this course, I have learned what it means to be a creative writer.  I know that I must have patience with myself and with the world around me.  I cannot rush the writing process.  Creative ideas take time to develop into a manuscript that others would be interested in reading.  It is impossible for writers to just throw words on a page without mulling over and revising the words until they transform into something magical.  Creative writing is always a work in progress constantly shifting and reshaping itself.  I am positive that I could go back into all of my manuscripts from this semester and find something else to change.  I have found that symbolism and imagery takes a while to come into fruition.  The more I practice with these styles, the easier it becomes for me to cultivate a thought into something noteworthy and original.  Moreover, this creative writing course has shown me how to become even more of a critical thinker.  Thoughts, ideas and meanings that I was missing before come to me more easily now.  I feel this is due to the workshop setting of the course.  Conducting class in this manner does not place pressure only on the person presenting their piece.  It also puts pressure on others to come up with something to offer the writer that will help their work to improve. 

Learning to give and take constructive criticism has been beneficial in that I no longer worry about hurting someone’s feelings when they ask for my feedback.  I feel that if they ask, they must seriously want to know.  I also enjoyed hearing what my peers and Dr. White had to say about my work.  When Dr. White said, “Contextualize what’s going on,” I discovered that I was not making one of my themes clear enough (“RE: LITR 3731 2005 fiction Jones returned,” par. 1).  He went on to say, “Start creating a space for it in the reader’s mind as soon and as definitely as possible.  You’ll constantly adjust your pace of revelation or exposition, but don’t hold it back altogether” (par. 3).  It is always difficult to know just how much is enough and how much is too much.  I feel that these comments are critical for learning what I am doing wrong and, also, what I am doing right. 

I will be incorporating a creative writing workshop into my future classroom, at least, for a portion of the school year.  Secondary students need much more scaffolding so it is important that I incorporate minilessons in which I “think aloud” and storyboard in my creative writing instruction to help students get a better grasp of the process.  In my workshop, it is important that I cover certain aspects of creative writing like transformation, imagery and creating authentic dialogue.  Many students do not understand poetry because it is essentially a solid piece of imagery.  Helping them to create their own images will benefit them in understanding the images of others.  Teaching students where stories come from by introducing conscious transformation will help many of them comprehend the fiction writing process and make it much easier for them to create their own masterpieces.  I want to let them in on the “secrets” good writers use in creating authentic dialogue for their characters.  In addition, I would like them to know how to use characterization throughout their writings in order to create well-rounded characters. 

Characterization has been a major aim for me this semester.  I find the topic fascinating.  As Minot says, “characterization is enormously compressed and ingeniously hidden” (257).  Really great literature always incorporates strong characterization and it is so inconspicuous that the reader is not consciously aware of it.  It is a personal goal to master this technique.  “In order to maintain the reader’s sense of personal discovery, the writer of fiction has to supply a series of little hints, and they have to be slipped in stealthily” (Minot, 257).  I love to analyze and attempt to figure out a character’s motives.  Now that I know about characterization, my senses will be even more tuned in to the words on the page.  My appreciation for literature has exploded beyond what I ever expected it to and I imagine it will continue to explode while I grow as a writer. 

Having a behind-the-scenes look at what writers do has given me the tools to become the best writer I am capable of becoming.  Previous to this course, literature’s use of language to describe images sometimes baffled me, but now when I read poetry it is remarkable how much easier it is to understand.  In addition, I am able to create some of these strong words myself.  Granted, it takes me quite a while, maybe months, to relax enough to let the images into my mind, but they eventually appear.  “Because poetry relies so heavily on what we see and hear, it is important to select nouns that have impact whenever possible” (58).  This is an important key concept in poetry, but it is also important in fiction and drama.  Simple and concise is always the best way to get an idea across.  Readers will quickly become bored by long flowery explanations that take too long get to the point.  Minot gives examples like “terror” rather than “extreme fear” (59).  It is easy, as a writer, to get caught up in adjectives to show emphasis and description.  I find myself revising my fiction constantly replacing every word that has “really” in front of it with a stronger word that does not require an adjective. 

After reading the section on transformation, I noticed that while I am enjoying a piece of literature’s storyline and searching for characterization tidbits, the back of my mind is constantly wondering where the story came from.  Which part is true?  Which part is made up?  Who is this character based on?  Where are the facts in this story?  These questions run through my mind nonstop.  While I am writing, there are some characters that are purposely based on real people, but there are also others that may be unconsciously based on actual people in my life.  For instance, I had thoughtlessly named Morgen’s father, Derry.  My father’s name is Jerry.  One day, I was doing one of my revisions and I noticed the resemblance between the names.  At first, I left it alone, but eventually started to feel uncomfortable reading that section.  I ended up changing his name to Liam.  While Morgen’s father is nothing like mine, just looking at the name was too strange.  “Transformation is the first step in converting those bits and pieces of factual data floating around in your memory into a coherent narrative known as fiction.  It involves restructuring, reordering, and a good deal of fabrication” (163).  We discussed this concept more thoroughly in class on February 21.  I recall that we decided it is best to consider both the extreme and the too familiar, and then balance the two into something more convincing.  Good fiction combines pieces of our own lives with invention to create something readers can relate to and find interesting or entertaining.  Transformation has opened up the doorway to an unending supply of storylines for me. 

Because of this, I am writing more than ever before.  I write every chance I get.  If I am sitting in a waiting room, I pull out my small notebook and begin brainstorming the next segment of Water Fairy.  Our guest speaker, Christina Hergenrader, M. A., really gave us some good advice when she said that writers must persevere.  If I ever want to get anywhere as a writer, I must continue to work at it.  Just like anything, practice makes perfect.  She also said that we would not always feel inspired, and I have to say I agree.  What I did not realize was that published authors felt this way too.  Hearing it come from her helped me realize that my feelings were normal.  Just because I was not feeling inspired one day did not mean that I was not meant to write.  I just have to persevere.   

As stated earlier, due to this course, I am always looking for techniques and styles, characterization, and any hints about transformation while I read.  I even do it while I watch television and movies.  These are drama scripts, so that makes sense to me.  I look for weaknesses and strengths.  I notice when the pacing is off and when some clue has been left out.  I am aware of when a writer has used authentic or contrived dialogue and developing conflict.  This course has heightened my observational skills in reading, writing, and listening.  I am able to identify good literature to use in my future classroom and have started collecting samples.  Until I become a teacher, I have been practicing these techniques with my children.  I model creative writing for them by starting a story and having them finish it.  They do a wonderful job of following whatever format I have set up at the beginning of the story.  My 4-year-old son is beginning to use some of these concepts on his own.  He has started telling creative stories that have fully developed characters suffering consequences for their actions, conflict that rises and falls with very consistent pacing throughout.  In any case, this creative writing course has affected my life in a positive way.  I will take these “secrets” with me for the rest of my life and share them with anyone who will sit still long enough.