LITR 3731 Creative Writing UHCL journal / portfolio sample submission 2005

I don’t suppose one can consider himself much of a writer when all he does is write research papers and little quatrains as he dozes off in class. Nevertheless, that’s what I figured it was all about, that’s all I did in college for the most part. A friend of mine took a creative writing class at ACC and raved about how good it was. He had never been much of a writer, but the stuff he sent me blew me away. It was as if the class had opened up writing to him in a new way. I signed up for this class in the hopes that it would push me to write beyond my boundaries. It has accomplished that without a doubt. This portfolio will include all three of my submission for this class, poetry, fiction and drama.

The poetry section of this course was one that I was prepared for, and though I have written several poems this semester, I chose, for some reason, to submit one of my older poems. This is not to say that I didn’t rework it, as a matter of fact it looks much different than it did at the start, but it was a fun piece to revisit and I’m glad I did. The reason this poem may have stuck with me would have to do with an ex-girlfriend who I had been hanging on to for way too long. This image helped me just bite the bullet and let her go. Without a doubt, the “new days sunlight was much sweeter than the last.” So I thought this was a nice thought, that if you run fast enough through the darkness you can make it out on the other side sooner.

The next piece submitted was one that really did take me somewhere I hadn’t gone in writing. Fiction had always been fun for me to read, but I had never ventured to guess that I could enjoy writing it. From our discussion and a bit of artistic license, I wrote what a drive to Colorado would be like if my two closest friends and I ventured out to relive the days of our youth. I didn’t know where it would go, and my first paragraphs written ended up in the middle of the story. It grew legs and took the story where I didn’t really intend, but thoroughly enjoyed. I am sure that I will continue to polish this story, and am encouraged to keep writing.

Finally, I am entering the most difficult piece for me to get started, the drama. As I looked at past portfolio entries on the website, I can identify with people like Enrique Canales who said this of their drama submission, “The piece previewed here presented a particular challenge in that the subject was limited to the classroom. Finding a good story under such restraint was hard.” I think that restricting the scene to the classroom was a great idea as it made everyone stretch themselves. It definitely was a challenge, but it was also rewarding. This piece was my first attempt at drama and my first real attempt at comedy, and people laughed! So that was encouraging.

In short, I am proud of my submissions, they bear no resemblance to Shakespeare or Henry James, but they are mine. If I had read them before the semester started, I would never have thought I could write these, even though they need work, I think it all turned out all right.

This poem was originally written on an airplane headed to Europe from Houston. We left at about dusk and took off into the spreading darkness. As I sat in my seat watching the monitor telling me how many miles we had gone, what time it was and showing me a small world map that marked our progress I noticed that the map also marked where the sun was rising at that particular time. After a while it clicked that it had only been dark for about 5 hours before our winged chariot broke into the sunlight. So I thought this was a nice thought, that if you run fast enough through the darkness you can make it out on the other side sooner.

Originally the poem stopped at the new day, leaving the reader, and my self wondering about what happens when the new day ends. I often struggle with thoughts of future pain or suffering, loved ones will die, friendships will be severed. So my faith led me to the hope that there will be a new day at the end of all of mine that will never cease. I wanted to call hope to mind by reminding the reader and myself that this is not the end. C.S. Lewis once said, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” There is obvious danger in losing a great portion of the audience when a poem takes a religious turn, so I wanted to be wary of how to handle the change.

As the time came to turn this poem in for a class, I had been through most all of my literature requirements and had become a bit more perceptive of cliché versus good poetry. I changed some of the language to make the religious turn a bit less turbulent. I wanted it to be a Christian poem without being too explicit. Subtlety would be my answer. I think this still needs work, or maybe it just needs to be left alone to pursue a new work, but I find comfort in its message if not in its style. I suppose that in itself makes it worth having written for me. As we critiqued the poem in class it became clear that it is very important to have other perspectives considered. The peer critique was a great experience because I was privileged to see others respond to the work in their own way.

This is the first class in which I have been required to do a draft exchange, and it has been a very profitable experience for me. Similarly, this is the first time I have written a fiction piece. The idea came from my past mostly, but the actual story had more to do with the present. My friends and I went to Colorado every summer between seventh grade and junior year (as the story suggests). My mom and stepfather own thirty-five acres on the side of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. It was paradise, we built our lives around that trip. But over the last three years or so we haven’t gotten to go, and if we did, it was just a weekend or something too short to register in long-term memory.

Since high school we have all grown up and moved on. I don’t see those friends very often any more. One friend however has fought hard against the changing tide, Billy. He was just supposed to be a supporting role, but I feel like he took over there at the end. I was actually in dialogue with Billy through much of the writing of this story. From our discussion and a bit of artistic license, I wrote what a drive to Colorado would be like if my two closest friends and I ventured out to relive the days of our youth.

I didn’t know where it would go, and my first paragraphs written ended up in the middle of the story. It grew legs and took the story where I didn’t really intend, but thoroughly enjoyed. I am sure that I will continue to polish this story, and am encouraged to keep writing. After a conversation with Dr. White I did make a few changes to the original, just to clear up some ambiguities.

As I mentioned previously, this was my first attempt at any form of drama, other than the play I wrote at six years old for my family to act out. I enjoyed writing it thoroughly, though at times I struggled with it being almost too lighthearted. Maybe its just from years of literature classes and the thought that comedy is a lower form of literature and I can see how that is true. The play was relatively easy for me to write as soon as I figured out my theme. From there, I was just writing what I knew everyone would want to see or hear. Because of that, I don’t really feel like I got much of myself into the play, I just operated on other people’s expectations. The plus side is that people liked it, the down side is that it doesn’t really reflect me.

The plot was just based on some over enthusiastic teachers that I’ve had in the past as well as every overly perky kindergarten teacher or Barney the dinosaur kid that I remembered. I spoke to Dr. White and he said he always seemed to get the same old boring character, so I wanted to stretch him out a bit as an actor, and nothing does that like a good old mental breakdown.

When the play was performed several slow moments became clear as well as some awkward lines. I was glad that the class was designed to have the performances; it really did help to solidify the idea that dramas are meant to be seen and heard. I made a few changes based on suggestion and mechanical difficulties.

I have long been under the impression that poems or stories were, for the most part, outbursts of genius. I had in my mind that people like Edgar Allan Poe could sit down and write the Raven from start to finish without stopping his pen. So the first day of our class helped me to dispel these thoughts as Dr. White maintained that writing is a process that takes revision, work and dedication.

As far as the art of poetry, I have been writing here and there since high school. One of my problems that this class has helped me to realize is that once I wrote a poem, I always figured, “the moment has past” and because I was no longer in the moment that I wrote the poem, I was not entitled to change it or edit it. In my mind, it was what it was; I could do no better. Now I can see that the best way to get a good product is to modify it, rearrange it. This doesn’t cheapen the work, it refines it, which in turn will more clearly and eloquently express the theme and ideas in it.

Some of the most memorable lessons learned in this also came from the text by Minot. When reading our chapters on poetry I was struck by the challenge of writing poetry in a set form. I never saw the value of it before, but now it seems to be a great way to enrich the message by framing it around a tried and true schema. I hope to work out some of my own poems in set forms, but I cant say that I expect too many Daniel Davis sonnets to be published in the near future.

The reading on fiction was a great help. The text along with discussion pushed me to look back on my own life for the roots of the story. My first instinct was to just fabricate a scene and theme purely out of imagination. However, when I attempted this all of the stories seemed unbelievable and cliché. When I dug into my memory for ideas many great stories of my own past came to mind. Even though the true stories of my life would have been a bit less than interesting, they gave me a springboard into the creative process and allowed me to really spread my wings in the fiction genre.

I must confess that the drama portion of the class was where I felt weakest. I was pleased with my scene, but I feel like I could have done much better. Like David Moore, “Everyone found the scene more humorous than even I did. People laughed in places I expected and in some places I did not. The criticism's focus was on the dialogue.” It was a lot of fun, but if ever I write drama again, I would like to take it a bit more seriously.

In my mind the class was a great success and I will remember it fondly as one of my favorites of my stay at UHCL. I graduate this semester and for those who will be viewing this little entry in semesters to come, just write what matters, its more fun that way.