Monday, February 25, 2008

Post # 3

1. I surprisingly enjoyed writing in the play format. I liked how there was so much room for creativity with the stage directions. I thought it was cool how you were totally in charge of how the story was to be acted out. It is amazing how much a story can change depending on the set, delivery of the lines etc. There were some aspects of play format that I found frustrating. For example, I usually write with a lot of description and not as much dialogue. It was frustrating to me to focus mainly on the dialogue. It also frustrated me that I could not display or explicitly say a character's thoughts or reactions.

2. If it were to give a ten year old advice about growing up in this world, this is what it would be. I would stress the importance of accepting, and more importantly respecting who you are. It is wasted energy trying to be someone you are not, or trying to silence something that comes natural to you in order to conform to how others act. In my own experience, I have found that everyone is innately very different- there is not point in trying to cover that up. I think it is sad when you see someone with potential in something and they do not embrace it because they feel different.

3. It amazes me when literary works written hundreds of years ago, are still present in people’s reading lists. I think that what makes literary works last so long are the storyline and the lessons that are behind it. I think that the collaboration of good technique (sentence structure and how something is written) and honest exploration behind human behavior makes great literature. By “exploration behind human behavior” I mean that the author explores how humans perceive things, react towards things or think. I cannot foresee my writing lasting in a hundred years.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Post #2- Luigi Pirandello

1.) Theme is very important in what you write. The theme is the substance to your writing- it is the reason writing is written. The point to any writing is for the writer to try to and express ideas with his/her reader. The theme and ideas in writing can teach the reader valuable lessons on how and how not to act. A piece of writing is great when it makes its readers think about ideas or examples in a new and interesting way. For example, I think that the novel "The Great Gatsby" is a great piece of writing because it makes you take a deeper look at the socialite society that Daisy and Tom live in.

2.) I am not sure about the theme that I might consider writing about in my play yet. I find it more interesting to read about character who have internal conflicts. I think that reading about characters who have self vs. self conflicts is interesting to read sometimes because it is more subtle and the audience gets to see how the internal struggle in a character affects them on the outside. For example, if the audience can know the characters inner thoughts and insecurities it is interesting to see how that character reacts in situations and with other characters. I have not decided what kind of a theme I am going to write, but I know that I want to have a self vs. self conflict.

3.) I already addressed what type of conflict I am going to write about (self vs. self) but I am not sure the exact conflicts I am going to write about. Some possible conflict ideas could be the character struggling to accept another character's personality, opinions, culture, etc. Another possible internal conflict could be the character's insecurity with themselves and then the audience could see how the character deals with that on the outside.

Friday, February 1, 2008

The Importance of Reading

1.) Reading is an important tool to a writer. Reading can inspire writers to write about certain things and on the contrary to not write about certain things. To be a good reader, you need to be a good observer. The more you read, the better you become at observing what types of elements of writing work and don't work. For example when you read, you may notice a type of sentence structure that is more creative or that better illustrates a point compared to how you would have written it. Reading other people's thoughts and ideas and thinking about them can lead you to your own conclusions and therefore makes your writing better and stronger.


2.) Something in the world that concerns me is littering. Although it seems trite and small when you compare it to the vast amount of other problem's this world has- it still bothers me. It bothers me because littering is really easy not to do. For example, it bothers me when people are driving on the highway and they throw a cup outside of the window.  That scenario bothers me because the highway is a public place, and its important to keep it as clean as possible because everyone uses it.   


3.) One of my favorite Artists is Christina Aguilera. Most of her music from her "Stripped" album is very inspirational to me. Not only is her voice amazingly powerful, but the lyrics and meanings in her songs are too. The songs that I find inpirational are the ones that encourage self-power, self-motivation and self-recognition. A lot of her songs address the clashing of power between men and women and stress sexual equality. I think that Christina Aguilera comes off as a strong feminist in the media and I think it is good that she advocates for sexual equality. The inspirational lyrics are paired with strong undertones and interesting harmonies which make her songs never boring.