Literacy Narrative Paper (finished)

1.       Visual description: “When she opened the front door, the whole street looked like a river,” on page 129, paragraph 3 of Lydia’s Story.

2.       Vivid dialogue: “How can I get A’s in all my English classes but fail the writing part of the proficiency test twice?” in the back of our Literacy Narrative packet.

3.       Sensory description: “Her tongue became dry and her lips were cracked, but she was only aware of being terrified of the water,” on page 130, paragraph 3 of Lydia’s Story.

4.       Literacy Narrative: Creative writing final

5.       Purpose: I want to tell this story not only for the assignment, but to reflect on a memory I’ve had about the writer’s block and lack of motivation during my creative writing final, to see if I can beat my current writer’s block.

6.       Audience: I, as an audience member, will have been in this experience, but from talking to a few people around me I don’t think people will have had the same experience or outlook on this similar to my outlook if they did take a creative writing class.

7.       Stance: I have a positive attitude about the subject, and even a little bit self-critical of my previous habits. I want them to see that even though I enjoy writing this was hard and it still is something I struggle with. I am not the best writer.

8.       Design: This will be in a narrative format, but on a blog, so more description would be better for the readers to get the vibe and feeling of my piece.

9.     The walls were white inside my creative writing classroom, and the left wall was dominated by windows. I sat to the left of the teacher and faced the windows, and there were Japanese posters on the walls as if a Japanese class was taught in there. There were 3 desktops permanently placed on a table in the back of the room, to the right of them was a cabinet. There was an organization center underneath the windows where we got our work back from, and a drawer for every class. My class’ drawer was at the bottom since I was 6^th period. Once the first week ended, the back ring of chairs were always full. A few in the front would always be open but other than the 5-6 chairs the classroom was full.

10.   What I remember most about the class was not Mrs. Boss’ voice, but the quite hum of computers and clicks as people worked on their two pages per day, at the beginning of class everyone would speak quietly with their neighbors if they had a question, but as the period went on the hum got louder as people got more excited for the end of the day.

11.   Every now and then, a few prissy girls would spray Victoria's secret perfume that left a bad taste in your mouth, and not only did the teacher hate it, but so did all of the students. If you smelled like Victoria’s Secret the class would yell at you to go to the bathroom and get it off somehow.

12.   Depending on the prompt, I felt differently. When Mai Ly was there it was a lot of fun, she and I would trade work and I loved to see a different writing style. DT and the Steam Punk girl always made things interesting, from distracting Mai Ly to sitting on the floor and being a nuisance.

13.   Since it was high school I couldn’t really eat anything in class, so I didn’t taste anything but the gross perfume.

14.   Mrs. Boss, my teacher, had a bigger body type, but it fit her personality. She was outgoing, and critical, and smart, and funny when she wanted to be, but she only respected you and was only nice to you if she received the same treatment. She was a huge inspiration to me, from her master’s in Creative Writing, to the idea that you don’t have to be liked by everybody to be a good person. I always liked her because she was more direct like me and liked to write and get things done, so even though my class mates didn’t like her as much I loved her and her words to me. She didn’t critique my writing but my ideas, the point was to make you feel better and to inspire you to write more often. Even when I wrote child’s poems and couldn’t think of anything to write about because I hated the assignment, she helped me feel a bit better about it.

Mai Ly, my best friend in that class, was so nice to me and kind, but that wasn’t how she acted towards everybody. She was sassy and intelligent, without feeling the need to cuss or talk about inappropriate topics. She was an amazing friend and always traded her writing with me, genuinely not dealing with the drama or shenanigans occurring in the classroom and trying to focus on her writing. She encouraged me to do the same and took me under her wing, meeting up with me outside of class to focus better or talk about YouTube videos we like to watch and compare stories, editing and swapping back the other’s stories.
15. B= Mrs. Boss
C= Chloe
C: "Hi Mrs. Boss, I'm having a bit of a problem."

B: "How is your story coming along? Is it about that?"
C: "It's going okay, and yes. I'm having a bit of an un-creative streak. What do you suggest to do until I think of more to write about?"
B: "Look over your story so far to get a better idea for your writing style."
C: "Sounds like a good plan."
B: "And make sure you continue to write your two pages a day so you stay on track."
16. In my narrative, I am faced with my longest project yet: a fifteen page piece of the genre of my choice, with one month (check that) to write it. With the help from my teacher Mrs. Boss and a fellow writer by the name of Mai Ly, I create a story line from a fantasy genre and push past my habits to procrastinate and quit half way through until I reach my goal.
17. This story matters to me because it was the first big writing task I’d done, and later sparked a train of ideas that led to my first attempt at a book. It was a big achievement for me as well because not only did I write over 10,000 words on one topic, I did it in a timely manner. I wrote at least 200 words per day (which was amazing for me at the time), and I did it every day except for when I was so far ahead of the class I could take a day off. Instead of procrastinating, I’d found something I enjoyed and worked hard on it before it was due. I remember I was so disappointed that my teacher left to go get married and I never got to see my result. However, I did get my English teacher to look at it, and when both teachers agreed it was good I was over the moon. The idea that I could possibly become a writer someday made all of the possibilities for future careers open up. I started to more actively pursue writing, and whenever I remember writing and haven’t done it in a long time I have the habits I started to develop writing that paper come back and I write for a few days straight. I hope to one day expand on that piece I wrote and finish the book that would be a part of, but I don’t know if it will ever happen.