Creative Writing
One of the hardest transformations I have faced as a writer is navigating back and forth between academic pieces and creative writing. Freshman year I enrolled in narration, a creative writing class within the Residential College. As part of the course, I was required to submit a new story biweekly. As a child, I never seemed to have a shortage of creative ideas; however, when I embarked on writing my composition for narration, I seemed to hit a wall. It was the first piece of fiction I had written for academic purposes since middle school. Nothing seemed like a good topic. I sat on my dorm room floor staring blankly at my computer screen for at least an hour before I even began to type anything at all. About an hour later, I had finished. I was mortified as I reread the story. There was just no way around it: the story just wasn't good. I swallowed hard, choking back tears. I have always claimed (and still do) that someday I want to publish a novel, but how could that possibly become a reality if I couldn't even manage to write a decent short story? I turned in my story, dreading having to meet one on one with my professor since I was so embarrassed by my work. Warren was very kind, however. He never criticized harshly and always was encouraging. It was that encouragement that made me push through the humiliation of my first attempt and keep writing. At the end of the semester, I had a folder full of stories. Good stories. Stories I was proud of. I feel lucky that when I was doubting my dream there was someone else to believe in me. I haven't questioned myself since. I know I have a long way to go but I have been able to see how much my writing has grown and will keep developing. Not every effort will be a success, but it is important to focus on the positive and not lose confidence in achieving my goals.