Creative Essays

Writing creative essays combines two writing styles that most young writers keep separated in their brains. When people think of an essay they look at it from an analytic perspective and do not write with abstract thought, metaphor, or any other creative mean. They do however tend to write far more descriptively to demonstrate their thoughts more vividly. This is the beauty of the creative essay it forces the writer to put all the creative thought necessary for a story with all the detail required for an essay drawing in the reader by creating a short but rich writing. the creative essay is very versatile written in series they can explain a whole narrative  show who a person really is, or open a person to new ways of thinking.

Getting to the point

Bernard Cooper's Maps To Anywhere shows writers something that many of us don't realize, a story does not necessarily have to have a point. His conglomeration of creative essays do not lead to a point his work has no real consistent plot. But all of the meaning that he wishes to express through his writing is still expressed even better perhaps than if he did write a novel. His use of rich descriptive language is as skillful as other professional writers but more importantly is the fashion in which he ties together each of his stories. Each new story shows you a small part of the picture he wants to paint of himself and his father. Each story in itself does not lead to anywhere in particular except possibly to a reference in one of the later stories. When his father tells him about his childhood dog it explains the same idea. When he asks his father for the point he tells them there isn't one, he's just looking back. This describes the style with which Cooper wrote the book and a style that we all must master as writers.

Rethinking Fiction Writing

I, and I would assume many of my fellow novice writers, have always followed a pretty standard form of short fiction writing. It would the plot strictly start at the beginning and end at the end. But that technique has some disadvantages such as that it is exceptionally difficult to go into rich detail and it completely passes over  the ability to use techniques like foreshadowing to create a deeper story and lock the readers interest. These techniques can allow the reader to be led and able to predict what might happen or tricked and cause them to be surprised by a character's actions. without a thick level of detail characterization is nearly impossible and then it is impossible to create a relationship with the reader without this it is rare for a person to care about someone they don't feel they know. It is imperative to being a successful writer of short fiction to use rich detail and any other writing technique you can.

Short Fiction

Short fiction is a tricky subject that seems simpler than it is. Telling a story and writing a short story are two very different tasks. The stories from within the collection, Maps to Anywhere, show a few handy tricks for writing a better short story, tricks like; showing your audience what has occurred  instead of telling them whats happening. A sentence like John murdered Jane with the knife is much less enthralling than something along the lines of "John thrust into Jane, letting the dripping knife fall to the floor clanking moments before Jane herself struck." Another new pattern I've seen within these works is that the story does not need to start at the start or end at the end. There's a tendency of short stories to start with little background and reach the climax faster than most find appealing. And likewise many end on ambiguous unsatisfying notes. This technique makes the reader delve far deeper into the story. They must base a whole person with intentions and a background from only a few measly pages. but when mixed these two tricks force the reader to become far more active while reading it giving them something to think about. Not so shockingly this makes reading the story a lot more fun.these techniques can be applied to all story writing.

Fiction Packet

The writing of short stories is a difficult art. Putting an entire tale into a few short pages or sometimes only a few paragraphs is an exceptional feat. To do this only the most relevant of information can be placed within the story. The tricky part is deciphering what information is relevant. Nearly any information can be relevant but a number of themes must be followed. In the packet of Short stories that were read in class a few criteria were satisfied within each story; a mood was set, characters were in some way developed, and there was some “action” or conflict.

Let’s observe The Colonel. First the mood is set through highly detailed description of the setting. The author uses precise language to show the reader that the story is taking place in a high class setting with a slight unease to it. This makes it far more terrifying when the Colonel empties the ears onto the table, the primary action of the story. This action works to describe the colonel in tandem with the way that he treats his pet. The reading of short fiction can allow for a new perspective on the topic of novelty. 

Flourescence

The opening sections of the collection Fluorescence by Jennifer Dick are very though evoking. Books of poetry follow a few different patterns. There are epics like the Iliad that are an entire novel written in poetry, and there are books that are just many poems bound together in no particular order. Dick’s manuscript follows a different pattern that is very interesting. All of the poems in the book are her own work and flow like a story but are not tied together. Her poems follow a traumatic experience in her life that is not easily revealed to the reader. You move through the events leading up to whatever it is that left her so damaged into her horrific recollection of the event itself and through the aftermath. As the reader goes through this dick uses powerful metaphors and allusions to make the reader feel every emotion that she feels herself. Her work shows one of the most important things that a poet can have and needs to make their audience feel: Empathy. Empathy is the way that humans understand each other, the way we bond and grow, feeling each other’s feelings, seeing through each other’s eyes. That is the power of poetry, it is a tool that can make it easier for us to understand another person, give us a peek at who they are. Dick’s poems aside from being well written are an excellent medium of emotion, despite their depressing overtone.

Poetry Packet

The Shakespeare sonnets all were based on different aspects of love. Some of them were joyful and others melancholy. Of the sadder sonnets sonnet 117 is an interesting one. It is a repent for mistakes made the first line does an excellent job of setting the topic of the poem. Accuse me thus-that I have scanted all It shows that Shakespeare is sorry for something. He uses metaphor at lines 5 and 6 to tell the reader why he is sorry. 

That I have Frequent been with unknown minds,

And given to time your own dear-purchased right;

His apology is for cheating on his lover. Shakespeare's use of heavy metaphor and iambic pentameter force the reader to search somewhat for his meaning, another interesting example of his work is Sonnet 130. This poem is a satire of Petrarchan poems which over romanticized women with wild comparisons. The poem seems insulting until the couplet at the end of the poem. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare!

This poem attacks the false standards of beauty that others had set up while still saying that his lover is beautiful and exactly what he wants. Shakespeare's sonnets have a romantic feel but describe a great array of emotions typically the joy and sorrow that comes from love. He is clearly one of the greatest English poets of all time, obviously why his works have been studied for nearly five hundred years.