Reflection 3

Creative Nonfiction Essays

Creative nonfiction essays have certain characteristics that are not in regular essays. They are less serious and less formal. They are not as boring as normal essays and can keep the reader's attention better. The language is deeper and is more creative. People feel more inclined to read creative nonfiction essays than boring old research essays. It is similar to poems in the sense that they kind of use similar language. It is similar to stories because a creative essay tells a story in a way. It is different from both in the sense that it is still an essay and is more formal.

I can use my own writing to create a creative nonfiction essay that has qualities of both poetry and fiction. I will use descriptive language and make my reader's interested in my essay. They will make the essay easier to read and will keep my reader's from getting bored. It won't be a research paper which makes it more entertaining to read.

Reflection 2

     One of the topics that is mentioned in Goldberg's book is "Writing practice softens the heart and mind, helps to keep us flexible so that rigid distinctions between apples and milk, tigers and celery, disappear. This is important to remember because sometimes when I write I forget that I can write whatever I feel like writing. This can be shown in the short fiction packet.






    Another topic is that "writing is not a McDonald's burger." This means that there is no set writing structure and you can freelance everything. This pertains to every writer because they all sit down and look either at the computer screen or a piece of paper. This can also be shown in one of the poems in the sonnets packet where the whole poem was out of order.





     Another topic from Goldberg's book is "You can't just mix the ingredients in a bowl; they have no life." This is talking about how  writing is like baking a cake. You  write words and then it becomes a 'cake' when you give it meaning. The writing is just a goopy mess and you give it some love and it becomes the piece you want. It makes the piece of writing alive.

Poetry Reflection

         Before the sonnet assignment I always assumed they were super hard but when we did them I realized it wasn't that bad. When we were going through the packet I also realized that poetry doesn't have to have a set specific format or a rhyme scheme. The word poem was kind of hard because I used 20 random words but once I started I was able to move forward. My thinking of poetry is kind of the same but at least I now know that it is easier.