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Tuesday, January 15

  1. page home edited ... One of these stories was my 3DSP story known as "Matilda's Secret". It tells of the …
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    One of these stories was my 3DSP story known as "Matilda's Secret". It tells of the secret operations of Matilda Smith, the wife of the admiral on the old Navy Base located in North Charleston. This is found under the link "Matilda's Secret."
    Another piece of mine which I liked was my 55 Fiction Story. It was an assignment where each story had to be exactly 55 words long. Mine followed a possible future president on election night. I liked this assignment and story because it was short and to the point and left the reader wondering. This is found under the "Election Night" link.
    Table of Contents:
    I have compiled two of my favorite journal entries and five of my favorite works below. Feel free to take a look.
    1. Election Night Jitters-55 Fiction
    This was a 55 Fiction Story I was assigned at the beginning of the 2012 school year. We could write a story in exactly 55 words, but no more. I wrote about a presidential hopeful on election night, but ended the story in a manner which was unexpected, as with only 55 words it was diffcult to create a good resolution to the story. I really liked this activity and story because it was short, sweet, and to the point.
    2. Synesthesia Poem
    Synesthesia is a disorder where certain people experience the senses in the form of a diferent sense than they normally would. For example, someone might say a sound tasted like something. We had to incorporate some of these elements into a poem. I really liked how this poem turned out. I think I successfully incorporated synesthesic elements into the poem, which made it unique and more interesting to read.
    3. 6 Word Memoir Final Copy
    The 6 Word Memoir project was a project where we had to sum up a belief or quality of ours into 6 words. Many people chose lessons they had learned throughout life, or their main belief in life, one that they would want to be remembered for. Mine was "Infatuated with minds. Not with faces." We had to use typeface and background images as well to create an effective image that was both appealing to the eye and made a statement to the reader.
    4. A Walk in the Park Sound Poem
    For this poem, we could essentially write about whatever we wanted as long as it incorporated sound elements into it. I chose to write about something which a lot of sounds went well with, a walk in the park. I used a lot of audio and visual details so that the reader would feel more like they were there and so that there would be an increased amount of imagery.
    5. 3DSP Story- Matilda's Secret
    The Three Dimensional Story Project was a project where we created stories based on the events which occurred at the Naval Shipyard in North Charleston. For my story, I centered in on the old mansion, and created a story about Matilda Smith, the wife of the Admiral who courageously tried to help the survivors of the torturous experiments going on at the Naval Base. I liked this project and story, as we were able to suspend the audience's disbelief.
    6. Featured Journal Entries
    These were my favorite two journal entries of this year. "Full Frontal Fridge" is about a young woman pursuing a successful career. She is forced to live a less luxurious and healthy life due to her profession. In "Playing House", a young woman is looking for a new house with her abusive boyfriend.

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    7:17 am

Monday, January 14

  1. page home edited To view My name is Melissa Knapp. I am a sophomore at Academic Magnet High School. In the 2012-20…
    To viewMy name is Melissa Knapp. I am a sophomore at Academic Magnet High School. In the 2012-2013 school year, I took Creative Writing in Mr. Wright's Class. During the duration of that class, I believe I improved greatly as a writer. I began to write for fun, not just for mandatory school assignments. My philosophy as a writer would just be to write about what's important or interesting to you, as at the end of the day, the biggest critic of your own work is you. I try to keep my documents, please referstories short and sweet, as I don't like to deal with a lot of details and events which slow down the columnstory's progress. I like the story to capture the left.
    "There are three rules for writing
    reader's interest and just as quickly end. This is embodied in several of my stories.
    One of these stories was my 3DSP story known as "Matilda's Secret". It tells of the secret operations of Matilda Smith, the wife of the admiral on the old Navy Base located in North Charleston. This is found under the link "Matilda's Secret."
    Another piece of mine which I liked was my 55 Fiction Story. It was an assignment where each story had to be exactly 55 words long. Mine followed
    a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." -W. Somerset Maughampossible future president on election night. I liked this assignment and story because it was short and to the point and left the reader wondering. This is found under the "Election Night" link.
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    6:50 pm
  2. page 10 Commandments of Creative Writing edited ... While doing the "Playing House" journal entry, I decided to go with the unexpected a…
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    While doing the "Playing House" journal entry, I decided to go with the unexpected and write a story about domestic violence. The beginning also did not indicate that the story would go in that direction; therefore, when the main character did not want to move into the house with her boyfriend, it was unexpected.
    6. Keep writing until you can stop.
    This has happened to me many times while writing journal entries. For the "Playing House" and "Reunited" journal entry I wasn't able to complete my story or end/pause it in an interesting way with the time allotted. While everyone was sharing I went back and added more, while also adding more to the stories at home, as in some of these journal entries I was interested on continuing the stories at a later date, and didn't want to forget my ideas.
    7. Good theft is honoring, studying, and giving credit to the work. It transforms it into something new.
    We did this when we did the copy-change poems. We used the original structure and some of the words from the old poem to create a new poem which we always credited to the original poet.
    8.Typeface is rhythm and contrast.
    Typeface either makes or breaks a piece of work which became evident during the creation of my six word memoir. I had a very difficult time finding a typeface that fit with the image and theme of my memoir. I also needed to choose a color which would stand out more on the white of the paper. In this way it needed a lot of contrast and it was the equivalent of a rhythm in music for my project.
    9. Stories are organic, they need to flow.
    When writing a story, one needs to be able to use transitions, so that the story doesn't appear incredibly choppy and stuck together quickly. I attended to do this with my stories, particularly the 3DSP and my journal entries. When I'd jump around with times and years I would make it very evident and try to transition it without it sounding forced or sloppy.
    10. Address your audience, not yourself.
    When doing the 3DSP Marker, I initially wrote the marker very badly. I wrote it assuming the reader knew my story vaguely, which in reality they most likely would have never seen it. I was addressing myself more than a prospective audience. Once I began to tweak my marker and get advice from Mr. Wright and my fellow classmates, I realized I had not revealed enough for the marker to make sense or for it to be somewhat interesting. Once I explained things better, and make it understandable for someone who had never read my story, it greatly improved. I'm still not pleased with it, but likely I will never be. The audience is who you should want to explain things to, not yourself.

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    6:22 pm

Friday, January 11

  1. page 10 Commandments of Creative Writing edited ... I did follow this commandment as I did not make anyof my characters die or wake up to end the …
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    I did follow this commandment as I did not make anyof my characters die or wake up to end the story. This often leads to a somewhat generic story. In one journal entry, I could have killed the main character as she was involved in a serious car accident, but did not as it would not resolve the plot line.
    5. Don't be afraid to do the unexpected.
    ...
    journal entry, I decided to go with the unexpected and write a story about domestic violence. The beginning also did not indicate that the story would go in that direction; therefore, when the main character did not want to move into the house with her boyfriend, it was unexpected.
    6. Keep writing until you can stop.

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    8:13 am
  2. page 3dsp Final Marker edited {3dsp marker template[1].jpg} {3dsp marker template[1].pub}
    {3dsp marker template[1].jpg}
    {3dsp marker template[1].pub}
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    8:09 am
  3. page 10 Commandments of Creative Writing edited 10 Commandments of Creative Writing 1. You don't choose the subject, the subject chooses you. ..…
    10 Commandments of Creative Writing
    1. You don't choose the subject, the subject chooses you.
    ...
    a story.
    2. Show, don't tell.
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    the lawn.
    3. Great writers don't cheat, they steal.
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    more believable.
    4. Do not have your characters suddenly die or wake up to end your story.
    I did follow this commandment as I did not make anyof my characters die or wake up to end the story. This often leads to a somewhat generic story. In one journal entry, I could have killed the main character as she was involved in a serious car accident, but did not as it would not resolve the plot line.
    5. Don't be afraid to do the unexpected.
    While doing the "Playing House" journal entry,
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    8:09 am
  4. page 10 Commandments of Creative Writing edited 10 Commandments of Creative Writing 1. You don't choose the subject, the subject chooses you. Th…
    10 Commandments of Creative Writing
    1. You don't choose the subject, the subject chooses you.
    This occurred to me several times during this class. This happened a lot during the journal entries. For several entries such as "Observation Deck" and "Random Object". For both of these journal entries, Mr. Wright gave us a random object or card which dictated the subject of the journal entry. In this way, I was unable to control which object I was writing about, and had to go along with it to create a story.
    2. Show, don't tell.
    I think that this commandment means that one should not merely tell a story, they should make the reader envision the story by using different literary devices and adding lots of detail. It should make the reader feel like they are actually a part of the story rather than just listening to it. I think that the sound poem I wrote, embodies this commandment. For the sound poem, we were only allowed to write sounds, which one would hear while completing some sort of task. I chose mowing the lawn and my sound poem attempted to make the reader feel as if they were mowing the lawn.
    3. Great writers don't cheat, they steal.
    I "stole" an idea for our 3DSP story this year. When we went on the fieldtrip to the naval base, I was walking around with Madison when we learned of the hidden room on the second floor of the mansion. We both immediately thought that it would be a great place for something to be hidden. In this way I somewhat "stole" her idea and made it my own by deciding that the family that lived there would be hiding escapees from the Infirmary. It ended up working out really well as both of our stories incorporated the hidden room and the hiding of fugitives. In this way, I was able to somewhat link our stories together, to make the 3DSP more believable.
    4. Do not have your characters suddenly die or wake up to end your story.
    I did follow this commandment as I did not make anyof my characters die or wake up to end the story. This often leads to a somewhat generic story. In one journal entry, I could have killed the main character as she was involved in a serious car accident, but did not as it would not resolve the plot line.
    5. Don't be afraid to do the unexpected.

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    7:59 am

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