Reflective Narrative
The most important thing I took away from this Careers in Writing Arts class is the firm conviction that I do not want to go to graduate school. I feel this is important because I didn’t want to put out all the extreme effort and money to get into grad school only to realize that it’s not what I wanted. I do know that if I change my mind in the future, I will definitely go for an M.F.A and not an M.A. I’m glad that I know not just the difference between the two, but that there is an option other than learning theories on writing! Before I thought there was only an M.A. I’m not into theories, I know this because I have to take Evaluating Writing as a Writing Arts major requirement and theories, to me, bog down the wondrously complex mystery that is the writing process. I like the idea of workshopping and “honing my craft” as a creative writer.
As far as writing the CV, it was interesting to see my accomplishments listed out on one piece of paper. Like most writers, I have an almost crippling humility about what I do. I don’t like to brag. But I think it’s important to sell myself, especially if I have to set aside my “dream job” of becoming a well-known short fiction writer/novelist to be a freelance magazine article writer or some such careerist. There’s certainly no shame in saying that I have been publishes more than once in the school magazine, that’s a good thing! And it’s good to have professors who can speak to your skill as a writer. I’m just not a good saleswoman. And so a well-written CV will speak for me.
I enjoyed doing the research project even though I’ve always been more of a lone wolf writer than a collaborator. It only took me a split second to decide to work with Casey Otto after I discovered we were so similar in our goals as writers. It made sense to work together. We both planned to research how to publish (horror) fiction and we both planned on interviewing Professor Jahn-Clough about the publishing process since we’d both had her for the same exact class (Writing Children’s Stories) in the exact same semester. We both respect and support each other as writers and I feel that our collaborative paper shows how well we work together. After some careful calculations on my paranoid part, I surmised that we each wrote exactly half of the overall paper, but I’d like to humbly argue that the paper is seamless in writing style and content. I stuttered through the oral presentation, but I’ve always been more articulate on paper, anyway.
My blog entry for March 6, 2012 turned out to be well worth the time and effort. While researching online magazines, I found numerous opportunities to get my short fiction published, which is one of my goals as a writer (the other goal being writing/publishing a full-length novel). Originally, I only did the research to fulfill the assignment, but I believe I went above and beyond what was expected of me to showcase because I was so excited that I’d found so many magazines. Before doing this blog entry, I was deeply concerned that I would never find a place for my horror stories. There were certainly more places that were afraid of horror than places that accepted it. So it was comforting to know that there was in fact hope for the genre that I’m considering to write within.
On this same blog entry, I researched different job opportunities that I could pursue as a creative writer, in case the novel doesn’t make me an instant billionaire. Since taking a Magazine Article writing course a few semesters ago, I knew that I would be happy being a freelance writer, even though the paychecks aren’t any more assured than if I were to be a novelist. Whatever job I do end up working, I will still be a writer. The genre might not be horror/fantasy fiction, but that’s okay. I think it’s healthy to have a dream job and a list of realistic jobs. After taking Careers in Writing Arts, I now have both.
I chose the representative writing samples carefully. I wanted to represent my abilities as a fiction writer, obviously. That's my dream job. But I also wanted to show my abilities as a non-fiction writer, which is why I chose a personal essays from my Writing with Style class and a piece I wrote on an art exhibit at Rowan Univ. for Journalistic Writing. These are two different genres of non-fiction, but they show my range as a writer, from creative to the formulaic yet equally factual news story.
Overall, I enjoyed taking this class because it gave me the opportunity to see the evolution of myself as a writer, something I hadn't sat down and considered before.
The most important thing I took away from this Careers in Writing Arts class is the firm conviction that I do not want to go to graduate school. I feel this is important because I didn’t want to put out all the extreme effort and money to get into grad school only to realize that it’s not what I wanted. I do know that if I change my mind in the future, I will definitely go for an M.F.A and not an M.A. I’m glad that I know not just the difference between the two, but that there is an option other than learning theories on writing! Before I thought there was only an M.A. I’m not into theories, I know this because I have to take Evaluating Writing as a Writing Arts major requirement and theories, to me, bog down the wondrously complex mystery that is the writing process. I like the idea of workshopping and “honing my craft” as a creative writer.
As far as writing the CV, it was interesting to see my accomplishments listed out on one piece of paper. Like most writers, I have an almost crippling humility about what I do. I don’t like to brag. But I think it’s important to sell myself, especially if I have to set aside my “dream job” of becoming a well-known short fiction writer/novelist to be a freelance magazine article writer or some such careerist. There’s certainly no shame in saying that I have been publishes more than once in the school magazine, that’s a good thing! And it’s good to have professors who can speak to your skill as a writer. I’m just not a good saleswoman. And so a well-written CV will speak for me.
I enjoyed doing the research project even though I’ve always been more of a lone wolf writer than a collaborator. It only took me a split second to decide to work with Casey Otto after I discovered we were so similar in our goals as writers. It made sense to work together. We both planned to research how to publish (horror) fiction and we both planned on interviewing Professor Jahn-Clough about the publishing process since we’d both had her for the same exact class (Writing Children’s Stories) in the exact same semester. We both respect and support each other as writers and I feel that our collaborative paper shows how well we work together. After some careful calculations on my paranoid part, I surmised that we each wrote exactly half of the overall paper, but I’d like to humbly argue that the paper is seamless in writing style and content. I stuttered through the oral presentation, but I’ve always been more articulate on paper, anyway.
My blog entry for March 6, 2012 turned out to be well worth the time and effort. While researching online magazines, I found numerous opportunities to get my short fiction published, which is one of my goals as a writer (the other goal being writing/publishing a full-length novel). Originally, I only did the research to fulfill the assignment, but I believe I went above and beyond what was expected of me to showcase because I was so excited that I’d found so many magazines. Before doing this blog entry, I was deeply concerned that I would never find a place for my horror stories. There were certainly more places that were afraid of horror than places that accepted it. So it was comforting to know that there was in fact hope for the genre that I’m considering to write within.
On this same blog entry, I researched different job opportunities that I could pursue as a creative writer, in case the novel doesn’t make me an instant billionaire. Since taking a Magazine Article writing course a few semesters ago, I knew that I would be happy being a freelance writer, even though the paychecks aren’t any more assured than if I were to be a novelist. Whatever job I do end up working, I will still be a writer. The genre might not be horror/fantasy fiction, but that’s okay. I think it’s healthy to have a dream job and a list of realistic jobs. After taking Careers in Writing Arts, I now have both.
I chose the representative writing samples carefully. I wanted to represent my abilities as a fiction writer, obviously. That's my dream job. But I also wanted to show my abilities as a non-fiction writer, which is why I chose a personal essays from my Writing with Style class and a piece I wrote on an art exhibit at Rowan Univ. for Journalistic Writing. These are two different genres of non-fiction, but they show my range as a writer, from creative to the formulaic yet equally factual news story.
Overall, I enjoyed taking this class because it gave me the opportunity to see the evolution of myself as a writer, something I hadn't sat down and considered before.