Evaluation. . . 

Creative writing was not my first choice for an elective.

Before this the last writing I did was my Contextual Theoretical Studies Essay, which was 1500 words about advertising, I found that easy and fine once I had reached. But I have not written creatively since my GSCE exams, which is now almost three years ago. I like to read, but only just realized recently and to be honest I do forget as the work load rises and when I have finished socializing there is usually no time to read while at university. Reading is defiantly my holiday hobby. I love to read on the beach in the sun. But I have never written stories myself, I never tired and I never had the confidence. I find writing hard and frustrating sometimes because it takes me a lot of drafts to get a piece with correct grammar and spelling. Ideas take a while to be worded correctly and make sense.

The first day was awful. We immediately had to free write until the time was up.  Like I said my grammar is an issue and spelling is bad. I feel before this elective It used to stop me expressing myself as, people always judge these things as the building blocks or writing. So I thought I would create terrible writing. I hate standing in front of a lot of people, during this course I have had to read my writing out aloud. It is a mix of feelings between embarrassment as I find writing so personal and nervous, as I know my topics are always depressive and people could preserve them as my own thoughts. I also feel that a lot of people in the group write to a better standard imminently and I am amazed by how quickly they can have a decent story.

I think the most valuable lesson that I have learnt is that anyone can write. Everyone writes differently and that is ok. I now feel I understand how stories work, how narratives are made and what you need to include to make them good.

During university I am constantly learning so it’s hard to keep on track with every aspect of life. Now I am always busy and even if I have a ‘night off’ I will be out socializing doing something, so I have started a sort of journal, which helps me stay sane. I can now add to this by writing short stories or poems when I’m out and about, keeping this writing on going.

In the end I enjoyed learning more about the process of writing, I just feel at the begging it was very full on and since I am not confident in my writing abilities I did not enjoy it at all.

I really did not like the exercises where we had to do role-play. I hate drama for the same reason as I hate standing up in font of people. I will do it if I have to, but I feel like an idiot. The sensory writing that I wrote about how the steps ‘felt’ were defiantly not for me. I hate writing about feelings in that way, I found it tedious, and am not what I enjoy to do.

So I do feel this elective has helped me understand writing a lot more, and I probably will carry on, but it takes me a lot of time to get from an idea to a ledge able piece. So I do not expect to be a writer when I’m older! I love journals and any form of documentation and writing to me is documenting.

I’m still learning what I like to do and how I like to spend my time. I’m excited to see where this new knowledge will take me.