Aimee Rivas

Andrea Malouf

ENGL 2250-501

Imaginative Writing

3 August, 2019

E-portfolio reflection
My overall experience in this course has been demanding, but mind blowing. From the
very beginning, my imaginative writing journey has been rushed, as I didn't even realize that the
course was a half course a couple of weeks in advance. Along with my astronomy class, I was
handed homework after homework due every three days or so. It felt hard to keep up at times,
and I had to complete some of my assignments at work. It set a good rhythm to what I was
working on, when, and sometimes the quality of the assignments. This past week, I've crunched
through wrapping up my astronomy finals, and the video and try this journal for this class. Now
that I'm at my finally assignment for possible the rest of my life, I can't help but think of how far
I've come, and what my work has led up to.

Practicing more writing is always a beneficial thing to any artist. Although I felt our
textbook was, at times, too loaded for the amount of time we had in the course, it really
encompassed a lot about voice and writing style in any form of writing. As a side not, I also
expected more creative, fiction prompts, or short story ideas to come up in the form of
assignments. With a name like imaginative writing, I wouldn't have imagined we would be
illustrating our lives so much. Sure we can pull from it, but this was something different than
what I was thinking. Regardless, I found reviewing voice, writing style, poems and nonfiction
were great refreshers to my writing skills. I found writing techniques and ideas from the textbook
to particularly shine in our "Try This" journal assignments. The prompts were mostly nonfiction
based - wanting to go off of memoirs, personal lists, and so on - but had some creative elements
in writing scenes/stages, and expanding a world for characters. One of my favorites I wrote from
that journal was the poetry section. At first glance of the prompt, I knew I didn't relate to many
of the events, as I have been fortunate enough to not have lived through them. Once I had to
settle on that prompt, my mind instantly lit up with the concept of combining each miserable
event, and explaining how I've never been through any of them (the happy change being the
acknowledgement of my safe and loving surroundings.) It's prompts and results like that that
make me like approaching writing, because I get to think outside the box. The page format was
very influential as well. I had a set canvas, and I had to fill it with relevant writing (even though
some went to two pages.) I found the assignment to be a fun exercise, and think that my
imaginative thinking, brainstorming, and scene setting were lifted up a bit.
 Every assignment I had, had its ups and downs (definitely some more than others), but
there was definitely a lot to gain by the end of them. The Found Poetry assignment was certainly
an interesting one to start off with. I immediately found it tricky and struggled to produce art in
what felt like a short notice. The medium was a mess as well. I started off with a book first and
attempted to stick sticky-notes over certain words to find poetry in the paragraphs. It felt
unprofessional and like a rough draft stage. Going digital on the assignment - typing the already
typed out paragraph and blacking out the words - was a much better decision. Although I felt the
final product still looked a bit weak, it was a lot better than the initial attempt. I had a much
better time with my later assignments, but I can't exactly say the same on the Memoir. First of
all, I had wanted to go for a short story. I had typed out many short story ideas, many of which I
had been thinking of developing for years. I just couldn't go through with any of them, mainly
because many were based on owned properties. The due date was drawing nearer, and all I could
think about at the time was fun and exciting moments I was missing out on while trying to write
this paper. I decided to almost mirror that thought and write about the process of making my
memoir as my memoir. It was sort of a metacognitive piece, and naturally it had an unfinished
ending because the ending was currently existing. A lot of writing weakness shone through that
paper, too. Being vague about certain details, breaking some writing patterns, not be super clear
on some metaphors, all my writing jazz was littered there. My weaknesses and my strengths
sometimes go hand in hand in terms of fanciful literature, so this paper was sort of a win-win, but
not so much on my grade for it. The poetry assignment was hands down the easiest, most mind
melding assignment. I would have also liked the one-act play, as writing screenplays is
something I want to dabble in, but I suppose a weakness I have is wrapping up a beginning,
middle, and end. I did some research on different types of poetry and used examples from there.
Poetry got my creative juices flowing, and I found an artistic voice in it, albeit a sometimes
convoluted one. I think the greatest example of my comfort with poetry was in the poem section
of my "Try This" journal. I had a different perception with the digital story when we lead with
the graphic novel discussion. I was planning a graphic novel epic when I realized it had to be
something from life. In the end, I mixed my love for drawing with my memory and narration, as
that was what made sense to me. I'm definitely seeing how my mind opens up more and is more
willing to dive creative fiction than anything nonfiction, especially when it has to do with myself
(and only because my life isn't really full of cool stories.)

An imaginative writing class was something I had been looking for to pair perfectly with
my art skills. I had taken creative writing in the past, and knew it would be expedient to my art
and storytelling skills I had wanted to progress. From the four main assignments we did, I
concluded that the poetry section resonated the most with me. Even reading other classmates'
assignments sparked joy in creation, and motivated me to critically analyze my piece and come
up with additional poems. Putting words/thoughts to my drawing concepts is everything I needed
as a next step in my art career. I'm happy to take some of the knowledge I've gained in this
course and apply it to those stories.