Creative Writing
Did you lose your copy of an important handout? Print another copy here:
CREATIVE WRITING CURRICULUM MAP
CREATIVITY COMMITMENT CONTRACT
ESCAPE SUBMISSION FORM
FHS NATIONAL POETRY MONTH POETRY CONTEST
HACKLEY LIBRARY OFF THE WALL WRITING CONTEST
September 29th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I’ve been writing on and off with my little journal. Doing all these little things with so much homework to do is so frustrating, and on top of that, I’m leaving the country for the first time! I’m stressed, nervous, and just confused about a lot of things. I just can’t seem to find the time to write in a journal to get my feelings out when I’m trying to organize them mentally. This commitment thing has turned out to be a big pain in the butt.
October 2nd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Over the weekend I did finally started my creative commitment. Now I am very dedicated to my creative commitment. The relaxing and using rhythmic activities is going good because I have got so many ideas from my creative commitment.
October 4th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
I’m nearing the end of my Creativity Commitment, and I have to say it’s been hard but definitely helpful. Since the first week, I’ve been doing power work-outs Monday-Friday every week (except Monday and Wednesday last week…T_T). My routine has been extreme work out sessions done to heavy, fast, powerful music to pump up my adrenaline, doing various handweight exercises to the point of exhaustion, and then sit-ups and pushups to the point of exhaustion (with breaks in between). After such trials, I take at least a half-hour to cool down, listening to melodic, soothing music and quietly contemplate. So far it’s been great, and I’m confident in its effects (on my mind, anyway). My steady diet of Ho-Hos and soda has somewhat counteracted the physical effects, though I have moved my weight down 2 pounds, so no actual muscle mass gained yet, but I’ll be checking that. As for my logs, I’m already beginning to type them up.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:26 am
I have been struggling with the creative commitment. It may be surprising, but I don’t have a dictionary at home. I have been picking out random words from the dictionary at the library and some of the words have inspired me to write, others I already knew and didn’t inspire me at all, and still others were weird like some random body part of a sea turtle or some piece of equipment that no one has ever heard of. I have been trying, and I would consider this method useful if someone is having trouble writing, but not for an everyday activity. I have also been trying to relax as part of my creativity commitment. For the first week or so it went really well. I didn’t get any new ideas to write about, but I felt less stressed. After that it seemed to be harder and harder to either find time to relax or pull myself away from my laptop in order to relax properly. The only time I can truly relax is when I am at home by myself or my family isn’t walking around on the floor above me. The floor creaks quite a bit and it makes it tough to relax with distractions.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
This is my third blog posting for the creative writing commitement. Things haven’t been as relaxing as before and my I can’t really remember my dreams. I have been really busy this week so it has been rough for me to try and find time to relax. My dad wants to really finish up the house so we have been busy with that and it’s taken up some of my free time. I did listen to some good relaxing music while i was working though which helped out a lot and made time go by faster. I’m going to really try to do a bunch of relaxing activities this last week and write down as many dreams as I have.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Overall, my creativity commitment hasn’t been going too bad, though I have missed a few breakfasts and exercise sessions. I have been especially dedicated to the breakfast commitment, because it seems like it was the easiest for me to do. I ate some form of breakfast every day, but half the time it came in the form of an extra-big lunch half eaten in portfolio class (second hour). When I did eat a ‘proper’ breakfast, it was usually some toast, a pop-tart, or one of those toaster-scrambler thingies that can be cooked in a single minute in the microwave (I’m too lazy to cook, and I’m sort of microwave junkie…). The only day that I did not eat a breakfast was when I decided to curl my hair on a day I slept in, thus forgetting my lunch as I rushed out the door in a panic (it was about 7:15 a.m., and it takes 10 min. speeding down the highway to get to school).
On the other hand, the exercise part of the commitment hasn’t gone so well. I knew that I shouldn’t have chosen exercise as one of my commitments… during the first two weeks of the creativity commitment I was really dedicated, but I soon started forgetting about my quota for the week. I had initially planned to exercise twice a week for a half an hour each time, but I ended up doing the bulk of my exercise in the first two weeks, and some of the days I exercised for an hour (and sometimes less than a ½ hour) so some weeks I exercised once a week, and some more. My log will apparently have strange breaks and sessions in it… I did make sure to at least equal what would be the total number of hours exercised if I had exercised regularly two times a week for thirty minutes, however.
This assignment was really hard to keep track of, and I’m really excited to finish it.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:01 am
I had some inspiration today and wrote some interesting poems. It would figure that a class of freshmen would end up using the library the same day that I wanted a quiet day to think and write. I suppose it would have been a better idea to write at home this morning, but there are too many temptations there. I wouldn’t have stayed on task. My inspired times are very inconsistent. I have to hope that I will get inspired after school so that I can write some more. I relaxed in my bed last night before drifting off to sleep and I remember having a good idea, but I don’t remember what it was. I should probably start setting a journal next to my bed.
October 8th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I think that the creativity commitment actually did have an effect on my creative-ness. Lately, it’s been easier for me to write (less time spent staring in frustration at the computer screen), though speaking still has its problems…(I still make many pronunciation and wrong vocab problems). Creating images seems to be especially easier to do. A lot of my old poems where kind of lacking on both imagery and, as I say, ‘thoughts,’ which made them sort of low quality in my opinion. Lately, I’ve wanted to put sunny/bright imagery into my writing, which is also an improvement on last and sophomore year’s rainy/overcast poetry style. Maybe it’s just a reflection on my mood? (If so, I’ve been in the same mood for a while…) Well, it’s probably because I’m not grumpy because I’ve been eating breakfast and exercising. Even though it was a pain, I’m glad that Mrs. K assigned this project, because I do think that it has helped.
October 8th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Okay, now I just have to focus on finishing the proof of the commitments. I’m not sure if we had to do the blogs on top of two other choices. I was planning on logging both the exercise and breakfast together, and then writing an essay about them, but I’m starting to think that Mrs. K is only asking for the logs and blogs. Mary said something about it at lunch. So, if I only have to do one thing, I think that I’ll stick with my log and forget the personal essay. (*Mary, I’ll be calling you later to confirm this…*) I think I’ll either type out my logs, or do some kind of art-work on it so it doesn’t look as boring and messy as it does right now…
Sorry for the distraction, but I’ve got a reaction to Mary’s last posting 10:01 am: I had the same problem last night! I was thinking about how I would write my ‘while I’m sitting here’ poem and I got some really good lines in my head. I knew I should have written them down, but I was already in bed and almost asleep. Well, when I woke up, I didn’t remember a thing about them except they where really good.
Anyway, wish me luck on putting my log in final draft. I hope it turns out good, and I’m praying that I only need to do one option along with the blogs.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
It looks like many of us are putting this off to the last minute. In fact, I am taking a small break from writing to mention a neat poem that I just wrote. I was sitting and staring at my words that I chose from the dictionary, hoping that some idea or another would materialize in front of my eyes. That wasn’t working and I began to wonder, “Am I really capable of writing a ton of new poems tonight?” An idea began to form in my head, “Why not use more than one new word in a poem if you can’t think of a way to use a single word on its own?” So in the end I ended up with an exquisite corpse of sorts; random words of the dictionary put together to make a cool poem. I might even put it up for feedback. That is how well I think this poem went. I’m pretty pumped! I may not feel the same way in the morning when I am ‘firing on all six cylinders,’ but right now it seems pretty nice.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
I forgot to write about my relaxing commitment. So I suppose I will just make this into blog number four. I have been listening to relaxing and inspiring songs. Bari Improv from the August Rush soundtrack is one of my favorites to listen to. I loved the movie and its music. I can imagine the little boy just playing his guitar and having a good time. I just bop my head to the music and feel my muscles loosen as I listen to this song. It is also gently energizing, if that makes sense. I get relaxed, but then I feel like, “Okay! Let’s do something!”
On the other hand, I like listening to Rufus Wainwright. His song ‘Hallelujah’ is a more subdued and bitter sweet. I listen to this song in my basement while I’m lying on the carpet in our dimmed ‘theater room.’ The bass part of the piano has a slowly rocking rhythm while the right hand melody just sort of dances in the air. It is perfectly balanced and has a gentle crescendo and decrescendo that brings the listener a sense of satisfaction and closure from listening to the piece.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Finally, the last day!!! I had lots of trouble with my computer last night, when I was creating a table for my logs. It wouldn’t let me insert any rows, or crop down the size much, and somehow whenever I moved the title row, it connected with the bottom 5 rows and put them at the top of the page over the top half of the table. It really drove my crazy. It also wouldn’t let the table bleed onto another page, so I had to fit the first fifteen lines on the first page. Because of this, the commentary font is really small… Sorry Mrs. K! I tried my hardest to fix it! Now I’m just finishing the prisma-colored pencil drawings that I put on the document to make it look better. I was wondering if we’re all going to have to present in class, or if that’s only for the people who chose the oral report option. I remember Mrs. K saying we all had to stand up and say something about our commitment. If so, my report will be very informal… ; ; I’m glad that it’s almost over, but I am planning on still eating breakfast. That really helped my concentration and observation levels. I will continue to work on exercising. Wish me luck in sixth hour!!!
October 10th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Well, I hate posting on teacher’s blogs for projects, so I sort of procrastinate.. (: Anyway, for my creativity commitment I did listening to classical, and aroma therapy. At the beginning it didn’t help my creativity one bit, and it actually was pretty frustrating, since it was supposed to help. About halfway through my thoughts flowed a bit more freely, and I think it helped a tad.
October 10th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Near the end of my commitment I came up with a poem about the classical music I was listening to. To be honest, I don’t even remember what song it was that I was listening to or who composed it, but it really helped me a lot. Then, after that one spurt of creativity I went back to normal, not-very-creative Haley. So, I guess it may have just been the frame of mind I was in that day or something, but I think the music helped it along quite a bit.
October 10th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Anna, I thought your creativity commitment sounded like it could really work. I have a lot of trouble with having time to eat in the morning, and I don’t bring my own lunch so I just have to suck it up until then. Plus the extreme lack of exercise in my life. Of any of the commitments I’ve heard, yours is probably the most likely one that I would try on my own, without prompting from it being an assignment. I’m glad it had an effect on your creativity!
October 10th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Ugh, procrastination.
When I have more time and I’m not so stressed about school, I think I’ll actually try doing the eating breakfast, excersicing, and 8 hours of sleep combination. I really think that could work for me, because I have such a funny sleep schedule and never have breakfast unless it’s a delayed start. I’m sort of upset that my commitment didn’t work out for me, though. I was so sure it would in the beginning. Then about a week and a half went by and I started to lose hope. So, maybe that’ll work.
October 10th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
***exercising.
My bad.
October 13th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
We are finally done with our creativity commitement and overall I don’t really think it helped my creativity out. It was really just really a relaxing and peaceful couple of weeks. I didn’t really have to many dreams that I could remember so that part of my commitement wasn’t too succesful. I should have tryed something different that would have challeneged me a bit more but I did enjoy doing this commitement.