In this blog post, I have created a video blog to answer questions regarding the second draft of my narrative project. To help me compose this second draft, I have read What is Fan Fiction--and why is it making people nervous? and Rewinding and Rewriting: the Alternate Universes in Our Head. Here is a link to my narrative project web page.
2 Comments
For this blog post, I read and watched these two links, Reflective Writing and Genres in Academic Writing: Reflection. In this blog post, I will reflect on my experience in this class so far and some of my writing process. I will also talk about my intrinsic goals for the rest of this semester.
When I first entered this class, I thought we were going to have to write lots of essays and read boring books. This class is the complete opposite. When Dr. Mangini said we were going to write blogs, I was nervous at first since it was out of my comfort zone. The first writing blog post was a little rough, but throughout the semester, I used the readings to my advantage. They helped me along with my writing process. As the the blog posts went on, I liked writing my stories in different tenses. I was so used to always writing my stories in past tense so I liked changing it up. Overall, my favorite blog post that I have composed would probably be Composing A Present Scene With Dialogue and Symbolism. To prepare me for this blog post, as a class, we read Hills like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway. This reading was one of my favorites. As we were reading as a class, we annotated the the story. The discussion after we read the piece really opened my eyes to how deep his writing was. The underlying subtext, motifs, and symbolism helped me learn how much more developed my writing can be by adding these things. This story helped me with my writing process after reading this story. As I was writing new blog posts, I knew to look for possible places to add themes or motifs in my writing. For the blog, Composing a Present Scene, I chose a topic that was emotional to me about my dad’s alcoholism. I knew that I could further develop this story and use it for my narrative project. I didn’t feel comfortable reading aloud this story so Dr. Mangini read it to the class. This was very helpful for me to listen to my writing. I was able to hear some things I wanted to change/fix and receive feedback from the class. A classmate took notes for advice and feedback on my story which helped me improve some parts in my narrative. A goal I would like to put more in place is to do my blog posts ahead of time rather than waiting until last minute. I really struggle with procrastination and just getting the work started. Another goal is revising my work. After the work is due and I get blog comments/feedback, I would like to revise my work rather than just doing borderline work. My last goal is to really push for the grade I want. I think by putting my goals in place and putting in my complete effort that I could achieve the grade I desire. In this blog post, I read What is a Found Poem?, Sample Found Poem, and Visual Examples of Found Poems. I chose the "cut-up" method to create my found poem where I made a negative decision to get in the car with my dad who was under the influence of alcohol.
“The Car Ride” My dad got home from work. “Taylor let’s go.” Overpowering smell of beer entered my nose, I was angered. Driving down the curvy road, Our bodies jerked left and right. “Dad pull over!” He sped into an empty bar parking lot. My Siblings stared back at me in complete fear, crying. “Get out of the car.” I refused, “ Dad please just take us home” The tires crunched over a broken glass bottle, We rolled out of the empty bar parking lot. The dense clouds passed by, Tears falling from my eyes. Reflection
To help revise my blog, I read My Mother Gives me a Writing Lesson (Martin Lee). In this blog post, I revised my version of Composting a Past Scene by adding a back story and more detail.
“Dad! Watch where you are going.” I yelled. At this moment, I had realized that I should have never gotten in the car. It was around 6:00 p.m. when my dad got home from work on a typical fall evening. “Taylor let’s go.” He yelled up the stairs. Immediately I knew he was drinking. The overpowering smell of beer entered my nose. His eyes were squinted and he slurred his words. I gave him a dirty look as he was yelling at my little brother for absolutely nothing. I tell my little brother, Adan, and my little sister, Adriana, to not respond to his comments and to just listen to him. We got in the car and I refused to look at him. The car ride was absolutely silent. My siblings refused to talk. He cursed at every car for doing something wrong. I was so angry since we had planned for a couple weeks to go to Delaware to get our hair cut by one of my dads friends. I don’t know why I would think this day would be any different from the rest but still. This one day, one day, he had to get drunk and I was angered. We were driving down the windy Dutton Mill Road as I was nervous by his driving. “Dad! Watch where you are going!” I yelled. “Stop telling me what to do.” he replied. I started to to fight with him. Back and forth we argued as I felt bad for my siblings in the back seat. “Dad pull over! Now. Now!” Adriana fought back to my dad, “Just go back home.” He sped into this empty bar parking lot right before we got on I-95. “Get out.” He yelled firmly. I was crying by this point as I turned around to Adriana and Adan, “Come on guys, hurry up. Get out.” They stared back at me in complete fear as Adriana was on the urge of crying. They weren’t responding to me as I had hoped. They slowly unbuckled their seatbelts but not fast enough. I was trying to overtalk my dad and get them to listen to me but it was clear that they were scared of my dad telling them the complete opposite commands as me. “Don’t you move.” He stared at them. “Get out of the fucking car!” he yelled at me. I refused since my siblings weren’t allowed out of the car and there was no way I was letting them stay alone with him. I started to plead to just take us home. That angered him more. He was so heated and was expressing it towards me as we began to make our way back to my house. I felt major relief as I stared out the window, tears falling from my eyes. He rambled on as a tuned him out. All I wanted to do is lay in my bed. Alone. We pulled in my driveway as I grabbed my siblings and rushed up to my room to hide. We heard footsteps coming up the steps shortly after. He forced Adriana and I to give him our phones as my sister sobbed. I went in the office to get the house phone and called my mimi. “I will be home shortly” She said calmly. “Just stay away from him” as I hung up the phone. We tip toed around my house the rest of the night trying to avoid him at all costs. The next morning, he had left our phones on the counter. From this day on, no apology, no acknowledgment of that day ever happening. My dad has been an alcoholic for as long as I can remember which was a major cause in my parents divorce when I was five. Mimi is my grandmother who lives with my dad, siblings and I. Since I was a little, I was always a “Daddy’s Girl”. As I got older, I slowly drifted away due to the effects of his drinking. In present day, he has not had a drink for about 6 months but our relationship is dry and I don’t think it will ever recover. To prepare myself for this blog post, I listened to a podcast, What You Don’t Know (Lulu Wang). In this blog post, I will be explaining a past scene where I made a decision that had a negative impact on my life.
It was around 6:00 p.m. when my dad got home from work. “Let’s go.” He yelled up the stairs. Immediately I knew he was drinking. The way his eyes were squinted and he slurred his words. I gave him a dirty look as he was yelling at my little brother for absolutely nothing. I tell my little brother, Adan, and my little sister, Adriana, to not respond to his comments and to just listen to him. We got in the car and I refused to look at him. The car ride was absolutely silent. My siblings refused to talk. He cursed at every car for doing something wrong. I was so angry since we had planned for a couple weeks to go to Delaware to get our hair cut by one of my dads friends. I don’t know why I would think this day would be any different from the rest but still. This one day, one day, he had to get drunk and I was angered. We were driving down the windy Dutton Mill road as I was nervous by his driving. “Dad! Watch where you are going!” I yelled. “Stop telling me what to do.” he replied. I started to to fight with him. Back and forth we argued as I felt bad for my siblings in the back seat . “Dad pull over! Now. Now!” He sped into this empty bar parking lot right before we got on I-95. “Get out.” He yelled firmly. I was crying by this point as I turned around to Adriana and Adan, “Come on guys, hurry up. Get out.” They weren’t responding to me as I had hoped. They slowly unbuckled their seatbelts but not fast enough. I was trying to overtalk my dad and get them to listen to me but it was clear that they were scared of my dad telling them the complete opposite commands as me. “Don’t you move.” He stared at them. “Get out of the fucking car!” he yelled at me. I refused since my siblings weren’t allowed out of the car and there was no way I was letting them stay alone with him. I started to plead to just take us home. That angered him more. We began to make our way back to my house as I stared out the window, tears falling from my eyes. He rambled on as a tuned him out. All I wanted to do is lay in my bed. Alone. We pulled in my driveway as I grabbed my siblings and rushed up to my room to hide. We heard footsteps coming up the steps shortly after. He forced Adriana and I to give him our phones as my sister sobbed. I went in the office to get the house phone and called my mimi. “I will be home shortly” She said calmly. “Just stay away from him” as I hung up the phone. We tip toed around my house the rest of the night trying to avoid him at all costs. The next morning, he had left our phones on the counter. From this day on, no apology, no acknowledgment of that day ever happening. |
Taylor DannakerI will use this blog to write about moments in my life where I hope you can understand me a little more. Archives
December 2018
Categories
All
|