Writing

A reflection about creative writers and their merit in teaching writing. What are the benefits of learning from a seasoned writer, what are some of the negative experiences. Is there exclusion present within the writing classroom, are writing teachers prone to picking favorites. Piece would be part reflection, would touch on the needs of education and those new to the craft of writing.

Prosody has become almost a dying art in poetry, both on and off the age. With a rise in spoken-word, modern writing styles has kind of thrown the traditional rule-book out the window. But is proper meter and rhyme scheme a thing of Shakespearean past? Perhaps, by reviving the techniques behind the art form, we can reach a new level of creativity when it comes to poetry.

Do you feel it is important to write to the racial/ethnic identity of a character in contemporary literature, even if the subject of the work isn't directly related to that identity? If so, how much of that racial/ethnic experience is appropriate or necessary to include? How do these levels change if the writer is a different race/ethnicity from the character, and where is the line of insensitivity? For example, hypothetically, a Latinx writer wants to write an Indonesian character in their Young Adult sci-fi novel – how relevant is the character's identity as an Indonesian to the writing? Or, another real-life example, in David Levithan's "Every Day", the main character A wakes up in someone else's body every morning, an identity-less character bodysnatching other characters with numerous different racial/ethnic identities – how important, necessary, and/or appropriate would it have been to include the different racial/ethnic experiences A could potentially go through as these identities, especially considering the race/ethnicity of the author?

How has the rising popularity in Kindle and ebooks hindered the print medium? Will physical hardcover and paperback books someday go into extinction? While Kindles appeal to the younger, hipper audience, paperbacks still seem to retain a sort of traditional class. Why? Even though they both have their arguable pros and cons, what will become of printed works in the near and long-term future?

Everyday when I log onto Facebook, I see people sharing articles like "10 ways to get the man of your dreams," "Why you aren't happy," "The happiest couples do this to survive…"

These irk me. Articles like this are polluting your brain. People read these articles thinking, oh THAT'S why I'm not happy and THAT'S why our relationship is so bad. Whereas actual news articles or long, in depth articles do not get as much attention because they're not listed out in a way that people can read quickly and get advice about their lives…a comparison between the two.

Novels, especially in the genre of Fantasy have long relied on prologues which give exposition for the reader so that they can understand the fictional world's origins and major conflicts. There is another approach which has been used which is to start in the middle of the conflict, and explain origins later as the action is moving.

Explore the pros and cons of both approaches, and make suggestions for what kind of stories work best with the two approaches.

The wildly popular Fifty Shades trilogy was initially written as Twilight fanfiction. Does this create issues related to originality or creativity? Should there be legal ramifications when a "published fanfiction" becomes as popular as Fifty Shades did? What lines are drawn to differentiate between these two series? Were enough lines drawn between the two? (The relationship between these two series are used as an example– if any other series exist with a similar relationship, feel free to use those instead.)

People have been reading and writing stories of revenge for about as long as stories have existed. From tales of vengeful gods/goddesses, to The Count Of Monte Cristo, to Kill Bill, it seems like people through the ages really love their stories of revenge. The theme isn't just found in writing, we see it pop up anywhere there is a story line: video games, comics, even songs. Are these forms of entertainment a way for us to vicariously feel like we've gotten back at our own enemies? Or do we simply delight in the dark side of these stories?