In the Project, “A Moment in time,” we (my second and third period class) had to write a paper about a moment in which our lives had been changed, in a quality of work, called by Stephen, ‘Beautiful work’. We had a limit of only one page with size twelve Times New Roman font. Our margins had to be set at one inch and our spacing was a must of 1. Not 1.15 or 1.5, but 1 and only 1. We had to use specific detail, before I didn’t know I could put that much detail into one page. Finally, we had to go through at least three drafts. Some of us went through way more than just three, me included.
Throughout this project, I learned that we write stories to entertain, to inform, and to help keep what could be called a culture/ way of life. Humans are “hardwired for stories. We crave three act narratives” -Hardwired for a story | Sarah-Jane 9:05. A story, to be a strong story, must have a beginning where you introduce your character, a dramatic arc that has us join the protagonist through his many endeavors and trials, and an ending in which the protagonist emerges as someone who is no longer the same. As I wrote my story, I had remembered everything I had done, felt, and thought at the time. I started to realize things that I didn’t realize back then. I thought everything was terrible when I was in D.H.S and now, I think that I was just interpreting it wrong. I now see how things really went whilst I was in I.I.T. No longer do I see it as a time where I went through some form of unorthodox torture. I ,now see it as a time where I had challenged myself more than I ever have. A time where I had to improve. A time I had, sadly, taken for granted. Now, when someone writes a narrative, they have to go into detail that has to catch a reader's attention. With normal writing, you want to be able to keep a reader's attention all of the time. Writing narratives gives you the skill to utilize such detail. Writing normally more and more can also make you better but narratives require detail right away. Whether it be for characters or for the setting or even for minor things, detail is used every second in a narrative. You can’t get away without putting detail into a narrative. The more detail you put into a narrative, the better it will be, as long as you stay on topic. Being able to use detail whenever you wish is one of the most important things when you need to keep a story interesting.
I had written my first three drafts in such a way that it gave an extreme sense of blame. As you would read, you would start to ask yourself, “who is he going to blame next? Why is he blaming these people,” Even though, that isn’t the feeling I intended for my story. I had such a hard time with the emotion I was looking for. In the later three drafts, I had changed and re-did my story completely. Now, when you read it, there was no blame. It read like a narration, almost. I wish I could have gone over the one page limit, There was so much I could have put in if there was a two page limit. One page just didn’t seem like it was enough. I also feel like I didn’t do my best. Six saved drafts took me to the end but I still don’t feel like it is of sufficient detail. I wish that I could have found a way to “show” emotion, not just tell someone how I was feeling in a way better than I had done. But, one thing that stick out was that no matter what I had written down, I had given my writing a sense of fright.
As this project came and went, forced us to struggle and squirm uncomfortably as we had to fit all our writing onto one page, I had learned how to write in a way that shows a reader something, a way of writing that can show emotion and can make writing a whole lot more interesting. A sentence like, “It was raining outside as I was going to sleep,” could be changed to, “The rain melodically hit the roof repeatedly until I was lulled to sleep by the hoard of unsynchronized drums lightly tapping away.” Simple little sentence enhancements and ways to make things more interesting are the things that I took away from this project. All of which, I hadn’t realized that I could do.
Throughout this project, I learned that we write stories to entertain, to inform, and to help keep what could be called a culture/ way of life. Humans are “hardwired for stories. We crave three act narratives” -Hardwired for a story | Sarah-Jane 9:05. A story, to be a strong story, must have a beginning where you introduce your character, a dramatic arc that has us join the protagonist through his many endeavors and trials, and an ending in which the protagonist emerges as someone who is no longer the same. As I wrote my story, I had remembered everything I had done, felt, and thought at the time. I started to realize things that I didn’t realize back then. I thought everything was terrible when I was in D.H.S and now, I think that I was just interpreting it wrong. I now see how things really went whilst I was in I.I.T. No longer do I see it as a time where I went through some form of unorthodox torture. I ,now see it as a time where I had challenged myself more than I ever have. A time where I had to improve. A time I had, sadly, taken for granted. Now, when someone writes a narrative, they have to go into detail that has to catch a reader's attention. With normal writing, you want to be able to keep a reader's attention all of the time. Writing narratives gives you the skill to utilize such detail. Writing normally more and more can also make you better but narratives require detail right away. Whether it be for characters or for the setting or even for minor things, detail is used every second in a narrative. You can’t get away without putting detail into a narrative. The more detail you put into a narrative, the better it will be, as long as you stay on topic. Being able to use detail whenever you wish is one of the most important things when you need to keep a story interesting.
I had written my first three drafts in such a way that it gave an extreme sense of blame. As you would read, you would start to ask yourself, “who is he going to blame next? Why is he blaming these people,” Even though, that isn’t the feeling I intended for my story. I had such a hard time with the emotion I was looking for. In the later three drafts, I had changed and re-did my story completely. Now, when you read it, there was no blame. It read like a narration, almost. I wish I could have gone over the one page limit, There was so much I could have put in if there was a two page limit. One page just didn’t seem like it was enough. I also feel like I didn’t do my best. Six saved drafts took me to the end but I still don’t feel like it is of sufficient detail. I wish that I could have found a way to “show” emotion, not just tell someone how I was feeling in a way better than I had done. But, one thing that stick out was that no matter what I had written down, I had given my writing a sense of fright.
As this project came and went, forced us to struggle and squirm uncomfortably as we had to fit all our writing onto one page, I had learned how to write in a way that shows a reader something, a way of writing that can show emotion and can make writing a whole lot more interesting. A sentence like, “It was raining outside as I was going to sleep,” could be changed to, “The rain melodically hit the roof repeatedly until I was lulled to sleep by the hoard of unsynchronized drums lightly tapping away.” Simple little sentence enhancements and ways to make things more interesting are the things that I took away from this project. All of which, I hadn’t realized that I could do.