Writing fiction has developed in me an abiding respect for the unknown in a human lifetime and a sense of where to look for the threads, how to follow, how to connect, find in the thick of the tangle what clear line persists.
Eudora Welty

 

Notice that Jessica matches Welty’s syntax in her interpretation. This allows for more accuracy.

 

When I take apart this quote, then reconstruct it using my own words, I get:

 

Writing fiction has caused me to feel a lasting respect for the unknown in our lives and a sense of where to look for clues, how to follow, how to connect, how to find that one great idea in the thick tangle of my jumbled up thoughts where the clear best idea persists.
To me, this quote makes sense as I have had the same experiences, not only with fiction writing, but with other essays and writing pieces as well. It is mainly an issue while writing fiction, though. There are so many different plot twists and different ways you could manipulate the characters’ actions to come up with entirely different outcomes. It’s challenging to find the perfect plot, not perfect so much as most entertaining for you and the reader. Non-fiction, persuasive, and analytical essays all go in one direction once you figure out your topic, whereas fiction pieces, once the topic is established, can still go in any direction. It takes a strong writer with a clear goal in mind to write an incredibly strong fiction work as Welty does.
While reading Welty’s First Love, my thoughts, too, became jumbled up, and I wasn’t even the one reading the story! I was confused at how Joel could know what Burr was saying if he was deaf and also who his first love was. I was taking things too literally, too shallowly instead of looking for that double meaning.

 

~ Jessica Cheng

Writing Competitions!  Please see the tab on the left for links to writing competitions, and spend some time looking through for one that calls your name. Choose one and then brainstorm! At least four sentences.

Student work!  Please spend at least twenty minutes looking through your classmates’ published work, and write a response of no less than six sentences to one work of your choice. The response should be critical, expressing or involving an analysis of the merits and faults of the chosen work.  Please have both these written responses ready for the beginning of class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This wall will be our blackboard – the place that you check into daily and the page that you navigate to in preparation for your lesson.  Here you will see prompts, often building off of a quotation from any number of authors, philosophers, poets, statesmen and women.  Your responses to the prompt will serve as a keynote for the lesson, and will be the first activity after greeting.

Select written responses will be published on this blackboard.