Category: Journal Entries

  • Location Provides Identity

    I have a particular identity at home as my parents’ daughter. I am the peacemaker, the one who needs protecting. At school, I was the planning one, the one who made good grades. At work, I am the well-recommended one, the one for whom teal seems an appropriate color. Growing up in church, I was…

  • Prayer, Round 2

    My first day working on this project, I prayed for God to use the story and I had the idea to switch the time period, which magically fixed my writer’s block. It was amazing!!! And part of me, though extremely thankful, felt a little skeptical that it could be a coincidence. I had enough faith…

  • Major Revision

    My plan was to rewrite the majority of my story from scratch. I successfully did that for one section. I tried for three others, but only used parts of those to add to the original. I went through the story and made sure that all of Dawson’s sections reflected his desires. I marked all of…

  • Revision

    First off, I need more time to revise. Other projects, particularly those made way more complicated than they should be, are taking up way too much of my time. I feel very confident in the first two pages I revised of my story. The next four pages, however, kept falling flat. I’m starting to run…

  • Motivational Continuum

    In The Art and Craft of Fiction, Michael Kardos creates the “motivational continuum” that delineates a person’s internal motivation (p.117-119). He notes five aspects of the continuum: Dread, Fear, Expect, Hope, and Dream. He notes that focuses on the ends of the spectrum (dreads and dreams) provide the highest stakes for characters and thus the most…

  • Saint Maybe

    Thoughts on Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler There is humor at the beginning in an overly serious tone. However, as the formality fades and the events of the novel fit the seriousness, the humor ends. The book uses colloquial language that makes it feel more real. There is high tension both internally for all of the characters…

  • Stygo

    Thoughts upon finishing Stygo by Laurie Hendrie Depending on chapter, it mixes 3rd person and 1st person narrators. The 3rd person sections, especially, have noticeable “you”s that stand out because of the seeming inconsistency of the perspective. However, the “you”s work colloquially to boost the voice of the town. The language throughout the book is very…

  • Machine Dreams

    Thoughts on Machine Dreams by Jayne Anne Phillips As with Out of Peel Tree, the fragmented stories are hard to get into, but cover a lot more ground in time and setting. The use of letters for Mitch’s war memories do a nice job of characterizing him and his relationships with others through the use of small…

  • Outside Reader 1

    Feedback from a peer, and brainstorming how to fix it She was confused on Dawson’s job. She thought he was a doctor at first. She agreed the ending was rushed. More time, such as a day, could pass for Charlie to think about what Cadence said before Darlene returns. She liked the descriptions of Darlene’s…

  • Out of Peel Tree

    Thoughts on reading Out of Peel Tree by Laura Long By fragmenting the novel through short stories, Long could cover an impressive 2 generations of time. This led to some flat sections that told, rather than showed, the passage of time. The inconsistent narrator to style ratio made the overall story harder to follow. (For example, some…