PROPOSAL

INTRO

My name is Erika and I’ve decided to revolve my project around creative writing.

I’ve been writing for almost thirteen years. In that time, I’ve been continuously striving to improve and critique my own writing by reading and trying out other writing styles that differ to mine. Originally, I had a minimal structure of writing and focused a lot on dialogue and emotion but not so much description. Just last year I came across a verbose writing style that encompassed everything. I immediately loved it and tried out myself. Since then it’s been incorporated in my style.

However, I want to be able to go back to what I used to do, which was the minimal structure, but also incorporate everything I've learned within the many years since I've used it.

GOAL

My aim for this project is to practise and be familiar with writing scenes as concisely as possible. Recently I’ve noticed I can cut words or whole sentences out from my writing—or completely neglect a paragraph overall—without affecting the general meaning I wanted to get across in the first place.

I don’t want to particularly settle just for ‘she walked to the park’ as opposed to ‘she’s a dainty thing as she tip-toes along the edge of the path, slender extremities flung out to either side for balance, as she continues forward to the whimsical place of nature that awaits her’. I want to go for something like 'her steps trace the edge daintily as she makes her way to the park'. The first and second examples are, respectively, too simple and too wordy; the third example still retains some expression while also getting to the point with less words.

I also want to retain my fluctuation of long and short sentences as well as execute a mixture of ‘showing’ and 'telling' wherever I can. It will be a challenge for me as well as help me revise my writing style which is why I chose to do this in the first place.

METHOD

This will be done through writing exactly 100 word drabbles every week and writing a reflection alongside it describing what troubles I had with writing the piece and what was easy. I’ll be using Wix to document my progress and use Microsoft Word to keep track of my word count.

WEEK ONE:
100-word drabble about a character’s emotions, possibly when its at its peak (e.g. grief/mourning for a loved one or marriage or a moment of intense annoyance) + reflection

WEEK TWO:
100-word drabble about a series of events (e.g. days/months/years or even a few things during a day) + reflection

WEEK THREE:
100-word drabble about a single action or moment in time (e.g. tripping/punching someone/eating a delicious desert) + reflection

WEEK FOUR:
100-word drabble that will be dialogue-driven, minimum description or actions from the characters at all + reflection

WEEK FIVE:
a second draft of week one’s drabble based on my reflection + another reflection comparing to first drabble

WEEK SIX:
a second draft of week two’s drabble based on my reflection + another reflection comparing to first drabble

WEEK SEVEN:
a second draft of week three’s drabble based on my reflection + another reflection comparing to first drabble

WEIGHT EIGHT:
a second draft of week four’s drabble based on my reflection + another reflection comparing to first drabble

To further my progress on this, I’ll be drawing from my self-critique as well as other resources. This includes a few articles online that I find helpful and I’ll also be drawing from a few exercises on poetry by Siobhan Harvey.

LINKS

REFLECTIONS

To evaluate my progress each week, I’ll use the following criteria:

Flow of narrative/does it make sense
Visual/emotional impact
Whether original intent was conveyed

I’ll also include a personal reflection on it by asking myself questions to measure how I went. The questions will differ based on what week it is, especially since I’m doing a first and second draft.

For the first four weeks:

What was easy?
What was hard?
What did I find interesting?
What changes do I want to make based on the criteria set for myself?

For the last four weeks:

What was different about the second draft process compared to the first?
Was it easy or difficult to implement changes based on the first draft’s criteria?
Am I satisfied with the second draft?