Toward the Future/From the Past

1) As I was writing my play I found that it was easier than I thought it would be to use the play format. In the past, when writing stories in the normal format, there was much more description needed in order to characterize people and what not. In the play format you needed some description but what gave the reader the knowledge of what the characters were like was the dialogue. I didn't really find anything to be hard or limiting about the play format, and I guess I was surprised at how easy it was to write a play compared to a short story.

2) The advice I would give to a kid about 5 or 10 years old would be mainly to pursue what you want to in life. A lot of times, especially in middle school and high school, kids do things just to fit in; these can just be little things like the clothes you wear or larger things like going to a college just because it's supposedly labeled "cool" by your peers. I'd also tell him/her to not take life for granted and have as much fun as possible while still managing to make it into a few colleges that interest you. If you don't want to get straight A's, and your parents keep nagging you to get straight A's, don't get straight A's. Do what you want to do. This advice is solely based on my experiences that I've had in life and definetely not influenced by authority like parents, although parents can definitely have good things to say, I think it's more important to follow your dreams and do what you want to do. My advice is based off of the choices I've made, peer issues I've delt with and school.

3) Works of literature that end up lasting a long time need to have some sort of insight or knowledge that is revolutionary or that not many people, if any, know about. For example, in Huck Finn the idea of racism and slavery being a bad thing was a new, revolutionary idea at the time and that's why it's still being read in classrooms today. I could not see myself writing something like that because a lot of the issues and ideas that I could see myself writing about have probably already been worked on or written about and it wouldn't be very revolutionary. The only slight chance I have of writing a peice of literature that lives forever is if I live an extremely insane life and then write an autobiography about it, but even then the chance of that peice of work lasting more than a few years in one library is slim to none.

Theme

1) I think that theme is important when writing a peice of literature. People need to learn things from what they read, and that's probably the best way to do it. It doesn't even have to be written down, for example, when someone is telling a story and they get towards the end of it, they'll say "moral of the story...", even if it's just two high-school kids talking to eachother. If there were no themes in the stories we told, people wouldn't learn anything and we would all be a lot less knowledgeable. That being said, there are stories that don't require a theme and are strictly to entertain and sometimes these can be the best stories. The problem with these is that they don't really get at the heart of issues that are taking place in our world today which require some theme.

2) A theme that I'd be interested in communiting through my play is the idea of really pursuing what you care about in life. So often kids are persuaded by their parents to do the "right" thing instead of doing what they think they should do and what they want to do. Kids need to start making decisions for themselves earlier in life rather than letting their parents possibly steer them in the wrong path. If you don't want to go to college, don't go to college just because your parents want you to. Maybe it's not the right choice but you'll learn for yourself, rather than someone just telling you that it's wrong, and learning from experience is always the best way to learn.

3) A conflict I'm considering writing about is a confused kid who is always told by his parents what to do but doesn't really know if he should listen to them or not. He eventually starts questioning the things his parents say and he starts doing things on his own and making decisions for himself. He learns from his bad choices a few times and starts making better one's and his parents eventually just stop telling him what to do and he succeeds in life.

Writing Assignment #1

1) I think reading is important if you're trying to be the best writer that you can be. There's so many ideas out there that you would never even think about if you hadn't read about it in a book or newspaper or whatever. Reading could inspire you to write about a certain topic or just give you some random idea that you never would have thought of. Simply just picking up a newspaper or a magazine and reading it could give you an idea on something to write about and could potentially enhance your work.

2) One thing in our country that concerns me is drunk driving. Knowing that there are people out there that drink and drive and risk their lives and others' lives including mine puts some fear in me. People don't have to drink and drive yet they choose to anyways and put many people in danger, when they could be taking a taxi or have a designated driver. Sometimes people need to spot and think before they act.

3) A peice of art that has inspired me is the song "Don't Look Back" by Boston. It has inspired me to be more focused on the future rather than the past, and not get too caught up in things that don't really matter that already took place, especially when there's nothing I can do about it. For example, if I receive a bad grade on a test or in a class, there's no use getting mad about it, because there's really nothing I can do about it except do better next time. This is certainly not limited to school and can be applied to things like sports as well.