Writings
Creative writing is a passion of mine that I like to engage in whenever possible. My bachelor's degree, which I'm working on right now, will be made up of several creative writing classes, and I'm eyeing a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from UNM. Below, you'll find my poems, short stories, and essays that I want to share. They're all in PDF format, and there's a short description with each to give you an idea of what they're about. If you find a link that doesn't work or want to comment on something, drop me a line! Since most of these pieces were written for classes that I've taken or am taking, you'll see many numbers floating around the descriptions. Below is a list of the class numbers and what class/subject they correspond to. 150 - Study of Literature 224 - Introduction to Creative Writing 240 - Traditional Grammar 250 - Analysis of Literature 296 - Survey of Earlier American Literature 297 - Survey of Later American Literature 321 - Creative Writing: Fiction 323 - Creative Writing: Creative Nonfiction 353 - Later Shakespeare 421 - Advanced Creative Writing: Fiction 423 - Advanced Creative Writing: Creative Nonfiction|
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| A short little poem that I love because of how I made the rhyme and word choice work well enough given only four lines to work with. | |
| My sophomore year in high school, we were working on the poetry unit, and the teacher wanted us to personify a symbol. I liked the original poem so much that I extended it. I also came back to this poem in my 224 class since I wanted to add it to my writing portfolio that had to be turned in as the final for that class. | |
| I wrote this for my first successful Valentine's Day (2006). I don't know how I got the inspiration, but suddenly the night before, this love-child was born. I think it captures our relationship at that point very well. | |
| An assignment for my 224 class. The concept was just to write about a place that we remember. (Original!) | |
| Random poem from my sophomore year in high school. I had some other poems from that time, but I have to say that this was my best, and I still enjoy reading it. | |
| Written for Christmas in 2007 with Andrea, Drew, and my mom. I was very original and got everyone gift cards for Christmas that year, so I felt compelled to add to my "originality" by using this cute poem. | |
| I think I wrote this in the same year as the above poem, and I got many people to laugh at it. Basically, I made little candy bags for people at Hayes, and I attached this poem to the front of the bag. Like I said, many laughs were had. | |
| Another assignment for my 224 class, although I don't remember what the exact assignment was. Overall, I like the symmetry of the poem. | |
| For my 224 class, we were supposed to personify an everyday object. I personified a desk in a college classroom. | |
| Another one for 224, but I can't remember the exact assignment (again). Regardless, I really like this one. | |
| This was my second poem written for the same Valentine's Day as "El Viaje," This time, I challenged myself by aiming to write a decent poem using his name to outline it. I think it worked out really well considering I only had five lines to work with. | |
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| The last assignment for 323 was to write a segmented essay. I figured doing this with my journey with OCD would work nicely, and the professor ended up loving it and thinks that it should be published. (I really, really hope that happens!) I personally think this is one of my best pieces to date. | |
| The first assignment for 321 was just a general short story. I wrote mine based on my living situation with Stephanie: she has/had ADD and I have OCD. By the end of the class, we had to take a risk with the story, and mine was to do it by using a peripherial narrator (based on Cherie). | |
| This is my first shot at romance. This story plays a side part in a much larger scheme that I am currently planning out. I figured I'd test the waters by completing a short story before graduating onto bigger things. I have to say I personally like this story a lot, and I love the semi-cliffhanger ending. | |
| This essay was written for 323. This being a creative nonfiction class, I decided to write about my being diagnosed with cerebral palsy. | |
| Written for my 224 creative writing class, the assignment was for us to write about our parents' courtship. It was supposed to be a simple creative non-fiction story, but I spiced it up by making it in first person and adding my own zest to it. | |
| This was my second short story for 321, which is about a girl who is in ballet because her family wants her to be and not because she wants to be. I really liked the original version, but it did too much telling instead of showing, and the instructor wouldn't have liked the ending. I'm not sure if I like this draft better, but I figured it's decent enough. | |
| The result of a really random urge. I got a strange idea for a short-short story, and I ended up making the story an allegory for the modern lifestyle and how people can't even have one day off to enjoy themselves. | |
| Written for 224, the story is supposed to be about a journey that I've taken, so I figured moving out of my first apartment would suit just fine. | |
| In my 423 class, we read a graphic memoir (Alison Bechdel's Fun Home), and I decided to play with that idea for my second essay. This essay is about Jake and how he both irritates my OCD but also forces me to get over some things (he's literally my therapy dog). This essay took me about a month and a half to complete simply because of the pictures, but I thought this was a fitting topic to make into a graphic essay. I rewrote it for my final in that class, and I'd also like to see it get published somewhere (like the Animal Human Association's newsletter). I'll post updates here if that happens. | |
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| The magnum opus of my college career thus far. I had originally written this essay for my 250 class from HELL the first semester of my sophomore year, but it turned out really well due to help from my high school senior honors English teacher. In March of my junior year (a year and a half later), I came back to this essay to enter it into a contest. I worked with the same professor, and it's currently being reviewed. Even if it doesn't win anything, I am extremely proud of this beast because I blindsided the professor with it. | |
| I took a class in Later Shakespeare (353) the second semester of my sophomore year. I hate Shakespeare, but I decided to make this paper fun by linking it to gender issues. The prompt had something to do with describing how Act 5, Scene 1 of Pericles is a scene of awakening. I totally perverted that concept and got an A on the stupid thing. I revisited the essay the second semester of my junior year in order to get extra credit in my 150 class. | |
| This essay was originally written for my 296 class. The assignment was just to write a 6-7 page paper on one of the texts that we had read. As a result, this is my infamous "7 pager on adverbs." That's right, I wrote 7 pages on the use of adverbs and how they dehumanize the title character. Yes, I got an A. I came back to this essay my second semester of junior year in order to get extra credit in my 240 class. | |
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