Journal Seven by Maddie

Part One:
One of the best exercises for me was exercise 7, This Moment in Time. For this exercise we had to pick a photograph and write in the voice of someone in the photo. I feel I did well with it because I had a lot of fun with the prompt. Exercises that had prompts less appealing to me I didn't do as well on. But for this one, I really enjoyed taking on the voice of someone from a real photograph. I could create whatever story I wanted to tell about them. As a writer and reader, I have started paying more attention to the word choice and tone being used. The words that are used are very important and can have a large influence on the story, much like the tone. I have become more aware of who the narrator is in my own writing and how to make the words and tone match who is speaking. In these last five weeks, I hope to improve on my actual writing process. When writing stories, I tend to just jump in and see where I end up. I found myself doing that with the 4-7 page story we are using for workshop and without a solid direction, I got stuck a lot. I think by doing it this way, I'm making it harder on myself so I want improve my process.

Part Two:
One of the most meaningful fictional characters to me is Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby. He is so intriguing as a character. I remember the first time I read the book I was in love with all the dimensions of his character because you can't quite figure him out. He fascinates you and draws you in because everything about him is a mystery. F. Scott Fitzgerald did an amazing job of creating someone that appeals to everyone. In the book and movies, the women wanted to date him and the men wanted to be him. In some sense, that holds true outside the story.

I would recommend others to watch Stuck In Love. It's not as big of a chick-flick as it sounds, I promise (plus it's about a writer). This movie has a variety of characters, so there is bound to be someone in this story everyone can relate to. There are a lot of powerful relationships between the characters, along with many emotions being expressed throughout. I'm pretty sure you can experience every emotion while watching this movie, without it being overwhelming. Bonus: it's on Netflix!