I decided that I would use creative writing as my genre of composing since I am not the best writer and I heard that creative writing is a great exercise you can try in order to improve on your writing skills. I started to browse on the internet to see if there is a specific way to write when you creative write and I happened to stumble upon an article titled “Creative Writing 101.” From there, I learned that creative writing can be any form of writing and it can range from fiction writing, to poetry, to creative nonfiction writing. I also learned that creative writing, in essence, does not have a certain format or structure to it, it is basically free writing, so there is no specific element or convention that makes it recognizable to others. Before I started writing, I decided to watch a video titled “Creative Writing - 4 Easy Steps an Essay Writer Must Know!” in order to make sure that I was capitalizing on improving on my skills as a writer. The video stated that the first step in creative writing is choosing a subject and I decided to write a letter to my younger self. Next, I had to research the background and I used a video from Howcast titled “How to Write a Formal Letter” and structured my paper based off of the video since it was supposed to be a letter to myself. Something I learned from the video was that there is a certain amount of space between the lines in a formal letter. I used this video so that my “letter” would look more realistic and make the audience feel as if they are reading a real letter that came from the future. After that, the video states that step three is to plan, so I just thought about the main points I was going to bring out in the letter such as my experience with my old so called “friends,” etc. Finally, the last step in the video was to write the essay and while I was writing it, I decided that I should work on both my pathos and logos skills to maximize the improvement of my writing. I worked on my pathos skills in this genre by talking to my past self about the mistakes I have made in my life and how he can prevent them. I repeated the phrase “listen to me Kirk” to emphasize the importance of what I was telling my thirteen-year-old self. I worked on my logos skills by trying to persuade my younger self to do better and not make the mistakes I made in my past. I talked about mistakes such as: how some friendships I had back then put me in bad situations, how a girlfriend I had made me really depressed, and how I should have focused on school and sports more than anything. Using both logos and pathos were ideal for my target audience because the whole point of the letter is to convince a younger version of myself to do better and using these rhetorical appeals makes the argument stronger. I think the letter I wrote to my past self gave a sad tone and will make every audience feel sympathetic towards me. I feel like I did a good job at my first attempt in creative writing because I was writing fairly quick. Creative writing was a good experience and it made me feel like I had all the freedom in the world within the context of my writing and I feel more creative because of it; I felt like I could write about pretty much anything. I feel like I reached my end goal which was to improve in my writing skills, and I believe I improved in them because I had to practice my communication and persuasion skills. Overall, this was a game changer and I think I will try it more often in the future in order to improve on my writing skills some more.
Works Cited
“Creative Writing 101.” Writers' Treasure, 29 Mar. 2017, www.writerstreasure.com/creative- writing-101/.
Howcast. “How to Write a Formal Letter.” YouTube, YouTube, 18 Aug. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns_Fxn-0z_E.
SinglishtoEnglish. “Creative Writing - 4 Easy Steps an Essay Writer Must Know!” YouTube, YouTube, 19 Dec. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y2_oQobo_0.