ENGL 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Creative Writing, Historical Fiction, Fathom
Yexiao Gao 1435211
Paper One: Conference Draft
Seth Crawford
At the end of high school in British Columbia there is one final obsta-
cle prior to graduation; a baptism by fire. The grade 12 Provincial Exam.
What scared people about this exam was not exactly its content in particu-
lar or having to write an essay in limited amount of time, what they were
scared of was the fact that it was subjectively marked culminated with the
fact that it forced you to think on your feet. It forced you to be creative. I
never considered myself to be a talented writer in any sense of the word,
most of all in the way of creativity. The bulk of the mark from this exam
came from a composition write which was graded on a scale of one
through six and was to be a minimum of three hundred words to be com-
pleted in forty-five minutes. It had to contain figures of speech, eloquent
language and as few grammatical errors as possible coupled with a wide
array of sentence structure variation. This portion came to be ominously
referred to as only “The Composition”. The one particular fragment of
wisdom our English teacher provided us with was to write a narrative.
This was a much more daunting obstacle to surmount as failing to inte-
grate the theme as simultaneously subtle and effective would result in no
higher than a two out of six. However, if this approach was executed suc-
cessfully the rewards to be reaped were significant. When faced with the
composition write and fifty minutes left to complete the exam I made an
impulsive, spur-of-the-moment decision. I decided I would write a narra-
tive. A strange thing happened in that library full of my equally distressed,
exam-writing peers; the words came to me. I wrote like a madman for the
vast majority of those fifty minutes, the pen barely left the page. I wrote a
historical fiction narrative set during the Second World War, and of course
I finished off the story with a tragedy. I finished with under a minute left
and I swiftly, yet exasperatedly, looked over what I had written in this
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
brief span of time, with a growing sense of pride and accomplishment, an
unbidden thought faintly crossed my conscious. Wow, this is pretty good.
In March as patches of mud and yellow-brown vegetation was beginning
to peek through the snow we received our grades for the examination we
had written in January. The grade I received for my composition write: six
out of six.
I decided my own veneration for my writing coupled with the mark
that I had achieved could not have been a coincidence. Ever since, I have
been exploring all facets of creative writing, and genuinely enjoying it.
Looking at literature from the perspective of a writer truly modifies,
and enhances, literary works. Writing provokes me to truly explore litera-
ture in way I never previously have. I now partake in a relentless search
for hidden truths and cryptic meanings and themes within fiction every
time I remove a book from the shelf. Previously, I could never even
fathom such an approach to literature. Now, I read to envision how I can
integrate clandestine significance into my own writing. As a writer what I
want to provide my audience with is a story which ties into everyday life
in an abstract way, a way that they have to discover for themselves. For
me this has become one of the thrills of reading; one of many justifications
for me to open a book. I can give my readers a story that they will con-
tinue to ponder long after they cease reading the words on the page, by ac-
complishing this in my writing. I also came to discover, through firsthand
experience, free-writing is an unparalleled means to discover fragments of
your personality; it provides an unblemished reflection of your subcon-
scious mind. I have finally been enlightened by a glimpse into what keeps
a writer writing the next letter, the next word, the next page. It is this:
every time I write a piece of fiction I know that in some way shape or
form it is completely unique. Each time I write I know I am doing some-
thing that no o
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Peer Review
AS you are listening to the draft, highlight passages that have “heat”—that you find insightful, thoughtful, evoca-
tive, compelling, funny, or beautiful.
Underline passages that you found confusing.
After you have heard the whole draft, copy and paste the following to the bottom of the your peer’s draft and insert
an answer to each question.
AFTER you have heard the draft, answer the following questions. Please as specific as you can.
1) WITHOUT looking back over the draft, what do you think the author’s main idea is? If you aren’t sure, you
can start with “I’m not sure but I think…..” and then take your best guess.
From listening over the paper, I think the writer started with the Grade 12 Provincial Exam, and tell the
readers about a story how he made a bold decision about his essay and since then discovered the fun of writing and
reading.
2) WITHOUT looking back over the draft, write the best summary you can manage. Don’t worry if you know
you are forgetting parts (though you could add “There’s a part here that I don’t remember” or something
like that).
The writer used the Grade 12 Provincial Exam as a starting point and wrote about how he knew that writing
a narrative was a hard job but he did it anyway. He wrote a fiction and when he got his mark back, he found out he
got a full mark for his essay. Even since, he explored the fun of writing fictions, meanwhile, he also read for im-
proving his own writing
Does the writer satisfy the assignment’s criteria in the following ways (for these questions, you can simply answer
“yes” “no” or “sort of” and then a sentence or two explaining why):
a. it discusses literacy (and not language learning)?
Yes, it is an literacy history the writer talked about, it is not a language learning in any sense. He
discussed about how he explored the fun of doing creative writing.
b. it focuses on one or two (or maybe three) SPECIFIC incidents?
Yes, the writer mainly focused on the experience about his Grade 12 Provincial Ecam
c. it analyzes the importance of these incidents on your classmate’s development as a writer and/or
thinker?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
At the end of high school in british columbia there is one final obsta- cle prior to graduation; a baptism by fire. I never considered myself to be a talented writer in any sense of the word, most of all in the way of creativity. It had to contain figures of speech, eloquent language and as few grammatical errors as possible coupled with a wide array of sentence structure variation. This portion came to be ominously referred to as only the composition . The one particular fragment of wisdom our english teacher provided us with was to write a narrative. This was a much more daunting obstacle to surmount as failing to inte- grate the theme as simultaneously subtle and effective would result in no higher than a two out of six. However, if this approach was executed suc- cessfully the rewards to be reaped were significant.
