Reflection 13

i came in late to class again. For the... I've lost count. I feel terribly sick today and i just miss my bed at home and my unlimited boxes of tissue. Anywaay, Mrs.Fa has asked us to write a short story based on one of the three given stories and that is why i am here writing this... No, not to write the short story here but to post the very last reflection. I'll definitely miss writing this blog.

On a completely different story, Mrs. Fa just taught us the term that i did have heard of before and it is called 'Cliffhanger'. The term Cliffhanger is basically what i can say as the unexpected ending of a story. It leaves readers wanting for more. And you'll never really see how the story ends but it just does unexpectedly. The tricky part is to be genius in writing the ending which we were taught just minutes ago, has three techniques. You can use a cliffhanger ending by using question, dialogue or by using descriptive scene.

Right now i think i'll proceed with another task Mrs. Fa has assigned us to do because i'm a good student hehe. Until we meet again!

The Twelfth Reflection

For this possibly the last reflection I will be writing, it will be about the last class that Mrs.Fa had taught us more about the last type of poem which is called... Haiku! Haiku started in Japan and what is interesting about Haiku is, it is short but meaningful. It is short because a haiku is usually to capture a particular moment, emotion, or one's surrounding. It is special how one short haiku can tell much about a single moment. However, Haiku has a lot more types under it and that was exactly the part that made me feel as though I had been tricked. I thought there was only Haiku :(

There are four types of Haiku and all of them share one similarity. They are all unrhymed. 

The traditional Haiku has its own format. It must be written in a single stanza that consists of three lines and 17 syllables. 

The first line : 5 syllables

The second line :7 syllables

The third line: 5 syllables

There are also strictly a few themes that we could choose to write about in our Haiku such as nature, seasons, environment, people and emotions. 

The second type of Haiku is called Tanka. I must say that this is my most preferred type of Haiku because it allows me to write longer words, hehe. Tanka is also written in one stanza but consists of 5 lines and 31 syllables.

Line one : 5 syllables

Line two: 7 syllables

Line three: 5 syllables

Line four: 7 syllables

Line five: 7 syllables

The third type is called Septolet. Septolet must be written in two stanzas that consist of 7 lines with 14 syllables. It does not have any specific amount of syllables in each line but it is still tricky because of the syllable limit.

The last type of Haiku is called Lune. When I first encountered this word, it instantly reminded me of the moon. Lune is an English variation to the Japanese Haiku. It is written in a single stanza that consists of 3 lines and 13 syllables. 

The Eleventh Reflection.

I was absent on this day because I felt really, really sick. Almost sick that I could not even move a muscle... After spending more than half of the day in bed, I asked a friend if I missed anything from the Creative Writing class with Mrs.Fa and she kindly told me that they were learning more about the acrostic poem. From her last class, I only knew about the first technique of acrostic poem (where the line will start from each of the letter of a word). But in the last class I missed, Mrs.Fa taught us another two more techniques. These techniques include, putting letters at the end (the line would end with each of the letter of the word) For example,

The weather was terrifiC

The rain gave me amnesiA

To wash away what remained hard to forgeT

and lastly, putting letters in the middle (the line would start and meet the letter of the word). For example,

She refused to See the world

From his blue Eyes at least

It was always Empty when she did

She also taught them about Found Poem which is a composition from combining fragment from printed materials such as newspapers, magazines or books and rearranging them into a form of poem. The

The Tenth Reflection

I could not make it to CFS to for a quick meet up with Mrs.Fa and the others but I was nicely informed by a friend of mine that I had been included in her group that consisted of Aiz (Nazatul), Mek (Nadia) and myself. I was told that the three of us would do the assignment given by Mrs.Fa together. The assignment required us to write a short story based on a fairy tale that should not be more than five pages and two different formatted poems. But first thing first, we had to come up with a name for a group before we could comfortably start with our work. Looking at three of us, we had our own peculiar ways when interacting with others but at the same time, we were also stoked and enthusiastic for something! Therefore, we named ourselves The Vivacious Stiffs and The Vivacious Stiffs would definitely give Mrs.Fa a good piece of writing. Our group would write about the twisted tale of Rapunzel and we hoped to twist the plot as much as we could to give the element of surprise to our readers.

The Ninth Reflection.

On Monday, Mrs.Fa could not attend the class as usual. Hence, she gave us a very special task to do to refresh back our memories regarding the types of poems that she had taught us earlier. The first type of poem is called Acrostic. To do an acrostic poem, we must firstly find a word as a subject and the poem will begin with each initial letter of the word. For an example, WONDER. Each of the initial (W, O, N, D, E, R) will fall into different lines and each line will start with the initial.The second type of poem is called Diamante. It is not interesting but also creative. This seven-lined poem is written into a shape of a diamond. The first line consists of only one word that is normally the title of the poem. The second line consists of two adjectives to describe the title given. The third line consists of three different verbs about the title. The fourth line consists of four nouns that are related to the title. The fifth line must have three verbs to describe the nouns in the fourth line. The sixth line consists of two adjectives that describe the fourth line. And the last line is a word that is opposite to the first line. The final type of poem is called the Freeverse. There is no format to this one which means that it is much more relaxed because it sets no limit to the poet!

Three Poems.

1. Acrostic Poem

What the world has to keep me wandering around

Only time and my broad imagination will tell

Now and forever I will close my eyes to see

Dreams and possibilities that will answer my thoughts

Eerie it is, my thoughts will always be reborn

Reborn in this little sytem of mine.

2. Diamente Poem

Love 

Beautiful, painful
Upsetting, relieving, comforting
Joy, beauty, irritation
Tormenting, pleasing, tempting
Jolly, grumpy
Hate

3. Free verse (Happiness) 

Monotonous i was in that sweltering room,

Words continued to collide, my pale lips were stitched

This place swallowed me whole and my mistake, i let it fill me with gloom

My years were observed but no eyes were on me

My eyes could fill in any empty hole there was,

My ears could medicate my vacant soul without the presence of light

My blank stares and aimless moves were nothing brand new

And my never-ending desolation became the state in which my mind grew

Words collided and my lips were stitched still

Over the years, my childish wish became something hard to fulfill

This place had kept my weakness a secret it would never spill

It had always bothered me, this lack of thrill

That one thought invaded my system,

This room, it coaxed me with the comforting air

These eyes, they had seen me rise and fall

This place, I would never want to get out of it

I found my happiness in loneliness,

Right here where I was raised.

The Eight Reflection

The test that Mrs.Fa had prepared for us really got me worried. Worried because I thought I was ready to be as imaginative and creative as possible but I still do not think that I am pleased with the answers or essays I wrote /sighs/ On a different note, the part that I enjoyed the most was choosing any one of the characters in the given picture (there were many!) that were situated in the same location which was in a restaurant. Different characters were doing different things and I remember choosing this one skinny, short, pig-tailed hair man who was wearing a pair of round quirky glasses to write about. Maybe because the character and I have one thing in common... we are both really short people. Overall, the test really made my hand sweat! I don't think I wrote that much compared to others (I think) but it was enough to numb my hand.

The Seventh Reflection

Mrs.Fa had brought us to the classroom which was located in the library. We were initially told to share the story that each group had to rewrite based on the famous tale called 'Jack And The Giant Beanstalk' from their first point of view. It was a clear-glass walled classroom and those who were sitting outside of the classroom could see us hold a piece of long white paper that we had successfully wrote the story that we renamed as 'Sharpie And The Thief'. In our story, we had decided to turn the giant into a protagonist and Jack as the antagonist as switching points of views could really make a huge difference to the story. Not only did I have a good time sharing the story with the other members of my group, I also enjoyed listening to different twisted stories from the other groups! We also had to paste our paper on the wall where others would have to put their sticky notes that had their comments on our story and ours on theirs to know how we could improve our writing. Afterwards, we were taught about the types of poems that initially got me scared because there were many of them! And I began to feel worried because I knew I had to really understand each and one of those formats of different types of poems. There were a few types of poems; haiku, wingspark, diamante, acrostic and many more. A wingspark that we were asked to do by Mrs.Fa must always start with the line of 'I dreamed...' followed by the second line that consists of the person or thing that you dreamed of. The third line will be the place where the character appeared in your dream and lastly, the action taken by the character. It should not be called as a wingspark if you do not follow the exact format.

The Sixth Reflection

During this Friday class, we were taught more about the fourth point of view which is called omniscient. It is basically the added details of one's surrounding that give a very clear view to the readers how the surrounding is like. It is very interesting knowing that much can be said even if you are only sitting at a cafeteria, in the classroom or just anywhere. We were also showed a video about a man who seemed to be very unhappy with his relationship with his wife. In the video, the man had a lot of thoughts going inside his head and he thoroughly described the entire room and the actions of his wife. Afterwards, we were assigned by Mrs.Fa to form a group of three to four members and rewrite the famous story "Jack and The Giant Beanstalk" from a different point of view. It was interesting to see that many possibilities came up from the story. The best part was knowing that the protagonist could be the antagonist and vice versa just by switching the points of views!

The Eye Of Bethany

Bethany was raised in a supposedly happy family. Supposedly because her parents were rich enough to get her different types of luxurious cars on her birthday, Christmas' Eve, Christmas, Thanskgiving and any other special occasions you can think of. She was supposed to be happy with her life as a teenage girl living in a big mansion with the view of the great blue sea from her room and going to a school where everybody's priority was the same; being the most perfect in terms of everything except academics. They were never important if you had the money. Bethany was different than most of her useless schoolmates that never looked way beyond their parents' wealth and that is why she was an outcast. Living through the years, receiving everything she had never asked for, she felt as empty as an old narrow road that nobody took anymore. Her emptiness was always filled with much more nothingness as she woke up each day. Friends? You could only buy them with money. That is the reason why she was friendless... Because she knew she could only get a bunch of people who would agree and support even if she was to cause a riot at school with her money in their pockets.

She had a pair of black round eyes that were as black as the hole in her heart. Her hair was cut to the length of her shoulder and her fringe covered the whole area of her wide forehead. She was the only person in school who was strangely bullied despite of her parents' wealth. Her lack of interest in keeping herself physically interesting was one of the factors why most of the people at school chose her as a medium for them to finally escape from pretending to like, support, agree with somebody and their childish decisions just because they were rich enough to pay others' temporary interest. Bethany was always being laughed at for not being pretty enough in their eyes. She was not skinny, not big sized either. Her body was perfectly normal but she was always insulted for being 'normal'. Some people called her fat only because her body was normal. Some called her weird because her eyes were round and puffy. Some also called her a fish for having a huge forehead that she covered with her fringe that always went out of place. She had insecurities that she could simply solve with her parents' money but really, she knew it would not change a thing because that would only make her the same as those who bullied her.

She did not want to be like them, she did not want to be her either. It was all because of money that most of them acted the way they were acting as though they were all mighty.

One day, she got home after long, agonizing day at school. She closed the main door and looked around her big mansion. The walls were white, the huge golden chandelier hanging in between two different white marbled staircases that led to the second floor of her mansion complimented the dullness in the colors of those whites, the expensive Italian made wooden windows in an open room next to the staircases offered the sight of the great blue sea and the tables were all custom made and shipped from different countries. "All these things... They don't matter," she told herself. All those things but there was no sight of her parents to worry about her condition. They were never around anyway.

The Fifth Reflection

Monday, April 13, 2015

I remember coming in late to the library on this day. As I entered the classroom that had been switched to the one in the library, I noticed a single presence of my Indian friend. She was sitting on her own. And then I turned my head to the right, I saw Mrs.Fa sitting at her desk and I immediately told her I was sorry for being late. She then told me something that had been written on the white board next to her. Everything was confusing because I had no clue what was going on. She explained further about the task that she had assigned to my classmates earlier which was mainly about the Types of Characters. There were seven of them and I was required to pick one of them (that included the main, minor, flat, round, one dimensional, two dimensional and three dimensional characters). I chose to do my research on the three dimensional character which is the type of character that will appear in stories with real human-like flaws. The point of creating this character is to add detail to the story (even though it is not necessary in the plot) but it is there to give more more meaning to the story to make it more realistic. A three dimensional character also has differences with the two dimensional character which include:

two dimensional character: a perfect character who fits in the story. Doesn't have a history to tell the readers and often predictable in the story. Readers will be quick to tell about the character's development. They are also logical, which means they are simple to not give readers an intense time to discover deeply about them. Two dimensional character is said to be non-social (it sticks to itself to produce less complexity in the story) and archetype (it has an attitude/behaviour or something familiar that readers have encountered with before)

three dimensional character: a flawed character who has its own story to tell. It has a unique past (to gain readers' interest if they are fond of deep stories) and it is also irrational. Which means that this character is brought up with the focus of human flaws and therefore, it possesses a very complex attitude of a human being. Three dimensional character can be seen as the quirky one, often social (to add more complexity) and different than any other characters.

The Fourth Reflection

I apologize for not updating this blog for a long time. I had been too caught up with assignments, tests, class projects and family matters over these few weeks. Therefore, I decided to start (or more to continue) writing many posts to come from where I stopped. 

On the last Friday, based on what my friends had reminded me... All of the CFS lecturers were sent to a seminar. That, however did not leave us empty handed as Mrs.Fa had given us a special task to do as our 'homework'. It required us to do a bit of 'sight-seeing' which in this case, I called it 'stalking' because our task was all about looking for a stranger that seemed to trigger our interest. Let it be a normal girl with a pair of glasses walking along uplaza with her handphone or a boy who just happened to sit on his own at the bakery, we could use them as a character in our story and invent any possibilities that probably had or never had occurred in their lives. Basically, we had to observe their moves and appearance in order to write our story better. 

My story about this 'stranger' I found when I was sitting on my own at Ucafe was clear and simple. He just seemed fascinating and my eyes led my mind to wonder more about him. Frankly speaking, I did feel those butterflies in my tummy as I was writing a story about him because it always reminded me of the moment he was in my sight. And that moment was a reaaaally long moment. 

Thank you Mrs.Fa! ;)

(I had posted the story that is entitled 'Not Much of a Stranger' before writing this reflection)