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The Writer's Journey Blog
by Earl Garcia When you’re someone who’s taking up Writing Arts, you are essentially putting yourself and your thoughts to be displayed in written text in front of potentially millions of strangers across the entire world. That’s what it means to write, however. Ultimately, we write because we want someone or some people to read or listen to what we have to say. In getting my feet wet in the world of writing, I decided to propose an idea of running a blog revolving around my thoughts and feelings around a book I’m reading throughout the semester called The Writer’s Journey. A succinct summary of the content inside is about taking the reader through a journey of teaching them concepts like character archetypes, how a hero’s journey typically goes, and how the former two are applied in various media and literature. |
On a weekly basis, I post a blog about my journey through this particular book. The reason why I picked up this book in the first place to blog about is because on a day when I was suffering from the infamous, nefarious writer’s block when it came to my own, original writing project. So, I will be going over the entire process of how I write the blogs the way I do that would later be published on the site.
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The first step is to, obviously, read. I read up to a certain part that I think would be good for making a blog topic about. For instance, in my third blog, I write about the section of the book that went over the archetypes of any story. I then take physical or mental notes on some of the important points that are made in the section that I handpicked for writing a blog about. After the reading and notetaking is finished, I focus on making connections to cement my understanding of the subject. In this case for my third blog topic, the archetypes, I started to make connections as I read. I then took notes on said connections, then I pick the best connection to write about. In this case, I made note of the fact that Volger said how he learned that characters can fulfill an archetype’s role and then branch out to becoming a truly unique character in their own respective.
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Then, from media that I consumed in the past, I make that connection. In this case, I made note about how the long running video game RPG (Role-Playing Game) series Fire Emblem has its own slew of archetypes, and then I hand-picked one, explained it, and then explained an example of how it does something with the archetype before branching off to be truly unique characters.
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From my own blog, I talk about the Cain-and-Able archetype that is unique to that series. I say, “The original Cain was defined as passionate, determined to serve, hot-headed, and was clad in red armor on a valiant steed. Abel was known to be the calmer and more levelheaded of the two, and donned green armor while also on a steed.” Later, I go over how the archetype would be used as a starting point for certain characters before becoming unique in their own sense. I used two characters from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia as an example. “Lukas, one of the two main characters, was the calmer and smarter knight despite wearing the red armor while Forsyth, the other main character, wore the green armor, was overzealous and always eager to prove his mettle on the battlefield. This is virtually the opposite of how the Cain-and-Abel archetype is performed in terms of personality.” All of this is one example of how I make the connection to what story I read and consumed in the past in order to show how I understand what I was reading from the book.
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The second step is writing the first draft. I make sure that the word count is reasonable in correspondence to how much I read and took notes on. If I didn’t read a high amount of pages, I would write perhaps, no more than 500 words. If I did read, say, 100 pages or so, I would write perhaps 1500 words or more. Then, I would send it to one of my fellow interns to inspect and read, and suggest ways of how to improve the quality of the reading experience, which is very important to me. To me, if a reader fails to find any sort of satisfaction in my writing, then I have failed in an area or two.
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For the third step, it would be looking over the suggestions made on how to improve and then strengthening the reading experience from the feedback that was presented. If there was a suggestion I thought we’d be at odds in, I’d ask to meet up with the intern who reviewed it and talk about a common solution that can be agreed upon. After adding or removing content to strengthen the post, the intern who reviewed it would take one final look to see if there was no typos or errors I overlooked and then finally publish it on the Writing Arts Weebly page, and then post a link to the blog post on the Rowan Writing Arts Facebook page.
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With all this, the process of doing and maintaining a blog series throughout a period of time can be difficult, especially in a semester that’s full of twists, turns, and sudden surprises. However, I do my very best to make sure that I keep my word on maintaining progress on the blog. All of the steps I listed above are easier said than done. I do hope that with this, a better understanding of the process of how I get my blog series published is accomplished.
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All of this has been highly educational for me. On a personal level, it has helped me construct my own characters and how I can move forward on constructing a plot that’s driven from said characters and their personalities. From one Writing Arts student to another, what it is to be a writer is a constant struggle to improve and find your own craft. But it’s also a huge, collaborative process where everyone critiques another to help bring out the best in each other’s writing. This, including the Writing Arts classes I’ve taken, has made me learned that writing isn’t a one-and-done process. It is a continuous submission of drafts, hearing feedback, and then starting the process of improving on the next drafts of the writing you make in the future.
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