#fridayfeelings – we got to have our own thang!
This is the week that we discuss the Literary Analysis Essay in my ENGL1302 (Freshman Composition 2) class. It is always a weird time for me because it is in the Spring and in the thick of allergy season.
I use a portion of my writing to illustrate that authors and writers do particular things in their stories for specific reasons. The reading I use is set in the spring. The opening of the reading walks you smack dab into the spring season.
Here is the introduction…
The city of Jouette, Maddocha bustled with movement. Families traveled all over the city, going from place to place, looking around, talking, and visiting with friends old and new. It was Springtime. It was just cool enough for it to be comfortable, but warm enough for shorts and short sleeved shirts.
The flowers were growing, colors bright, lining the city with a rainbow of color; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, pink, and turquoise. The trees were bright green, vibrant, and in full bloom. Birds flew high and low, swooping and swaying, filling the air with their melodic songs. Birds of every type, each singing a different song, but blending together in a Spring time song, so beautiful that it caused the listener to stop in their steps and take notice of the concert the birds provided. Butterflies fluttered about, fascinating the onlookers with their color and busyness.
-Excerpt from Resurrection Sunday (https://resurrectionsunday-ddb.blogspot.com/)
I read this with my class and every time, I have an allergy attack of some sort. It makes me laugh. But, as I immediately explain to my classes, this is I want to happen. I want readers to be so ingulfed into the season of Spring that if they have allergies, I want them to be triggered. I do things like this in my novels all the time.
I learned this about myself and my style in my Master’s program in 2014-2015. It was very eye-opening and helpful to me. Somehow, in all of my writings, I always wrote in a way that immersed the reader in my settings through sight, sound, taste, feeling, and emotion. I always wanted my readers to feel that they were there with me. I just did not realize that “I did this” until one of my fellow classmates pointed it out.
As writers, it is imperative that we learn our style and how we write. It may take years to understand your writing style, but you should make every effort to learn it. I recommend you do some journaling and thinking to help you figure it out, as well as talk to other writers to see how they learned their style.
Here is a post about How to Develop Your Writing Style.
To help you with this, read this post for some journal prompts to help you learn your style.