Post to Discussion in Creative Nonfiction I (03-09-12).

Whether or not you use my ideas it is important to know why, or why not to use them. What is important is to know why your ideas are right and why they are wrong. We often get trapped into thinking our ideas are genius, or in the right direction of the general idea we have. I think this class teaches us how to focus and develop our perspective in order to tell a complete and polished tale in our writings. What makes the story worth reading? Is the message we're sending worth sending in the first place, or does the message we are trying to send need tweaking? The important thing is to be able to see our writings on the multiple levels that they are supposed to function on if they are to be included in definition of "literature". The first step is to be able to look at every single aspect of our story as critically as we can, and know exactly what it is that we are trying to say, what we need to get across, and if we are successful in getting the message across. Everyone has a story that they want to tell, it is the writer that must sophisticate and develop their self-expression as best one can. Writing is just the means we choose, others choose to say what they want to say through painting, others drawing, others photography, etc.