Metacognition: Short Stories

We finally finished our first full draft of our short stories. I'm pleasantly surprised with my ending. At first, I was completely dreading having to end my story. Similarly to my poem, I liked my beginning best and felt that it grew weaker and weaker as it continued. To my pleasant surprise, I think I found a good ending for my story! When Mr. Allen was talking about how our brain had been brewing our ending for a while; even if we were unaware of it, I must admit, I was pretty skeptical. I thought there was no way an ending would just come to me. I had about two or three predictable endings in mind, but as I was writing I hit an entirely new one!

Although I'm sure my story is far from perfect, it was exciting feeling like I succeeded, especially because I had been doubting myself for so long. I thought that, because everyone was stressing over endings, mine would be mediocre and dull. Even if it turns out to be pretty subpar, I personally like what I've done. However, I'm still happy to change it, continue the process, and see where things go.

Not only was my ending a surprise, but so was the middle, action-filled part of my story. For me, the easiest and most enjoyable part of writing is vivid descriptions. I found establishing my character at the beginning was a ton of fun for me and I got to play around with her personality and surroundings. However, I became frustrated with the section in which I needed to put pressure on my character. I didn't know how to make the situation sound genuine without losing the attention of the reader.

The middle, pressure point in my story has served as the most difficult obstacle. I don't think it's anywhere near done, but it is improving. When I read my story aloud I actually begin to feel the tension--which I think is a good sign.

I've always prided myself on being the type of person who thinks for themselves and doesn't follow the crowd. However, when it came to writing this short story, that's not how it happened. The negativity and anxiety of some of my peers towards writing an ending rubbed off on me and made me feel unsure of myself. This process has once again shown me that I'm not like everyone else and shouldn't let the views and perceptions of other people change me. If I didn't listen to my classmates complaints I likely would have had less trouble writing an ending and would have therefore been capable of contributing more time to working on my middle.

However, there is no benefit in speculation now. I have learned from this process and hopefully will carry these ideas forward and improve for the next experience like this whether it be through writing or any other process I undergo with my peers.

Metacognition: Jane Eyre Collaborative Transcript

I finally got my wish! In one of my previous blogs I explained why I felt that a collaborative assignment would be the best way to exhibit our understanding of a text read in class. To my surprise, that's exactly what happened with Jane Eyre! 

Our assignment was to create a transcript in which Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte, and a fictional academy student had an insightful discussion. Margot and I worked together to create a transcript about love, a central theme in the novel.

What surprised me most was how many times we revised our work. I initially thought that the best way to go about this would be to outline it, cram in the required connections and quotes, and then spruce it up with some eloquent language. Hah, not at all. Although we started with an outline, we later realized that if we wanted to create a compelling, realistic, flowing discussion; that's how we should write it. So we scratched our outline and began by writing a pretty dull discussion.

However, looking back, this was a good move for the assignment. We were more likely to reach an insightful conclusion and realization if we were fleshing out the details before we reached the end. This somewhat reminded me of the short stories we are writing. Rather than creating the framework for the piece, we just jumped right in and wrote; even without knowing how it would all end.

This is a rather new concept for me, which I must admit I'm not crazy about. I'm a big fan of structure, planning, and knowing exactly where things are going. However, Margot brought up the idea of just writing it out. Not only did this turn out to be more efficient, but I think it also helped me look at this assignment through a new perspective. I was surprised at my drive to do this project even though I was unsure of where it was really going. This is one example of where collaboration really helped. I would have never been able to produce a high-quality transcript in such a manner if I had not collaborated with Margot.

This assignment has showed me that although I may perceive myself as an expert collaborator, I still have a lot of work left to do. I thought it was great that we created rules/expectations for collaboration. At first I looked at these rules as unnecessary and a bit of a pain, however they were truly helpful. I'm proud of the responsibility I took for my share of work and the way in which I collaborated. I think that, while I have adequate collaboration skills, more assignments like this are required in order to polish such a set of skills.

In the future I hope to try even more things out of my comfort zone. It isn't often that I do work far out of my comfort zone for school. Luckily, standard projects are simple and comfortable for me. However, I hope that next time I have an unconventional assignment I step even more out of my comfort zone. Whether that means less structured planning, or letting go of my controlling leadership role in a larger group assignment, I am eager to do so!