Though I adore my writing classes, and fiction most of all, I had a very hard time getting started on my story for this class. Unlike previous classes I had taken, instead of many short works, we concentrated this quarter on drafting and revising a single longer story. This was very helpful for me as a contribution towards my graduate school applications; however, before I could consider including this story in my portfolio, I first had to write it. I crowdsourced ideas from friends and family before eventually deciding to work off of this prompt: "Everyone in the world has a soulmate. Yours is Death." My story became a second-person retelling of the myth of Hades and Persephone, an ambitious project that took several drafts to get right. My first focused too much on descriptions of the Underworld realm I was developing and not enough on the conflict and tension between these two enemies-turned-lovers. My second draft, for an assignment called Deep Revision, moved my two characters out of the Underworld and into a meadow aboveground, allowing me to focus on the unfolding dynamic and dialogue between the two rather than the setting. My final version, which itself went through multiple drafts, brought my protagonists back to the Underworld but this time in a much more settled and fully realized story arc of conflict and resolution, tension and release. I love my final story, am proud of my work and my result. To me, this story represents what I have learned not only in this class but throughout my time in college earning my degree in creative writing. I was proud to include it in my portfolio as a representation of what I've learned and what I can do.
Below is a gallery of my notes from workshops across the quarter and a progression of opening pages from drafts over the weeks.
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