Blog 21: Independent Component 21

LITERAL
(a) I, Teresa Melendez Rodriguez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
(b) Click
(c) Ta-da 
(d) Initially my independent component was going to be to use Critique Circle to have my pieces critiqued but because there was a queue to wait for my own submissions to be critiqued and even then there was a slim chance someone would look at them, I chose to turn to Wordpress, a website I've been using for almost over two years now. I would post my pieces and people would either like them or share their opinions and experiences.
INTERPRETIVE
In my prior attempts to use Wordpress for criticism, I forgot one major component: tags, which are topics that can be accumulated to one webpage so that if someone were to research said topic, it would narrow down the options. Not only that, but it help my blog become somewhat more known to people. After a month or so of blogging almost daily, I now have 18 followers, none of who I know personally and just happened to stumble upon my page.This is essentially because generally my pieces would be shared in a classroom environment with people too familiar or younger than I, and that's something I wanted to stray away from. I was aiming towards and older and broader audience of bloggers who were not gravitating towards just fiction pieces. I wanted to share my opinion and here others' as well.

APPLIED

Ultimately, this helped my answer my EQ because it showed me exactly what people want to read about. Often when someone in my Wordsmitten class shares a piece, they sound either dull or generic, as in it's the same thing week after week. But on Wordpress, where I posted various types of pieces, I received opinions from different audiences as well as approval from different age groups. Depending on what type of writing group one is interested in joining, it is important to know who your target audiences is and what you expect to get from them. Because I'm still at a young age and many of my posts weren't all too constructive, and were more or less rants, I knew I wouldn't receive any distinguishable feedback. But the attention that my blog did receive was rather surprising. Every other post that I published either received likes or a comment, which was more than what I was asking for. I heard experiences from other people going through the same things I was and they gave me advise on how to deal with it. 

Independent Component 2: Update - 4/15

As my independent component, I've decided to run a blog where I will write as much as I can, whenever I can. As I've read from multiple sources, writing everyday is a good habit to build as a writer because it builds discipline and teaches one to meet certain a word count at a certain deadline. I haven't given myself a certain word count, however, I  take the one-post-a-day rule seriously. I began this blog in February because my other Wordpress blog was becoming cluttered and I was too lazy to organize it.

Still, I enjoy running this blog. People enjoy what I write about.

These are a few stats based on my Wordpress blog:

This graph shows the number of people that have come across my posts and who chose to comment. It may not seem a lot, but compared to my last Wordpress blog, which I've had over a year and has received almost no attention, these numbers are actually quite motivating.

Throughout the day I will receive email alerts from Wordpress that notify me when someone has commented or liked one of my posts. Many people also relate to what I write and share with me their stories.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Plan Approval*

*UPDATE*

(1) Write a description of what you plan on doing for your independent study component.

Since there are new rules regarding clubs, I don't think a newspaper can be accomplished since not many people showed interest. That being said, I have found an online critiquing group that will review my pieces and whose pieces I will review.

(2) Describe in detail how you think your plan will meet the 30 hours work requirement.

For every three pieces I critique, one of my pieces will be critiqued. Since most of the pieces are about 2000 words, it will be easy to accomplish the 30 hours if I set aside an hour everyday to not only work on my own writing but to help someone else with theirs.

 (3) How does your independent study component relate to your working EQ? 

Because this process is give an take, the fundamentals of a writing groups are still intact. Depending on which kind of critique you would like to give based on the following options:

It can be done thoroughly or just be small pieces of praise or criticism.

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

LITERAL

• (a) Statement saying: “I, Teresa M. Rodriguez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”

• (b) I used NaNoWriMo, an annual writing contest for my individual component. As a student of Wordsmitten, we were offered the opportunity to receive an automatic AE if we managed to complete the 50,000 word quota of the competition, but given all my other priorities, that did not happen. Mrs. Edwards was in charge of the Wordsmitten students participating in NaNoWriMo.

• (c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours):

I do not have an hour by hour representation of each writing session I did but I do have this:

• (d) Explanation of what you completed.

I wrote a young adult narrative revolving around a boy named Justin, who lives in a destructive home with his parents and younger brother, Darren. Justin tries to cope with the voice in his head that tells him crude things or encourages him to harm others. Whilst doing so, he also tries to juggle his father's abusive relationship with his mother, his friends, and his new friend, Lena.

INTERPRETIVE 

• Total, I have approximately 35 pages worth of words with 19,125 exactly. If it takes about one hour a day to write up 500 words, I have approximately 38.25 hours worth of work. Each color indicates a new chapter or segment.

APPLIED

How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped.

Whilst researching about NaNoWriMo and what people had to say about it, many said that it was a shoot or miss type of opportunity. One man had a list of 25 ways to complete NaNoWriMo and each step seemed to be asking a lot from writers. Most said that a writer must be disciplined in writing each day, though that is common advice for writers working in general. Each day required approximately 1,667 words minimum. With juggling this quota and other schoolwork, I found it extremely difficult to meet the requirements, which is why the total word count was as low as it was. 


This helped me better understand my senior project because it allowed me to experience what it may be like for working writers - those who write for magazines, newspapers, or book publishing companies. It really challenged me because while I do enjoy writing, I don't do it on a daily basis like I should. I lacked the discipline to write a minimum of 1,667 words. It became very frustrating to keep up with the competition because you have to start from scratch and coming up with a 50,000 word, 175-page minimum narrative is extremely difficult for someone who lacks the discipline to write so much in one day and juggle other aspects in life.
Ultimately, I do no think the competition was for me, like many others. I write when I need to or when I'm inspired, but to do it on a daily basis without proper preparation is too overwhelming for me. It was a nice try though.

Blog 10 : Senior Project Update

(1) What are you currently doing in your independent component?

NaNoWriMo just ended yesterday and I barely achieved 19,000+ words in a month. If there's anything that can be said, I don't think this contest is for me. Some people have the ability to write in the same mindset for long periods of time, and I am not one of those people. One of Steven King's pieces of advice from his book On Writing, is that he creates a piece, he puts it away, doesn't think about it for a while, and then takes it back out so that his mind is clear of any...writers block, and I think that's the kind of advice that applies to me. I found that as I was writing, I was gradually becoming more and more bored with the content of my piece. I was throwing in random things that were not in my initial idea, they were tangents if anything. The piece itself seems rather dull and at some point, I lost hope trying to fix it because doing so would have meant getting rid of most of it and that to me didn't seem like progress, especially since NaNoWriMo is a daily thing and after a while it because so tedious to go back and write a story I wasn't enjoying writing.


Some of my friends who were also participating in the contest said the same, that as they were writing it felt like nothing in their pieces was happening, though one friend found it simple to continue the venture, but she had participated the year before and exceeded the 50,000 word minimum (I'm not going to name names but to say the least, she's accomplished more in her high school career than I have in my entire life, so this contest probably wasn't much of a challenge for her). Being someone who did not write on a daily basis a minimum of 1,667 words, it was overwhelming and required me to brush aside my other priorities, adding stress to dealing with all the other work I had to do with school, spending time with both my family and friends, as well as getting a decent amount of rest.

To say the least, senior year is not a good year to be participating in NaNoWriMo, especially when it is not my current highest priority. That's just the reality of it.

(2) What is a recent piece of research (article, interview, or audio-visual) that have you reviewed you would say was significant in helping you understand where to go next in your senior project?  The piece of research should be something you reviewed in November.  Please explain what you learned and where are you going next because of this piece of research.

It's been difficult to actually focus on my senior project, what with missing several Friday's to go to my mentorship (There was a day I couldn't go, another was during the break, and one when no one was there), plus with Model Assembly and my other classes, my senior project has been the last thing on my mind. That being said, I do follow blogs that discuss different methods of how to construct a narrative. One of them, at the top of my head discussed the different ways of expressing your characters' emotions through mannerisms, such as posture, facial expressions, and hand gestures, not just tone of voice or not...blatantly stating the characters' emotions as the narrator.

Another piece, which was not professionally posted yet has proven helpful, focused on revealing the backstory of a character.

I recently started a new narrative revolving around two companions with lawful purposes and supernatural powers. Their story, which is also a mystery to themselves, needs to strategically revealed through...surprise and secrets. How that's going to be done, I'm not sure just yet, but it's proving interesting to write and there's not much pressure to go off on tangents as it was with my previous NaNoWriMo piece, Easier Said Than Done. This current fictional piece is still untitled because I've come to realize whenever I name my pieces, it feels too final, like I've set an expectation for myself, and I think that's where I went wrong with NaNoWriMo. I went back and edited my piece often, which was one of the number one things bloggers and other participants had advised against, but I am an editor. It's actually what I do best.

(3) Provide evidence from your independent component or the piece of research as something you recently did.  For example, a photo of something you working on for your independent component or your notes from the video you watched.

Individual Component # 1 Update - 11/14/12

Research is seen above

Individual Component Update

As of today, November 14th, the last day of week 2 of National Novel Writing Month, I have written approximately 32 pages of my piece, Easier Said Than Done. Each color indicates a separate chapter. I have tried to maintain a word minimum of at least 4,000 words each chapter, though chapter 2, has reached 8,000 words. As shown below, I have achieved 17,000+ words.

Although I am about 4,000+ words behind, I am hoping to catch up on the upcoming weekends as well as during Thanksgiving break.

Blog 7: Individual Component Approval

(1) Write a description of what you plan on doing for your independent study component.
Every November, starting November 1 and ending November 30, a site called NaNoWriMo holds a novel-writing contest, in which in the span of one month each contestant must write approximately 50,000 words (Or 175-pages) worth of material. The novel must be written from scratch and must be composed of actual plots, not a single or two words repeated multiple times. In that one month, I will spend numerous amounts of time writing and pouring my ideas into a potentially published novel.


(2) Describe in detail how you think your plan will meet the 30 hours work requirement.
Writing takes time and investing into 50,000 words is hard work. Last year, second semester, I achieved about 33,000 words, but that took multiple months. Because this is done in one month, more time will be invested into it in order to reach 50,000 words

(3) How does your independent study component relate to your working EQ?
From what I've researching, the most common advice I find is "keep writing." If I do reach the goal of 50,000 words, even if I'm not satisfied with my work, it was still hard practice and ultimately will help me as a future writer in whatever field.