Writing a first draft of my story was pretty difficult. I had an idea of what I wanted my story to be about, so I just put down anything I could think of on paper. The beginning of my story was the easiest part, but after that, I was stuck. For some reason, I just couldn't expand on it. I was going through writer's block for quite some time. I would try my best to think of things to add, but no ideas were coming to mind. I would stare at my paper and think, "How am I going to be able to write 7 pages of this?" I didn't think it was possible.
The second draft was a bit easier for me to write. It was easier because since I already had everything written down, all I had to do was add details to sentences that were more telling rather than showing. With each draft, my story changed in the way I would show vs tell. In my first draft, I would not go into too much detail about specific events. With my second draft, I was able to expand on specific events and be able to add details so that I could show imagery. Creating multiple drafts was helpful. It helped me see where I had left off and what specifically needed improvement.
The critique process was something that helped me a lot. The first critique we did was when we all completed our first draft and got feedback from one another. We were put into groups of 4 and had to read our story aloud. After we read our story aloud, the people that listened had to give feedback, and the person receiving critique had to write down everything that others were saying. When I first got critique, I was a bit embarrassed because I thought that my story was too short and that it wasn't good enough. I was reassured by my peers after they had read my story because they gave me positive feedback.
Another time I got critique was when I went to go and read my story aloud to 9th graders. I was hesitant at first because I didn't want to read my story to other people. But after taking some time to think about it, I realized that the more critique I got, the better. By reading aloud to an entire class I was able to get not only help with my story but with the way I presented my story. I liked getting my story critiqued so many times. Even though I thought my story wasn't good when I got critique, I think it was helpful to see what other people had thought of it and what ideas they had to help me enhance my story.
