Fiction Writing Workshop was one of the most challenging courses I have taken during my time at Bryant University. I had never written in a style other than persuasive or expository, so learning about the narrative style was very difficult for me. Once I started writing though, I found I really enjoyed it. The process for narrative writing made me feel much more invested in my writing unlike writing a research paper where there is less room for creative space. I always thought that creative writing would be easiest when pulling from personal experiences, but I found it to be much harder. This isn’t to say my stories didn’t draw inspiration from my personal life, but fiction writing was a way for me to immerse myself in a different person’s life other than my own.

 

For my final short story, I create a character named Grayson who had an estranged relationship with his father from a young age. Grayson wrote a letter to his father reaching out and eventually makes the step to reconnect with him after years of silence between them. Though Grayson’s journey is very different from my own, I was able to connect to him. Writing this story was a unique way for me to learn about situations very different than my own.

 

Throughout the course, we also had the opportunity to attend speakers who did a sample reading from their own work and came from various different backgrounds. Each speaker gave their own opinion of how their work has helped them through a challenging time or a space to release their emotions and I learned that writing is such a powerful way to connect people regardless of where they come from.