Cappon: 79-94

I’m a writer. I’ve known that being an author is what I’ve wanted to do since the 8th grade. I just added journalism, just in-case being an author didn’t work out. I always thought that there was going to be a large difference between fiction writing and journalism. Yet, the more I get into this class and participate, the two really aren’t that different at all. One just requires straight fact, while the other is a mix of fact and fiction. After reading this, I realized that the two aren’t that different from another after-all.

The same rules apply to creative writing as it does Journaling. Like: If a scene doesnt need detail, don’t add them. It doesnt matter what color her phone is. Unless something is out of the ordinary, dont bother adding it. I learned that details are important, but if there are too many details it gets too wordy and confusing. A quote from the reading is: “Color is a way of seeing a story. Color shouldn’t make the story, but add to it.” Meaning to me that color adds to the picture, but its alright black and white.

After reading this, I honestly didn’t learn anything new. It only went into depth of what I already knew. It was interesting to read and I’m sure it’ll come in handy someday, but I didn’t learn anything new. It just emphasized that we shouldn’t use many cliches or metaphors in journalism because everything is old and overused. Just as that is not allowed in journalism that isn’t allowed in creative writing either.

ALSO! This made me laugh, pg. 88 it said: “You’d find fewer cliches in his [Red Smith] copy than there are snakes in Ireland.” I’ve been to Ireland and multiple times they told us that there are no snakes in Ireland. There aren’t alot of things in Ireland trying to kill you. You have a better chance of stepping in horse poop or getting hit by a car on the streets of Dublin, then you do getting bitten by a snake. So, just reading that sentence made me laugh because there are supposedly no snakes in Ireland. Meaning if there are fewer cliches in his book then there are snake in Ireland. There will be no cliches in his book.